Tarantino to receive Kirk Douglas Award at Santa Barbara Film Festival

By April MacIntyre Aug 27, 2009, 1:50 GMT

08/12/2009 - Quentin Tarantino - “We are beyond excited to be able to honor a man who has turned filmmaking on its ear,” said SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. “He has forever changed the direction of American cinema.” The award’s namesake, Kirk Douglas, will present the award to Tarantino. © Robin Wong / PR Photos

Academy Award-winning writer/director/producer/actor Quentin Tarantino will receive the Kirk Douglas Excellence Award during the Santa Barbara film festival.

The black-tie Gala dinner will take place at The Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara on Thursday, October 22.

“We are beyond excited to be able to honor a man who has turned filmmaking on its ear,” said SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.  “He has forever changed the direction of American cinema.”  The award’s namesake, Kirk Douglas, will present the award to Tarantino.

Currently basking in the success of "Inglourious Basterds," Tarantino's American legacy in film is well-received the world over, and his work becomes an instant cinematic classic. 

He made his writing/directing debut with "Reservoir Dogs," and just two years later he received an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for his groundbreaking original screenplay, "Pulp Fiction."  He has gone on to create such works as the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s "Natural Born Killers" (1994); he directed the fourth segment of the film "Four Rooms"; wrote and directed "Jackie Brown" (1997); wrote and directed "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" (2003) and "Kill Bill, Vol. 2" (2004); in 2005 he was credited as “special guest director” with Robert Rodriguez and writer-director Frank Miller of "Sin City," and teamed up again with Robert Rodriguez to direct "Grindhouse" (2007).

His recent feature film, "Inglourious Basterds," is the World War II epic which he wrote and directed and stars Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, and Mélanie Laurent. 

In the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as “the basterds,” Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich.

The non-profit organization 25th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will run February 4 through February 14, 2010.

SBIFF presents quality American Independent, Spanish and Latin American, European, World and Documentary cinema, as well as nature and surfing films, all within the beautiful setting of downtown Santa Barbara.

SBIFF is also committed to education through its 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking and Screenwriting Competitions, Field Trip to the Movies, and educational seminars.