The 21st Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which runs from February 2nd to 12th, will kick off with Oscar-winner Robert Towne‘s Ask The Dust starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell and finish with Jason Reitman‘s very sharp and funny Thank You For Smoking with Aaron Eckhardt, Maria Bello, Katie Holmes,Rob Lowe, William H. Macy and Robert Duvall. I don’t recognize the films yet, but there will be discussions with and tributes paid to Towne, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, Felicity Huffman, Maria Bello and Naomi Watts. The festival will also present the second annual “Attenborough Award for Excellence in Nature Filmmaking” to director James Cameron (who?…wait a minute…didn’t he direct something about eight or nine years ago…?).
