Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award winner Sam Rockwell will be honored with the 2018 American Riviera Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 33rd edition, Jan. 31-Feb. 10, the festival has announced.

Rockwell will be recognized with a tribute celebrating his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The film opened in November to critical acclaim.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) tribute to Rockwell will take place Feb. 7 at the Arlington Theatre.

“In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, audiences are treated to the kind of mesmerizing and extraordinary performance we have come to expect from Sam Rockwell,” said Roger Durling, executive director of SBIFF.

“We are long overdue to celebrate this tremendous talent who has lit up the screen for decades,” Durling said.

Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, follows a mother who, when the police in her town fail to find a suspect in her daughter’s murder, buys three billboards to call public attention to the unsolved crime.

When the town’s revered police chief and his second-in-command get involved, the battle between the mother and Ebbing’s law enforcement becomes exacerbated.

The American Riviera Award was established to recognize actors who have made a significant contribution to American cinema. Rockwell will join past recipients, including Jeff Bridges (2017), Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Mark Ruffalo (2016), Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke (2015), Robert Redford (2014), Quentin Tarantino (2013), Martin Scorsese (2012).

Annette Bening (2011), Sandra Bullock (2010), Mickey Rourke (2009), Tommy Lee Jones (2008), Forrest Whitaker (2007), Philip Seymour Hoffman (2006), Kevin Bacon (2005) and Diane Lane (2004).
 
The Santa Barbra International Film Festival thanks Santa Barbara’s first responders and emergency authorities, who have assisted with relief efforts taking place due to recent devastating fires and flooding.

To support those affected, visit www.redcross.org, http://cafirefoundation.org/ and https://www.directrelief.org/.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, festival passes and packages, visit www.sbiff.org.

— Ulisses Rivera for Santa Barbara International Film Festival.