See the stars come out to shine at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

The glitz and glamour of Hollywood will come to the easygoing streets of Santa Barbara later this month with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which kicks off on Jan. 25.

The 11-day festival will feature 22 world premieres and 18 U.S. premieres, along with a slew of other films from 40 different countries.

Stars including Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker and Sienna Miller are expected to be in attendance throughout the festival.

This year, top honors will go to filmmaker Bill Condon, director of the recent hit “Dreamgirls.” Condon will be honored with the Montecito Award in a presentation highlighting his career achievements, which, in addition to “Dreamgirls,” include writing and directing “Gods and Monsters” and “Kinsey.”

Condon was also announced this week as a nominee for best director of 2006 for “Dreamgirls” by the Director’s Guild of America. Along with Condon, some of the “Dreamgirls” cast is expected to attend the Jan. 29 celebration.

Will Smith, who recently starred in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” will receive the Modern Master Award in a Jan. 27 tribute.

Helen Mirren will be awarded Outstanding Performance of the Year for her role in “The Queen,” in a Jan. 26 tribute ceremony.

Forest Whitaker, acclaimed for his role as Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland,” will receive the American Riviera Award in a Feb. 3 presentation.

Additionally, Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim will receive the Sir David Attenborough Award for Excellence in Nature Filmmaking for their documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Last year’s recipient James Cameron will present the award Feb. 2.

Bringing Hollywood’s best to Santa Barbara has gotten easier in the past few years, said Roger Durling, who has been director of the film festival for the past four years. “It’s definitely in their radar right now,” he said.

Durling credits the popularity of the festival to its strategic timing: two days after the Academy Awards nominations are announced. The late January timing not only attracts the stars, it puts smiles on the faces of hotel and restaurant owners who are happy to open their doors to visitors in an otherwise slow season.

Star sightings and the coveted awards they receive might be the highlight of the festival for some film lovers, but the heart of the festival is perhaps in the dozens of films that will be screened throughout its duration.

And for Durling, it’s hard to choose which part of the festival he’s most proud of. “That’s like asking a mom ‘Who’s your favorite child?’ ” he said.

Opening night of the festival will feature a screening of “Factory Girl,” which stars Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce and Hayden Christensen. The movie details the rise and fall of 1960s superstar Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s muse, who, coincidentally was born and died in Santa Barbara. Miller and director George Hickenlooper are expected to attend opening night festivities, which include the screening and a party at Paseo Nuevo in downtown Santa Barbara.

The centerpiece film of the festival is director Michael Apted’s “Amazing Grace,” based on the true story of William Wilberforce, who was a leader in the British abolition movement. Star Ioan Gruffudd and Apted are expected to attend the event.

And closing night will feature “Gray Matters,” Sue Kramer’s directorial debut, which includes a star-studded cast of Heather Graham, Thomas Cavanagh, Bridget Moynahan, Molly Shannon and Sissy Spacek. Graham, Cavanagh, Moynahan and Kramer are expected to attend the film and following festivities.

Those highly anticipated films are just a taste of what’s to come in the other 150 films that will be shown during the festival. They range widely, from documentaries and foreign films to nature and extreme sports films.

“If you’re a film lover, there should be hundreds of varieties of films,” said Durling. “It shouldn’t just be my taste that goes into the festival.”

The films are chosen from nearly 3,000 submissions. Durling and his staff also spend much of the year traveling, in search of films that would be a fit for the festival. They look locally, too — more than 20 films shown will be from Santa Barbara filmmakers.

The films shown will vie for various awards, including the Sprit Award for the best independent film, an award for the best international feature film, the Gold Vision Award for the “most innovative and unique film with an inspiring and groundbreaking vision,” the Nueva Vision Award for the best Spanish-language film, an award for the best documentary, the Social Justice Award for a documentary film, the Bruce Corwin Award for the best live action short film, the Bruce Corwin Award for best animation and the Audience Choice Award.

As demonstrated by his efforts to showcase a wide variety of films, Durling has worked hard to make the film festival more accessible to the wider population in his time as director, he said. “Since I took over the whole film festival, I’m totally into getting a young audience, an audience that wouldn’t normally be attending a film festival,” he said.

To that end, in conjunction with the festival, a student screenwriting and filmmaking competition will take place, allowing aspiring filmmakers to showcase their talents.

Also, during the festival, families are invited to attend Apple Box, a separate free family film festival for children from ages 2 to 15. Apple Box will be held from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 27 and 28, and Feb. 3 and 4. The entertainment will include simultaneous screenings of films including “Happy Feet,” “Cars” and “Monster House.” Clowns, jugglers, face painters and stilt walkers will also be on hand.

Also offering an educational component to kids, the festival will partner with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to offer a “Field Trip to the Movies” for more than 3,000 underprivileged sixth graders in the county.

And finally, the traditional “3rd Weekend,” to be held Feb. 9 through 11 at the Riviera Theatre, will offer free screenings of the winning films.

But the festival also reaches out to more traditional film buffs. And to that end, this year’s festival will feature a “Conversations With...” series, which includes screenings of some of the year’s films followed by conversations with their stars.

Djimon Honsou and a screening of “Blood Diamond,” for example, is scheduled for Jan. 31, and director Michael Apted will speak Feb. 1, along with a screening of his “49 Up.”

Panel discussions, held at the Lobero Theatre, are also an important part of the festival. A highlight of this year’s panels will be “Directors on Directing” at 11 a.m. Jan. 27. The panel will feature five of the six directors recently nominated for best director of 2006 by the Director’s Guild of America, including: Condon (“Dreamgirls”); Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (“Little Miss Sunshine”); Stephen Frears (“The Queen”); and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Babel”).

Other panel discussions will include “It Starts With the Script” at 2 p.m. Jan. 27; “Movers and Shakers” at 11 a.m. Jan. 28; “Creative Forces: Women in the Biz” at 11 a.m. Feb. 3; and “Scoring the Film” at 2 p.m. Feb. 3. Other panelists are expected to include Jason Reitman, Michael Arndt, Peter Morgan, William Monahan and John Lasseter.

Durling believes the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is unique because it is tailored to the Santa Barbara community. For example, he said, 35 percent of the films will be Latino, reflecting the population of the city. And films that examine extreme sports like surfing or explore nature themes reach out to others in the community that might not otherwise be interested in a film festival. Add to that Santa Barbara’s proximity to Hollywood and the timeliness of the festival, and Durling believes the entire community benefits.

“It’s a win-win,” he said.

Features writer Emily Welly can be reached by e-mail at ewelly@ santamariatimes.com.