The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) has announced that Robert Downey Jr. will receive the Maltin Modern Master Award, its highest accolade, at the 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
The award ceremony on Friday, Feb. 9 will include an in-person conversation between Downey and film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, for whom the award is named.
The two will discuss Downey’s five-decade acting career, and his rise to becoming one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful actors to date, culminating in his recent searing performance as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s global cinematic phenomenon “Oppenheimer.”
Downey Jr. is a two-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner. He has amassed more than 110 acting credits in his career, including the title character in the “Iron Man” franchise, which launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reshaped the last 15 years of global cinema.
He earned a Golden Globe Award for his lead performance in the action-adventure “Sherlock Holmes,” and two Academy Award nominations for “Tropic Thunder,” and his portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s 1992 biopic “Chaplin.”
Upcoming acting projects for Downey Jr. include Max’s TV adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer,” in which he plays four supporting roles; and the Paramount Pictures remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller “Vertigo.”
“Robert Downey Jr. has staged one of the most spectacular second acts in show business history … and we in the audience are the beneficiaries,” said Maltin. “He commands the screen without any visible effort, which is perhaps the greatest feat of all.”
“It’s thrilling to see audiences responding not just to Robert Downey Jr’s incredible charisma, but to a performance which, stripped of any movie star trappings, shows once again that he is one of the greatest actors,” Nolan said.
Written and directed by Nolan, “Oppenheimer” is an IMAX-shot thriller that explores the paradox of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission who helped shape America’s post-war nuclear policy, and as Oppenheimer’s chief administration adversary, led the effort to revoke his security clearance and discredit him.
The Modern Master Award, established in 1995, was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry. The award was re-named the Maltin Modern Master Award in 2015 in honor of long-time SBIFF moderator and renowned film critic Leonard Maltin.
Past recipients include: Academy Award winning actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney and Christopher Plummer; and acclaimed filmmakers including Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and Peter Jackson.
The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place live Feb. 7-17. Official events, including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels and celebrity tributes, will be held throughout the city.
Passes for the 2024 festival are on sale at sbiff.org.