PROVINCETOWN – An Academy Award winner for best screenplay and an Academy Award nominated actress will be honored this week at the 19th annual Provincetown International Film Festival.
Writer, director and producer Sophia Coppola has been named this year’s Filmmaker on the Edge and Chloe Sevigny will receive the Excellence in Acting Award.
The festival will open today with the Noel Wells film “Mr. Roosevelt.”
Coppola wrote and directed the 2003 film “Lost in Translation” which won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.
Her other films include “The Virgin Suicides,” “Marie Antoinette,” and “Somewhere.” Coppola’s latest film, “The Beguiled,” is adapted from a novel of the same name and stars Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell. It will be released June 23.
Sevigny made her film debut in the controversial “Kids.” She was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in “Boys Don’t Cry,” and won an Golden Globe for her work on the HBO series “Big Love.”
Christine Walker, the Festival’s executive director, said they have been inviting both honorees for several years.
“It somehow magically happens where they come at a really perfect time in their careers and for us too,” Walker said.
Walker said Coppola has a distinctive voice.
“In my mind, I see her as the quintessential female filmmaker,” she said.
The entire lineup for this year’s festival will be released May 22 and individual event tickets go on sale the same day.
Passes for the entire festival are on sale now.
For more information and to purchase tickets visit ptownfilmfest.org.
A preview weekend for the festival will be held May 19-22 and will be hosted by Lainie Kazan, a singer and actress who starred in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter