From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Academy Award ® Winner Alan Arkin to Receive Bahamas International Film Festival Career Achievement Award
By Bahamas International Film Festival
Dec 2, 2010 - 10:44:51 PM
Nassau, Bahamas
– The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF)
announced today that Academy Award® winner Alan Arkin (
Little Miss Sunshine,
) will be honored with the prestigious Career
Achievement Award at this year’s Film Festival, taking place December 1-5 in
Nassau. Arkin will be on hand for the tribute, with the special award
presentation coming from actress Abigail Breslin, who received an Oscar®
nomination for Best Supporting Actress starring alongside Arkin in
Little
Miss Sunshine.
The Career Achievement Tribute ceremony featuring
Arkin and Breslin will take place at the Atlantis Theater on the evening of
Saturday, December 4th at 8:00pm. Jeffrey Lyons, host of the TV show
“
Lyons Den”,
will be moderating
the evening’s conversation. BIFF Founder and Executive Director Leslie
Vanderpool revealed details of the event and its participants today and the
Atlantis is a proud to be the Exclusive Sponsor of the evening.
A beloved stage and screen star, Alan Arkin is known to
many moviegoers for his memorable roles in timeless comedies such as
Edward
Scissorhands
,
Little
Miss Sunshine
and
The
In Laws
Arkin
began his career with the Second City improvisational troupe in Chicago and
from there moved on to Broadway. He won a Tony for his first stage role -- the
lead in the Broadway version of Carl Reiner's
Enter Laughing
. He received an Oscar® nomination
for his first movie role -- as a Soviet sailor in the film farce
The
Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!
in 1966.
Arkin then turned in memorable dramatic performances on
screen, terrorizing Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 thriller
Wait Until Dark
and earning another Oscar®
nomination as the lead in the 1968 film version of the Carson McCullers novel
The
Heart is a Lonely Hunter
. He then led the all-star cast of the Hollywood
Catch-22
(1970, based on the bestseller by
Joseph Heller), and during the 1970s he was a popular leading and supporting
player in comedies, including
Freebie and the Bean
(with James Caan),
Hearts of
the West
(with
Jeff Bridges) and
The In-Laws
. After several more movie roles the 1980’s, Arkin started
off the '90s with a memorable performance as the unruffled dad who helps Johnny
Depp in
Edward Scissorhands
directed by Tim Burton. Frequently cast in broad comedic
roles, Arkin also appeared in the dramatic ensemble piece
Glengarry Glen
Ross
(with Alec
Baldwin) and the film version of Kurt Vonnegut's
Mother Night
starring Nick Nolte.
Over the years Arkin has directed eight plays on Broadway
and a handful of feature films. He also published several children's books,
including
The Lemming Condition
, which is placed in the White House Library and has been
selling steadily for 30 years. Others include
Some Fine Grampa!
and
Tony's Hard Work Day
. Arkin will be releasing a memoir
in March 2011 entitled "An Improvised Life," published by DaCapo
Press. His recent films include
Grosse Pointe Blank,
starring John Cusack,
Get Smart
,
Sunshine Cleaning
, and
City Island
and
Thirteen Conversations
About One Thing
with Matthew McConaughey.
Arkin
has just finished an appearance in the new
Muppet Movie
and plays Ryan Reynolds’ father in the
upcoming film
Change Up
.
Arkin received his third Oscar® nomination in 2007 and this
time won the Academy Award® as best supporting actor, for his performance as
the drug-addicted, sharp-tongued grandfather in
Little Miss Sunshine
.
BIFF’s Career Achievement Tribute honors an actor or
actress whose work has had a major impact and advanced the frontiers of
cinematic artistry around the world. Past recipients include multiple Academy
Award® nominee Johnny Depp, Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage, Academy Award®
nominee Laurence Fishburne, critically acclaimed actress Daryl Hannah and the
esteemed Roger Corman.
Entering just its seventh year, the Bahamas International Film Festival has
established itself as a marquee international Festival in the Caribbean region,
discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from around the world
and showcasing a diverse array of international films.
The complete BIFF program lineup can be found online
at www.bintlfilmfest.com. Book
ending the Festival this year are Sony Pictures Classics’ acclaimed comedy
“Tamara Drewe,” which will open the Festival Thursday, December 2nd
and The Weinstein Company’s Oscar® contender “The King’s Speech,” which will
close out the Festival on Sunday, December 5th with Harvey Weinstein
in attendance.
BIFF is continuing its efforts to educate and
inspire a new generation of filmmakers, expanding its popular Youth Film
Workshop by partnering with schools throughout Nassau and integrating the
workshops directly into classrooms.
The
festival is also proud to be bringing back the Filmmaker’s Residency Program. In
years past BIFF has exclusively provided the Bahamian and Caribbean community
with the opportunity to receive invaluable mentoring from industry professionals.
This year BIFF has broadened the program to include filmmakers from around the
world to submit screenplays that are based in The Bahamas or Caribbean region.
The
Filmmakers’ Residency Program nurtures new filmmakers and screenwriters by
providing them with an unrivaled opportunity to spend a full day with
accomplished professionals who make a living working in the industry from Los
Angeles and New York.
BIFF 2010 begins Wednesday,
December 1st and runs through Sunday, December 5th. For
additional information please visit www.bintlfilmfest.com.
About the Bahamas
International Film Festival
The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) is a
nonprofit organization committed to providing the local community and
international festival-goers with a diverse presentation of films from the
Bahamas and around the world. In addition to showcasing films that might not
otherwise be released theatrically, BIFF provides unique cultural experiences,
educational programs, and forums for exploring the past, present and future of
cinema. BIFF aims to raise the level of filmmaking, participation and education
throughout the Bahamas and the world.
Key Sponsors of the 2010 BIFF are; Ministry of
Tourism, Atlantis, Dolphin Encounters, The Nature Conservancy, Galleria Cinema
JFK, Green Parrot Nassau, Starbucks, Ministry of Culture, Post Boxes Etc.,
Custom Computers, RIU Hotel, Old Fort Bay Club, Security Systems International,
Bahamas Technical Vocational Institute, Bahamas Tourism Channel, American
Airlines, Bahamas Air, Spirit Airlines, The Tribune, Bahamas Local, Bahamas
Weekly and many more.
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