Santa Barbara Film Fest: ‘Green Book’ Star Viggo Mortensen to Receive American Riviera Award

Veteran actor Viggo Mortensen will be honored with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s American Riviera Award, the festival announced Monday.

The ceremony will take place at Santa Barbara’s historic Arlington Theatre, on a date still to be determined, as part of SBIFF’s 34th edition, which is set to run Jan. 30-Feb. 9.

Mortensen, 60, is a two-time Oscar nominee — for 2007’s Eastern Promises and 2016’s Captain Fantastic, both times in the lead actor category — best known for his work in Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003). He has received raves for his most recent performance — as a 1960s-era bigot who winds up taking a job as the driver of a black concert pianist — in Peter Farrelly‘s based-on-a-true-story dramedy Green Book, which opened in select theaters last weekend to rave reviews.

“Viggo is one of the steadiest acting forces in cinema and one of its greatest chameleons,” festival director Roger Durling said in a statement. “As Tony Lip in Green Book, he delivers the capstone to his remarkable career. He encapsulates the American Riviera Award. We greatly admire and love him.“

Previous recipients of SBIFF’s American Riviera Award include Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri‘s Sam Rockwell (2017); Hell or High Water‘s Jeff Bridges (2016); Spotlight‘s Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo (2015); Boyhood‘s Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke (2015); All Is Lost‘s Robert Redford (2014); Django Unchained‘s Quentin Tarantino (2013); Hugo‘s Martin Scorsese (2012); The Kids Are All Right‘s Annette Bening (2011); The Blind Side‘s Sandra Bullock (2010); The Wrestler‘s Mickey Rourke (2009); In the Valley of Elah‘s Tommy Lee Jones (2008); The Last King of Scotland‘s Forest Whitaker (2007); Capote‘s Philip Seymour Hoffman (2006); The Woodsman‘s Kevin Bacon (2005); and Under the Tuscan Sun‘s Diane Lane (2004).

Rockwell, Bridges, McAdams, Ruffalo, Arquette, Hawke, Tarantino, Scorsese, Bening, Bullock, Rourke, Jones, Whitaker and Hoffman all went on to receive Oscar nominations; Rockwell, Bullock, Whitaker and Hoffman took home the gold.

The fest will honor Hugh Jackman (The Front Runner) with its Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at a stand-alone ceremony on Monday night. It previously announced that, during the dates of the festival itself, Glenn Close (The Wife) will receive its Maltin Modern Master Award. Other honors will be announced in the coming days.