SBIFF: Montecito Award

Jennifer Aniston in Cake

 Jennifer Aniston to receive Montecito Award at SBIFF for her performance in Cake which has been aaclaimed with SAG, Globe, Critics' Choice nominations. The honor will be presented at Santa Barbara's historic Arlington Theatre on Jan. 30 as part of the fest's 30th edition, which runs Jan. 27 through Feb. 7.

he Montecito Award has been presented annually, since 2005, to "a performer who has given a series of classic and standout performances throughout his or her career and whose style has made a major contribution to film." Previous recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Naomi Watts and Annette Bening.

"Once in a while a performer who we thought we knew gets outside of his or her comfort zone and shows us the unexpected,” SBIFF executive director Roger Durling said in a statement. “When that happens it is cause for celebration — and this is why the 2015 Montecito Award is bestowed upon Ms. Aniston."

The fest previously announced that it will be presenting its Modern Master Award to Birdman's Michael Keaton; Outstanding Performer of the Year Award to Foxcatcher's Steve Carell; American Riviera Award to Boyhood's Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette; Cinema Vanguard Award to The Theory of Everything's Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones; and Virtuosos Award to Obvious Child's Jenny Slate, Fury's Logan Lerman, Boyhood's Ellar Coltrane, Get On Up's Chadwick Boseman, Gone Girl's Rosamund Pike, Whiplash's J.K. Simmons and Selma's David Oyelowo.