Peter Morgan to Receive Kanbar Screenwriting Award at 50th San Francisco International Film Festival

Academy Award-Nominated Writer of The Queen to be Awarded for Excellence in Screenwriting

February 20, 2007

San Francisco, CA—The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Peter Morgan will receive the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 26–May 10). The award, which will be presented to Morgan at Film Society Awards Night Thursday, May 3, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, acknowledges the vital role that screenwriting plays in the creation of great films.

“Peter Morgan is a brilliant writer with a singular genius for dramatizing complicated sociopolitical circumstances and for revealing the humanity and intelligence of complex historical figures,” said Graham Leggat, Film Society executive director.  “His work for television, film and the stage, particularly in recent years, when he has gone from strength to strength, is peerless.”

The Kanbar Award is named in honor of Maurice Kanbar, a longtime member of the board of directors of the San Francisco Film Society, a San Francisco film commissioner and a philanthropist with a particular interest in supporting independent filmmakers. Kanbar is the creator of New York’s first multiplex theater and the inventor and founder of San Francisco-based SKYY Spirits.

Peter Morgan is the writer of two of the most highly praised films of 2006—The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. He was awarded the best adapted screenplay prize (along with Jeremy Brock) for The Last King of Scotland at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards in London on February 18, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded him its Golden Globe for best screenplay for The Queen on January 15. His work on The Queen has also garnered him a nomination for best original screenplay for this year’s Academy Awards, which take place Sunday, February 25.

Morgan’s works extend beyond the silver screen. His television film Longford, about a respected politician (played by Jim Broadbent) who put his reputation on the line to campaign for the release of a notorious child murderer, debuted on HBO on Saturday, February 17, to great critical acclaim. Morgan’s best-known television work prior to Longford was The Deal, a film made for British television directed by Stephen Frears, with whom Morgan later teamed up with on The Queen. The Deal, which won the award for Best Drama at the 2003 BAFTA TV Awards, is the story of the power-sharing deal that leading Labor Party politicians Tony Blair and Gordon Brown made in 1994, prior to Blair becoming prime minister.

Morgan also wrote the excellent dramatic television mini-series The Jury, which played on BBC America in 2002, as well as the two-part television film Henry VIII, which premiered in the UK in October 2003 and featured Ray Winstone in the title role. The series won the award for best TV Movie/Mini-Series at the 2004 International Emmy Awards.

Morgan’s play Frost/Nixon, about the 1977 television interviews David Frost conducted with Richard Nixon, debuted at the Donmar Warehouse in London in August 2006. It was nominated for best play in the Evening Standard Awards (presented annually for achievement in London theatre), and also earned Morgan a nomination for Best New Play at the 2007 Laurence Olivier Awards. The play is to open in New York City in March 2007 and Hollywood director Ron Howard is currently set to direct a film version of the play.

Morgan was born in south London to refugee parents (his father, a German Jew, fled the Nazis, and his mother, a Polish Catholic, fled the Soviets). Fluent in English and German, he attended the University of Leeds where he started out in the English department and eventually switched to fine art. While at Leeds Morgan became involved in student theatre, first as an actor, then switching to writing and directing after an attack of stage fright while performing in Love’s Labour’s Lost. He currently lives in Vienna with his wife Lila and their children. His latest work for the movie screen, an adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s novel The Other Boleyn Girl directed by Justin Chadwick, stars Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson and is slated to open in theaters in the fall of 2007.

The Film Society’s Education Program will be the beneficiary of the gala black-tie fundraiser honoring Morgan, George Lucas (recipient of the one-time-only Irving “Bud” Levin Award), and the recipients of the Film Society Directing Award and the Peter J. Owens Award (to be announced). Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston are the chairs of the Film Society Awards Night committee. Honorary chairs are Karen and John Diefenbach.

The recipient of the inaugural Kanbar Award, established in 2005, was writer/director/producer Paul Haggis. Jean-Claude Carrière was the recipient of the award in 2006. The Kanbar Award is sponsored by SKYY Spirits. SKYY maintains an active role in the community by supporting the creation of original content and working with filmmakers to bring their creative visions to life while inspiring excellence and vision in cinema.

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

Founded in 1957, the vanguard San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas. Held each spring for fifteen days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring 25 juried awards and more than 220 films and live events with upwards of 100 participating filmmakers and diverse audiences of 80,000+ people.

The landmark 50th International runs April 26–May 10, 2007 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinema, the Castro Theatre, The Museum of Modern Art, Landmark’s Clay 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, as well as several smaller satellite venues.

For tickets and information go to www.sffs.org, call 925.866.9559 or visit the Main Ticket Outlet at the Sundance Kabuki Cinema (1881 Post Street). For additional information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.561.5000.

San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the flagship SFIFF, is a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating the world of film and media in all its glorious forms. The Film Society’s year-round programs and events are concentrated in four core areas: Internationalism and Cross-Cultural Exchange; Educating and Inspiring Bay Area Youth; Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture; and Exploring New Digital Media.

 In early 2006 the Film Society unveiled SF360, a broad-spectrum series of initiatives designed to showcase the extraordinary vitality and variety of the Bay Area film and media scene, including www.SF360.org, SF360 San Francisco Movie Night, SF360 Film+Club and the television show SF360 Movie Scene.

The Film Society runs its acclaimed Education Program that each year introduces international cinema and media literacy to several thousand teachers and students (ages 8 – 18). The Film Society will present the second annual San Francisco International Animation Festival in October 2007, the 11th annual New Italian Cinema festival in November 2007 and a new SF International Youth Media Festival in early 2008.