The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is pleased to announce honorees for the 2014 Savannah Film Festival. Matt Bomer and Renée Zellweger will receive Spotlight Awards; Asa Butterfield and Analeigh Tipton will receive Rising Star Awards; and Gena Rowlands will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. The festival will be held in downtown Savannah, Georgia, and runs from Saturday, Oct. 25 to Saturday, Nov. 1. Hosted by SCAD, the annual event has celebrated cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging filmmakers for 17 years.
Matt Bomer will receive the Spotlight Award on Sunday, Oct. 26. He’ll also participate in a Q&A following the screenings of “The Normal Heart,” along with Len Amato and the documentary “HUNTED.” Most recently, audiences saw Bomer star in the critically acclaimed screen adaptation of “The Normal Heart.” Bomer won a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Mini-Series and received an Emmy® Award nomination for his role. His TV credits include USA Network’s “White Collar,” one of the highest rated and most critically acclaimed scripted shows on cable television, “Traveler,” recurring roles on “Tru Calling” and “Chuck” and guest appearances on “Glee” and “The New Normal.” In addition to Bomer’s success on the small screen, audiences have seen him star in a variety of feature film roles including “Magic Mike,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning,” “In Time,” “Space Station 76” and “Flight Plan.” His upcoming films are “Monty Clift” and “The Nice Guys,” and he is currently filming the sequel, “Magic Mike XXL.”
Asa Butterfield will receive the Rising Star Award on Saturday, Oct. 25 prior to the opening night screening of “5 to 7.” He was first noted for his performance in “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” which he was nominated for a BIFA for Most Promising Newcomer and a Young Artists Award for Best Performance in an International Feature Film. He went on to star in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” and was last seen in “Ender’s Game.” He will next appear in “X Plus Y” and recently wrapped up “Ten Thousand Saints,” co-starring opposite Ethan Hawke. He earned the Breakthrough Award at the 2012 Young Hollywood Awards.
Gena Rowlands will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, Oct. 30. She’ll also participate in a Q&A following the screenings of “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” and “The Notebook” along with the film’s director and her son Nick Cassavetes. Rowlands made her film debut in “The High Cost of Loving” in 1958. Teaming with husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, Rowlands starred in many productions, including “Staccato, A Child Is Waiting,” “Faces,” “Gloria” (nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress), “Love Streams,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “She’s So Lovely,” and “A Woman Under the Influence” (Academy Award nomination). Her other film credits include “The Neon Bible,” “Hope Floats,” “Paulie,” “Hysterical Blindness,” “The Notebook,” “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie,” “The Skeleton Key,” “Paris, je t’aime,” “Broken English,” “Yellow,” “Parts per Billion,” and “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.”
Rowlands has been nominated for two Academy Awards; six Emmy nominations, and one Daytime Emmy; eight Golden Globes; three Satellite Awards; and two SAG Awards. Some of her notable wins include: a Silver Berlin Bear; three Emmy Awards and one Daytime Emmy; two Golden Globes; two National Board of Review Awards; two Satellite Awards; and one Prize San Sebastián.
Analeigh Tipton will receive the Rising Star Award on Saturday, Nov. 1. Tipton’s most recent film credits include this summer’s “Two Night Stand” alongside Milles Teller, “Lucy” alongside Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, as well as “4 Minute Mile” with Richard Jenkins and Kim Basinger. She most recently wrapped production this summer on Blumhouse Productions’ “Viral,” and this past winter she also completed “Mississppi Grind,” alongside Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn. Her other film credits include “Damsels in Distress,” “Warm Bodies,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” On television, Tipton appeared as a recurring character in the final season of HBO’s “Hung” and currently stars on” Manhattan Love Story,” a romantic comedy which premiered this fall on ABC.
Renée Zellweger will receive the Spotlight award on Monday, Oct. 27. Renée Zellweger earned the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress in Anthony Minghella’s “Cold Mountain.” For her work in “Cold Mountain,” Zellweger also garnered a Golden Globe Award and best supporting role honors from the Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, Broadcast Film Critics Association and numerous others. Zellweger earned her first Oscar® nomination for the 2001 feature “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” also earning acclaim with Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations, among others. The following year Zellweger earned her second Academy Award nomination for “Chicago.” Zellweger took home a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and others including a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Her other film credits include “Dazed and Confused,” “Reality Bites,” “Love and a .45,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation,” “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Jerry Maguire,” “One True Thing,” “Me, Myself & Irene,” “Nurse Betty,” “White Oleander,” “Down with Love,” “Cinderella Man” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.” She has also lent her voice to such animated features as DreamWorks’ “Shark Tale,” “Bee Movie” and “Monsters vs. Aliens.” In 2015, she will appear opposite Keanu Reeves in “The Whole Truth.”
Tickets and passes are available for purchase online at www.savannahboxoffice.com, by telephone at 912-525-5050 or in person at the Trustees Theater, located at 216 E. Broughton St., Savannah, Georgia.
About the Savannah Film Festival
The festival, and the competition, provides students with opportunities as unique as the movies on the screen. It’s a chance for SCAD students to exclusively connect with leaders from the entertainment industry through master classes, coffee talks, lectures and panel discussions and a chance for Savannah, a premier film hub, to promote quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.
Visit filmfest.scad.edu for a complete list of films and screening locations or follow the festival on Facebook and on Twitter @savfilmfest.
