Leonardo DiCaprio to Receive Film Fest Award

Honored for 'Strong Influence on American Cinema'

Jamie Foxx (left) and Leonardo DiCaprio star in Quentin Tarantino's latest film about a freed slave and his fight to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

Joining an already star-studded lineup of award recipients at the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Leonardo DiCaprio will be given the American Riviera Award for his “strong influence on American Cinema,” film fest director Roger Durling said Wednesday. DiCaprio’s role in his latest film, Django Unchained, “reaffirms that he is the most relevant actor of this generation,” Durling went on.

Past American Riviera Award winners include Martin Scorsese, Annette Bening, Mickey Rourke, Tommy Lee Jones, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, and Diane Lane. DiCaprio will receive his on February 1 at the Arlington Theatre. For tickets and more information, visit www.sbfilmfestival.org or call 805-963-0023.