KEVIN SPACEY TO RECEIVE PETER J. OWENS AWARD AT THE 45th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Actor to be Saluted for Brilliance, Independence and Integrity

Kevin Spacey will be the recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award at the 45th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 18 - May 2). Named after local cultural benefactor and longtime Festival board member Peter J. Owens (1936-1991), the Award honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity. The Owens Award will be presented to Spacey at Film Society Awards Night, on Thursday, April 25 at 6:00 pm in the Argent Hotel's Metropolitan Ballroom. The San Francisco Film Society will be the beneficiary of the gala fundraiser honoring Kevin Spacey and Warren Beatty, the recipient of the Akira Kurosawa Award for film directing. The preceding day, April 24 at 7:00 pm, Spacey will be interviewed on stage at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, prior to a screening of SWIMMING WITH SHARKS. UNCLE FRANK, the first documentary produced by Spacey's production company Trigger Street has also been selected to play at the Festival.

Roxanne Messina Captor, Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, announced Spacey's upcoming appearance at the 45th Festival saying, "We are honored to present the Peter J. Owens Award to Kevin Spacey whose talent and distinctive, diversified career embody the spirit of the Owens Award. This Award is additionally appropriate because with his production company Trigger Street, which has been set up to support new filmmakers, Kevin is in step with the goal of Peter J. Owens himself to encourage and recognize outstanding creative talent."

Kevin Spacey is one of America's most respected and fearless actors with a versatile career and numerous awards and nominations including two Academy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a British Academy Award and the Sundance Independent Vision Award. In 1994 he burst onto cinema screens with three distinct performances. As Buddy Ackerman in George Hwang's cult satire SWIMMING WITH SHARKS he plays an unforgettably ruthless Hollywood executive. He won his first Oscar, for best supporting actor, playing Verbal Kint in Bryan Singer's THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Next came an unbilled credit, as John Doe in David Fincher's SEVEN. Since then he has continued to build an impressive body of work with such films as Curtis Hansen's L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997), MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL (1997) directed by Clint Eastwood, THE NEGOTIATOR (1998) and HURLYBURLY (1998). His riveting and compassionate performance as frustrated suburban male Lester Burnham in AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999) earned Spacey an Oscar for Best Actor. His pinpoint control and quicksilver changeability from scene to scene and movie to movie are richly demonstrated in THE BIG KAHUNA (2000), K-PAX (2001) and Lasse Halstrom's THE SHIPPING NEWS (2001).

Spacey began acting in high school productions and his allegiance to the theater has remained strong throughout his career. His breakthrough role was in the 1986 London/Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT starring with Jack Lemmon. Other favorite stage roles include Treplov in THE SEAGULL (Kennedy Center), Ben in NATIONAL ANTHEMS (Long Wharf), Paul in Barrie Keefe's BARBARIANS (SoHo Rep), Athol Fugard's PLAYLAND (Manhattan Theatre Club) and Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS for which he won a Tony Award. In 1998 he returned to the stage in Eugene O'Neill's classic four-hour play, THE ICEMAN COMETH. For his performance as Hickey he was nominated for a Tony (the play received 5 nominations) and won the Evening Standard Award and the Olivier Award as Best Actor.

His first work in television was as Mel Profitt in seven episodes of the cult favorite WISEGUY. Other work on the small screen includes LA LAW and DARROW.
Spacey made his directorial debut in 1997 with Miramax's ALBINO ALLIGATOR starring Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, Gary Sinise and William Fitchner.

Spacey has no plans to take on what he calls "acting challenges" in 2002 and has decided to spend the year focusing on his production company Trigger Street Productions founded in 1997. His aim is to produce feature films, documentaries and plays that give a voice to new talent and regard the vision and creative integrity of the director as crucial. Trigger Street produced THE ICEMAN COMETH, THE BIG KAHUNA and the off-Broadway production of Lee Blessing's COBB, which received the Best Ensemble Award from the Drama Desk Awards. Currently the company is producing THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND starring Don Cheadle and Ryan Gosling for first-time writer/director Matthew Hoge. The company has six films going into production this year and 15 more in development.

In the fall he will be seen in Alan Parker's THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE for Universal Pictures, starring opposite Kate Winslet and Laura Linney.
Chairperson Janet Reilly and honorary co-chairs Allison Speer and Summer Tompkins Walker plan an elegant black-tie Film Society Awards Night. Dinner will be followed by a star-studded awards program and dancing to the Dick Bright Orchestra. For Film Society Awards Night information call 415.561.5046.

Previous recipients of the Owens Award are 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. The Peter J. Owens Award presentation and screening are sponsored by Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. and the San Francisco Film & Video Arts Commission.

The 45th San Francisco International Film Festival is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit arts organization whose goal is to lead in expanding the knowledge and appreciation of international film art and its artists by showcasing the most compelling, thought-provoking international films, special tributes and major restorations and today’s brightest stars.

The 45th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 18–May 2, 2002 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, the Castro Theatre, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and Landmark’s Park Theatre in Menlo Park. Advance ticket packages and Festival passes go on sale beginning March 6. Individual tickets for San Francisco Film Society members will be available beginning March 27, with individual tickets for the general public available starting April 2. To purchase tickets and for ticket information call 925.275.9490 or log on to www.sffs.org. The Main Box Office, located in the atrium of the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres at 1881 Post Street will open for Film Society members on March 27 and for the general public on April 2. There will also be a Satellite Box Office at Crocker Galleria, 50 Post Street, second floor, opening on April 2. For up-to-date Festival information, call 415-931-FILM.