Clint Eastwood is a Modern Master, Santa Barbara festival award

Actor, director and producer Clint Eastwood will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor, The Modern Master Award, it was announced by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. © Albert L. Ortega / PR PhotosThe Tribute will take place on Thursday, January 29, at the Arlington Theatre.The Modern Master Award was established in 1995, it was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through his/her accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Past awardees include Michael Douglas, Peter Jackson, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Diane Keaton, George Clooney, Will Smith, and Cate Blanchett. Comments SBIFF Director Roger Durling, “Clint Eastwood is inarguably one of our greatest directors, one of our greatest producers and one of our greatest actors ever - to call him a Modern Master is simply an understatement.”Eastwood is a cinematic icon both in front of and behind the camera. When directing, Eastwood’s films feature an unforced naturalism that bends the rules of strict realism as well as with generic conventions, evidenced in his most recent film, “Changeling,” a drama based on the true story of an infamous 1928 kidnapping case that rocked the LAPD, which he also produced.The subject matter for films Eastwood attaches himself to always have thought and meaning within them, such as “Bird,” the biopic of the famous jazz musician, Charlie Parker, for which he won a Golden Globe in 1993 for Best Director and the revisionist western “Unforgiven” in 1994 which went on to win an Academy Award® for Best Picture and garnered a Best Director win. Eastwood will next direct and produce the historical drama “The Human Factor,” starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman in the role of Nelson Mandela.Tickets for the Modern Master Award will go on sale today and can be purchased at a 20% discount through December 20 here or through the Lobero Box Office, 805.963.0761 and the Arlington Theater Box office, 805.963.4408. The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will be held January 22 through February 1, 2009.