Angelina Jolie, who is getting strong notices for Netflix‘s Maria Callas biopic Maria, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Santa Barbara Film Festival‘s Maltin Modern Master Award.
The honor will be bestowed in a ceremony February 5 as part of the fest’s 40th edition. The Santa Barbara festival runs February 4-15, smack in the middle of movie-awards season, making it a must-stop for talent.
The festival will roll out more of its annual honorees soon. The Modern Masters Award honors an “individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry.” Past recipients include Jamie Lee Curtis, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, Robert Downey Jr., Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and Peter Jackson.
Jolie will attend the ceremony and sit for a Q&A retrospective moderated by Maltin, the longtime critic and SBIFF attendee who had the award renamed after him in 2015. “Angelina Jolie makes bold choices, both as an actress and as a director,” Maltin said in a release Wednesday announcing the award. “She sets the bar high in both disciplines and always comes through.
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