WERNER HERZOG TO RECEIVE FILM SOCIETY DIRECTING AWARD AT 49th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Iconoclastic Director/Writer/Producer Honored for His Singular Vision and Extraordinary Career

March 2, 2006

San Francisco, CA - The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Werner Herzog will receive the Film Society Directing Award at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4). The award will be presented to Herzog at Film Society Awards Night on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

The Film Society's Education Program will be the beneficiary of the gala black-tie fundraiser honoring Herzog, Ed Harris, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for his brilliant acting career and Jean-Claude Carrière, recipient of the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. Karen and John Diefenbach are the chairs of the Film Society Awards Night committee. Honorary chair is William R. Hearst III.

A public presentation of the Directing Award, including a compilation of clips from Herzog's wide-ranging career, an onstage interview by David Sterritt, Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics, and a screening of Wild Blue Yonder is scheduled for 7:30 pm, Wednesday, April 26 at the Castro Theatre.

Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, announced the upcoming the award saying, "Werner Herzog is one of those extraordinary filmmakers who seems to reshape the art and craft of the medium with every new film. Wholly alive to the world about him, and to the world of cinema itself, he is a tireless and endlessly curious explorer of the human condition as it careens from tragedy to absurdity and back again. Like many of the actors and characters he has brought to life in his fascinating films, Herzog is possessed by an unshakeable independence of mind and a singular vision. No one else could have made the films that he has made, and no one who has seen them will ever forget them."

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 Taylor Hackford, USA, 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 49th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 20-May 4, 2006 at the Kabuki 8 Theatres (the Home of the Festival), the Castro Theatre 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. Passes will be available to San Francisco Film Society members starting March 6. Tickets will be available to members March 28 and to the general public April 4. 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 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 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4, 2006) is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating international film and the moving image.