Xuenou > Movies > Santa Barbara Film Fest: ‘The Whale’ Star Brendan Fraser Tapped for American Riviera Award
Santa Barbara Film Fest: ‘The Whale’ Star Brendan Fraser Tapped for American Riviera Award
Brendan Fraser has been named the recipient of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's next American Riviera Award.

Santa Barbara Film Fest: ‘The Whale’ Star Brendan Fraser Tapped for American Riviera Award

Brendan FraserANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images

Brendan Fraser, the veteran screen actor whose comeback performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, in which he plays a morbidly obese man trying to reconcile with his estranged daughter before it’s too late, is generating best actor Oscar buzz, has been named the recipient of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s next American Riviera Award, SBIFF announced Tuesday.

Fraser, who will turn 54 in December, will participate in a career-retrospective conversation prior to collecting the award — which recognizes people “who have made a significant contribution to American cinema” — on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, Valentine’s Day, at Santa Barbara’s historic Arlington Theatre.

Previous recipients of the American Riviera Award include Kristen Stewart, Delroy Lindo, Renée Zellweger, Viggo Mortensen, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Robert Redford, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Mickey Rourke, Tommy Lee Jones, Forrest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane.

“I’m so elated that we will be celebrating Brendan Fraser at SBIFF,” the festival’s executive director Roger Durling said in a statement. “Here’s a performer who has brought us so much joy through the years, given us so many incredible cinematic memories, and now delivered the best performance of his career. We are thrilled to honor him.”

The 38th edition of SBIFF will run from Feb. 8-18, 2023.