ED HARRIS TO RECEIVE PETER J. OWENS AWARD AT
49th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Harris to be Recognized for the Brilliance, Independence and Integrity of his Career

March 2, 2006

San Francisco, CA - The San Francisco Film Society announced today that
Ed Harris will be the recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award to be presented at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4, 2006). The Owens Award, named after local cultural benefactor and longtime Film Society board member Peter J. Owens, honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity. The award will be presented to Harris 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 Harris, Werner Herzog, recipient of the Film Society Directing Award 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.

In addition to being honored at Film Society Awards Night, Harris will also appear at the Castro Theatre on Friday, April 28 for a program featuring career retrospective film clips and an onstage interview prior to a screening of A Flash of Green directed by Victor Nuñez. Harris has identified the film as one of his favorites and one for which he has a particular fondness because he played the kind of role and made the kind of film that he set out to make.

Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, announced Harris's upcoming appearance at the 49th Festival saying, "Intense, thoroughly convincing and invariably dead-on in all his roles, Ed Harris is our generation's consummate actor. He has a riveting onscreen presence whether he's dashing, steadfast or dangerous, and during a career that only seems to get stronger as it goes along he has created a whole gallery of indelible characters, from American icons such as artist Jackson Pollock and astronaut John Glenn to the icy-hearted one-eyed mobster in A History of Violence. No one is more deserving of the Peter J. Owens Award for independence, brilliance and integrity in acting than Ed Harris and we are honored that he has accepted this award."

Ed Harris has earned a reputation as one of the most talented and respected actors working today. He was born in Tenafly, New Jersey and studied at Columbia University in New York City before enrolling in the theater department at the University of Oklahoma to pursue his interest in acting. After graduation he moved to Los Angeles and began his acting career with roles on stage and in television. His breakthrough role and initial critical acclaim came in 1983 for his inspiring performance playing astronaut and future senator John Glenn in Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff. Most recently he earned a Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Society of Film Critics for his unsettling characterization of a maimed mobster in David Cronenberg's critically lauded A History of Violence.

In 2000 Harris made his directorial debut and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role with Pollock, an unflinching portrait of painter Jackson Pollock. Three years later he earned his fourth Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a Screen Actors Guild nomination and a BAFTA nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work as the angry, dying writer in Stephen Daldry's The Hours. Harris's film credits also include Radio, The Human Stain, Buffalo Soldiers, A Beautiful Mind, Stepmom, Apollo 13 (for which he earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role), Walker, The Third Miracle, Alamo Bay, Sweet Dreams, Jacknife and The Firm.

Winter Passing, in which Harris costars with Zooey Deschanel, is currently in national release. He recently completed filming the title role in Agnieszka Holland's Copying Beethoven.

Harris made his New York stage debut in 1983 and won an Obie Award for Outstanding Actor in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love. He won the 1985-86 Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actor for his performance in the Broadway production of George Furth's Precious Sons and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor for Simpatico. Last fall he debuted on the European stage, starring in the world premiere of Neil Labute's Wrecks at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, Ireland.

San Francisco audiences will remember him for his early work with Sam Shepard and the Magic Theater where he honed his craft and rose to the challenge demanded by the energetic explosiveness of Shepard's characters.

Throughout his career Harris has also continued to work in television and this past year he received a SAG Award as well as Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his performance opposite Paul Newman in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls. His television credits include The Last Innocent Man, Running Man, Paris Trout and Riders of the Purple Sage, which he coproduced and costarred in with his wife, Amy Madigan.

Previous recipients of the Peter J. Owens Award have been Joan Allen (2005), Chris Cooper (2004), Dustin Hoffman (2003), Kevin Spacey (2002), Stockard Channing (2001), Winona Ryder (2000), Sean Penn (1999), Nicolas Cage (1998), Annette Bening (1997) and Harvey Keitel (1996). The Peter J. Owens Award is made possible through a grant from the Peter J. Owens Trust at the San Francisco Foundation.

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 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.