The Santa Barbara International Film Festival continued with its annual presentation of the Virtuosos Award. Recipients of this year’s awards included Ariana Grande (Wicked), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), John Magaro (September 5), Mikey Madison (Anora), Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice), and Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez). The award presentation by Emmy-winner Jane Lynch followed a panel conversation moderated by Dave Karger.
During the panel, Ariana Grande fielded several questions about her Wicked performance and character Galinda.
“Playing Glinda was the dream of my life, and I was so deeply grateful to do that work and that was more than enough. To be recognized in this way is something you don’t even think about so I’m deeply grateful,” Grande expressed. “It’s such a gift to be able to play a character with so much nuance, there’s plenty underneath the surface. That’s my favorite thing about her.”
She also gave a few hints as to what to expect from this fall’s second half: Wicked: For Good. She called the film “very emotional” and embodies “unconditional love and forgiveness and friendship.”
Torres shared details about the casting process of her Oscar-nominated turn in I’m Still Here. She shares billing with her mother, Fernanda Montenegro (Oscar nominee for Central Station).
“She was in the film already, I was not the first pick. For me, when he invited me, I thought he was going to invite me to write his script for him. Then, he said ‘Do you want to play Eunice?’ and I was like ‘Are you sure?’ I was so moved, and then I started to work hard, from the first reading because I didn’t want to lose the character,” Torres recalled.
Anora‘s Mikey Madison attended the event following a huge weekend for the film. It catapulted to the top of nearly everyone’s Best Picture list after receiving Best Picture at Critics Choice and the Producers Guild of America as well as the Directors Guild of America award for Sean Baker.
When talking about working with Baker, Madison shared that “When I met Sean for the first time, there was no script, we had a coffee and it was the first time a director gave a role without auditioning me. He saw a horror film I did opening weekend and from that he remembered me from a small part in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, so he called me a few days later and pitched it to me and said if you want to do it, I’ll write it for you.”
Also notable was Selena Gomez still relishing the experience of making Emilia Pérez despite the recent controversies surrounding its star, Karla Sofia Gascón.
“Some of the magic has disappeared, but I continue to be proud of what i’m doing, and I’m just grateful, no regrets, I’d do this movie over and over again if I could,” Gomez said.
You can find conversations with other Virtuosos Award recipients here.
International Features Panel
Similar to the Animation Panel, festival director Roger Durling moderated an in-depth and fascinating panel that focused on this year’s Oscar-nominated international features. Directors from four of five nominated films were in attendance, including Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig), Walter Salles (I’m Still Here), and Gints Zilbalodis (Flow). Here are highlight quotes from the event. A full video of the panel follows.
-
Gints Zilbalodis (Flow) – “I’m very curious to know what it’s like be cat. Everything is so intense because you see it through the cat’s point of view. I’m not really interested in the world building but more of the journey.”
-
Walter Salles (I’m Still Here) – “The film is an offering of reflection at time in Brazil. The film is about overcoming loss. How this one woman can confront this authoritarian state is so inspiring. The real life Eunice refused to be seen as the victim. I would never embrace melodrama for the sake of theatricality. I would never betray her story. Trust the spectator. The film embraces the fact that we can overcome.”
- Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) – “When you live in a system of repression and dictatorship then being yourself becomes a challenge. When I started making films the first question I had was : how do I maintain being myself? I used metaphors to express myself. After my third film, I realized that metaphors in itself were a form of censorship. Due to censorship, I had to turn limitations into solutions. The story began when I was in prison and one of the officers told me he questioned his life and his job. This story and this chasm highlights the issue between tradition and identity.”
-
Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) – “I have this nostalgia for silent film. Films where there is purely acting and light. What I mean is that I try to escape from spoken dialogue.”
