The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced Monday that Academy Award and three-time Golden Globe winner Angelina Jolie will receive its Outstanding Performance of the Year Award for her performance in A Mighty Heart, in which she portrays Mariane Pearl, wife of the kidnapped and executed journalist, Daniel Pearl. “We are honored to celebrate Ms. Jolie in what is arguably one of the most extraordinary female roles of the year,” Festival executive director Roger Durling said in a statement.
Past recipients of the award have gone to Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, and Helen Mirren. Jolie received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the 1999 film, Girl, Interrupted. She has also starred in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, when her highly publicized relationship with actor Brad Pitt began. She is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand.
In the film, Jolie portrays her friend, Mariane Pearl, during the two-week period between when her husband, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and when he was murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. The movie is based on Mariane Pearl’s memoir.
Jolie will be honored on Feb. 2, 2008, the second-to-last day of the festival, which begins on Jan. 24, 2008. Tickets are on-sale to the event, which will take place at the Arlington Theatre. For more information, visit www.sbfilmfestival.org.