Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
John Malkovich is to receive another major acting honour after his acclaimed performance in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine earned him the best actor prize at the Venice film festival.
The 72-year-old actor will receive the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 42nd Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which runs from 3 to 13 February 2027.
The honour comes during a run of awards recognition for Wild Horse Nine, which has screened at Venice, Telluride and Toronto and will be released in cinemas on 6 November.
Roger Durling, the executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, said: “A legendary actor gives this year in Wild Horse Nine his best performance to date in which he combines pathos, volatility, vulnerability and tenderness.
“It’s a high wire act that shows us what a commanding artist he is and we are thrilled to be honoring him with our Outstanding Performer of the Year Award.”
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, Wild Horse Nine is set immediately before the 1973 Chilean coup and follows two CIA agents, Chris and Lee, who are sent from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief.
John stars alongside Sam Rockwell, with the cast also including Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits and Parker Posey.
The film has already delivered John one of the biggest honours of his career.
Earlier this month he won the Volpi Cup for best actor at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival for his performance.
His victory followed an emotional Venice premiere at which Wild Horse Nine received a lengthy standing ovation, with John becoming visibly emotional as the audience applauded the film.
The role adds to a career that has included two Academy Award nominations.
John received his first supporting actor nomination for Places in the Heart and his second for playing assassin Mitch Leary opposite Clint Eastwood in In the Line of Fire.
He also won an Emmy for the television adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
John remains particularly associated with Spike Jonze’s 1999 film Being John Malkovich, in which John played a fictionalised version of himself opposite John Cusack and Cameron Diaz.
The surreal comedy followed the discovery of a portal leading directly into the actor’s mind and became one of the defining films associated with his career.
His other major credits include Dangerous Liaisons, Empire of the Sun, Con Air, Burn After Reading, Of Mice and Men and the Red films.
John’s recent television work has included the Apple TV series Bad Monkey, while he is also working on the Amazon Prime thriller Bishop.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Outstanding Performer of the Year Award has previously recognised actors including Michael B. Jordan, Ralph Fiennes, Bradley Cooper, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Viola Davis, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren and Heath Ledger.
