March 29, 2005

Taylor Hackford to Be Recipient of Film Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at 48th San Francisco International Film Festival; Director, Producer, Writer in San Francisco April 27—28

The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Academy Award-nominated director Taylor Hackford will receive the Film Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 5). The award will be presented to Hackford at Film Society Awards Night on Thursday, April 28, 2005 at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco by Benjamin Bratt. The Film Society will be the beneficiary of the gala black-tie fundraiser honoring Hackford, Joan Allen, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for a brilliant acting career and Paul Haggis, recipient of the inaugural Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. Margaret and William R. Hearst III are the chairs of the Film Society Awards Night committee. Honorary chairs are Pat and Susie McBaine. A public presentation, including a compilation of clips from Hackford's distinguished career and an onstage interview is scheduled for 7:30 pm, Wednesday, April 27 at the Castro Theatre. The Film Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing is sponsored by Bulgari.

Roxanne Messina Captor, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, announced the news of the award saying, "Taylor Hackford's films reflect the broad range of his interests and demonstrate his ability to entertain us with compelling stories about teenage fathers, legendary fighters caught up in a larger-than-life event, rock 'n' roll icons and people roiling in the turmoil of events beyond their control. He has a gift for eliciting luminous performances from his actors, the most recent example being Jamie Foxx's astounding, Oscar-winning turn as Ray Charles in RAY."

After graduating from the University of Southern California's School of International Relations and spending two years in Bolivia as a Peace Corps volunteer, Hackford began his career in entertainment at the Los Angeles public television station KCET. While there he created several award-winning documentaries, pioneered the presentation of uninterrupted rock 'n' roll performances and won two Emmys for his work as an investigative reporter. In 1979 he wrote, produced and directed the live action short film, TEENAGE FATHER (1979), which won an Academy Award. His first feature THE IDOLMAKER (1980), a revealing story about a rock 'n' roll entrepreneur with a pitch-perfect performance by Ray Sharkey as the title character, was followed by AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982) which received five Academy Award nominations, made stars of Richard Gere and Debra Winger and brought home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Louis Gossett Jr. Hackford has also produced every one of his subsequent films which has given him the freedom, as David Thomson says to "follow his own star."

The list of outstanding performances directed by Hackford includes Jeff Bridges and James Woods in AGAINST ALL ODDS (1984), Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines in WHITE NIGHTS (1985), Jessica Lange and Dennis Quaid in EVERYBODY'S ALL AMERICAN (1988), Benjamin Bratt in BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT (aka BOUND BY HONOR, 1993), Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh in DOLORES CLAIBORNE (1995) and Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (1997). He has produced two outstanding documentaries, CHUCK BERRY: HAIL! HAIL! ROCK 'N' ROLL (1987) and WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996), and a number of modestly budgeted movies with other directors, including LA BAMBA (1987, LuÌs Valdez), THE LONG WALK HOME (1990, Richard Pearce) and MORTAL THOUGHTS (1991, Alan Rudolph). Last year he added screenwriter to his credits for RAY, a labor of love for 15 years that rewarded his commitment by becoming one of the most acclaimed films of 2004, garnering two Oscar wins (Foxx and Sound Mixing), four additional Oscar nominations, including best director and a Directors Guild of America nomination for outstanding directorial achievement.

Each year, the San Francisco International Film Festival honors a master of world cinema with an award for lifetime achievement in film directing. Previous recipients of the Film Society's directing award are Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia/USA; Robert Altman, USA; Warren Beatty, USA; Clint Eastwood, USA; Abbas Kiarostami, Iran; Arturo Ripstein, Mexico; Im Kwon-Taek, Korea; Francesco Rosi, Italy; Arthur Penn, USA; Stanley Donen, USA; Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal; Ousmane Sembène, Senegal; Satayajit Ray, India; Marcel Carné, France; Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia; Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA; Robert Bresson, France; Michael Powell, England; and Akira Kurosawa, Japan.

For Film Society Awards Night tickets and information only, call 415.551.5190.

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 21—May 5, 2005 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, the Home of the Festival, the Castro Theatre, the Palace of Fine Arts, Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center and the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco; the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley; and Landmark's Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto. Tickets for San Francisco Film Society members will be available on March 29 and for the general public on April 5. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org, call 925.866.9559 or visit the Main Ticket Outlet, located in the atrium of the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post Street or the Satellite Ticket Outlet at the Virgin Megastore, 2 Stockton Street. For up-to-date Festival information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.561.5000.

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21—May 5, 2005) is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating international film and the moving image.