Wednesday, February 6----------While such mega-watt movie stars as Angelina Jolie, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones steal much of the limelight in the media coverage of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the true heart of the event are the American indie and international films that the festival showcases. More than 70,000 visitors (a record number) came out for the mix of glamour and discovery in one of America's most beautiful festival venues. So, for the record, the winners of...

  “I think this is the most important role of my life,” Angelina Jolie remarked upon playing Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Pearl is the famous widow of fellow Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan. Pearl’s heart is mighty indeed, as the clips shown in Jolie’s conversation with film critic Pete Hammond reveal.   She graciously accepted the award presented by renowned actor and director Clint Eastwood. The two praised each other...

...

              Prolific actor Tommy Lee Jones can't name his favorite film role. “I don't think that way,” he answered while he strolled down the evening's red carpet with a bit of a grin. He's a professional, he states, working at whatever role he finds himself in. During the discussion and movie clip viewing, Jones was intense. He leaned forward to raptly watch the film clips and sat on the edge of his seat to dicuss reading every...

After Javier Bardem received the Montecito Award, a long-time Santa Barbara tradition. Montecito is the town just south of Santa Barbara on the 101, most of it tucked within hills and behind trees, a playground with class.   Javier Bardem has class and piercing eyes, and good looks that often get masked behind the intense roles he plays, and the dizzying variety in his body of work. He’s Spanish, from Madrid (where he walks everywhere and doesn’t have to drive a car—so he doesn’t drive)...

Cate Blanchett can only be described as gorgeous, gracious, well, really a host of other adjectives. And she's funny, and smart. And stunning when pregnant. When she sat on stage to review and discuss the body of work that has given her the title of Modern Master, it was a chance for the hundreds in attendance, braving the Saturday night rain, to sit with Cate for two hours and get a glimpse of the person behind the on-screen persona, or the plethora of compelling characters. One of the remarkab...

    Before screen actor and Indie film favorite Ryan Gosling even got out of the black car delivering him to the Lobero Theatre, the girls were outside waiting. With DVD cases in hand (many from The Notebook), other paraphernalia to collect a signature, and cameras overhead to snap an image as the heartthrob exited to step onto the red carpet. to see a gallery of images from the red carpet, view:http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=847&event=08SBIFF_goslingIt was a night of scr...

 Maria Ceballos-Wallis is a researcher with the Australian Broadcasting Company. When I met her at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Social Justice Award reception, she had a glass of wine in her hands and was talking about the work of documentary filmmakers and marine biology Robert Smith. In order to discover more about oil, where it comes from, and the nature of our dependance on it, he traveled the world, often as a film crew of one, to uncover its secret history. The result...

Santa Barbara International Film Festival Day One : Opening Night Film: Definitely, Maybe “I like to be manipulated.” I heard one of my male film-going companions state this when talking about why he liked Definitely, Maybe. I don’t think he’s getting in touch with his feminine side as much as he is commenting on his film-going personality. After all, this is why we go see films oftentimes: to be manipulated. To have our tears jerked, to feel something, to follow along on the trials, tri...