Oscar voters are courted in Santa Barbara

Today's annual Oscar nominees luncheon was not the only place that packs of Academy Award contenders could be seen recently.

I spent much of the last week hosting special tribute shows for Mickey Rourke, David Fincher and Kristin Scott Thomas at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Oscar voters and nominees were swarming, proving that the format and timing (just as final ballots are in the mail) have increasingly made this 24-year-old festival a must-stop on the awards season circuit. Festival Director Roger Durling, who picks his honorees months in advance, has an almost unerring eye when it comes to Oscar prognostication.

In addition to other tributees including Clint Eastwood, Penelope Cruz and Kate Winslet, there were "Virtuoso" honors for nominees Michael Shannon, Melissa Leo, Richard Jenkins and Viola Davis and nominee-laden panels focusing on producers (moderated by The Times' Patrick Goldstein), writers (with Anne Thompson) and a very lively women's session (hosted as usual by -- full disclosure -- my wife, Madelyn Hammond).

With an estimated 100 to 150 active voting Academy members (it fluctuates depending on the vacation home factor) living in the area and local TV and front-page newspaper press coverage, it's prime time for newly minted Oscar contenders (opening night was the same day Oscar nominees were announced) to get key exposure with a spotlight thrown on their careers.

After Saturday's Rourke tribute, at which he received the American Riviera award, the last of this year's festival, Academy voters woke up Sunday morning to a big color photo of the star and a front-page headline in the Santa Barbara News-Press blaring  "The Comeback King." Can it influence their thinking at crunch time? Studio consultants must think so, or they wouldn't keep coming back year after year with major contenders.

Over the last few years I have hosted these two-hour tribute shows to various stars including Charlize Theron, Kate Winslet (her first SB go-round in 2005), Heath Ledger, Forest Whitaker, Tommy Lee Jones and Angelina Jolie. The crowds, usually in the 2,000-plus-seat Arlington Theatre, are massive and appreciative, and this year was no different.

Rourke was funny and talkative, with lots of choice stuff about his early career and an especially hilarious story about trying to please director Michael Cimino while flubbing his one line in "Heaven's Gate" repeatedly. He also confirmed his desire to get into the professional wrestling ring in April but said he has now decided not to do it after his "people" suggested it might not be a wise career move. He quit his screen career in 1992 to return to boxing, and now with all the heat back on, it's probably best to stick to acting this time around. Rourke says he'll support the event but won't be touring with the WWE anytime soon. Good move, Mickey.

Since tributees have to sit and watch clips of their work, it can be awkward when there's someone like Rourke who doesn't like to see himself act. Each time I cued a clip he got up and went backstage to smoke. After "9 1/2 Weeks," he went MIA. I tried to interview myself for a while and then yelled, "Mickey, come back!" and he finally did, to much laughter.

It's clear the star of Fox Searchlight's "The Wrestler" is having a great time on his ride this season, which includes a Best Actor Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win (he'd probably rather have a Golden Glove, though). He was genuinely moved  by Francis Ford Coppola's trophy presentation at the end, since the legendary "Godfather" director had cast him in two films at distinctly different points in his career, "Rumble Fish" and a small role in  "Rainmaker." He said he measures all directors by his experience with Coppola.

Rourke and Coppola attended the after-party thrown in a bank building three blocks away, where the  Searchlight crowd (including marketing chief Nancy Utley) was ecstatic as they got the news about 11 p.m. that Danny Boyle of their Cinderella movie, "Slumdog Millionaire,"  had just taken the all-important Directors Guild award. Boyle had also been in Santa Barbara earlier in the week for a Q&A and screening of "Slumdog Millionaire."

Among those attending the tribute and party was actor Christopher Lloyd ("Taxi," "Back to the Future") whose $11-million Montecito home burned to the ground in November's devastating fires. Somehow he was still smiling. He's got another smaller house in the area, so he's happy to continue to be a local.

The night before Durling counted at least 30 Academy members who filed into the Arlington to see the tribute to Boyle's chief rival this year, "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button's"  Oscar-nominated director David Fincher. Maybe if the Oscar race is actually closer than precursor awards indicate, this well-timed Santa Barbara event could have an impact.  It seems a shame that Fincher is finding himself in the "underslumdog" position this season after being the prohibitive favorite going in. "Button" is such an admired landmark technological achievement, box office hit and critically acclaimed film that in any other year it would be favored to sweep at the Oscars. Now, even with a leading 13 nominations it finds itself struggling to make a dent in the "Slumdog" tsunami that has seen the Boyle film and its own irresistible rags-to-riches legend virtually run the board.

Award fates didn't seem to matter Friday night as Fincher, just back from the Japanese launch of his movie, clearly had the Arlington crowd in the palm of his hand, even doing an amusing impression of his "Zodiac" cinematographer Harris Savides and another time jumping excitedly out of his chair to make a point. Unlike Rourke he watched all the film segments including a killer reel of his commercial and music video work. Seeing all his career achievements in one fell swoop like this proves Fincher really is the master director of the moment with consistently spectacular work in "Seven," "Panic Room," "Fight Club" and the one-two punch of "Benjamin Button" and "Zodiac," a March 2007 release that Oscar voters seemed to forget. Paramount didn't spend a whole lot of money reminding them either. Had the winds blown differently and the film was released at the end of the year rather than the beginning, I would bet it would have rivaled "No Country for Old Men" all season long. His "Zodiac" star Jake Gyllenhaal made a special appearance to praise Fincher as did "Button's" Oscar-nominated Supporting Actress Taraji P. Henson.

Speaking of "Benjamin Button," there was party chatter in Santa Barbara that two of its producers, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, turned down the opportunity to be the focus of a special issue where they would be named as "Billion Dollar Producers" by a Hollywood trade publication when they found out the paper  would be selling congratulatory ads to their friends and associates. With all the current studio layoffs and the dire economic situation in Hollywood (and the world, for that matter), the pair felt it would be distasteful and inappropriate to have that kind of focus at this time. This is something you don't always hear during a season when every contender is looking for any way imaginable to throw attention on themselves.  File it under "class act."

The week began on a bright note when I headed up to SB last Tuesday just for the day to host the Festival's Cinema Vanguard award to Kristin Scott Thomas whose spectacular performance in "I've Loved You So Long" has won her the European Film Award for Best Actress as well as BAFTA and Cesar nominations but inexplicably failed to land her a second Oscar nomination (her only nod was for 1996's "The English Patient"). Clearly Durling (and everyone else who saw it) thought this tour-de-force (all in French, no less) would be a no-brainer for Oscar, but the film fell between the cracks and Thomas' work will now go down as one of the great overlooked performances in Academy history. Still it didn't matter as Thomas held court with great stories including wonderful insights into her directors who have included everyone from Redford to Prince(!). Plus she and special award presenter, Ralph Fiennes, her "English Patient" co-star, stuck around for the elegant Biltmore Hotel after-party. It might not make up for the Oscar snub but there are a lot of people who would love to see Thomas pull off surprise victories at BAFTA and the CESARS.

For now the Santa Barbara International Film Festival has given her, Fincher and Rourke  a night to remember during this awards season of unexpected twists and turns. Me too. It was great talking movies with all of them.

--Pete Hammond

  Photo: Michael Mariant / AP

Comments

[Laura]

I would love to see the full Q&A you did with Kristin, as well as her speech and Ralph's. Will there be video available of this?