’Very flattering and very, very moving.’ SLO Film Festival honors actor Alfred Molina
As he accepted the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival’s highest honor, actor Alfred Molina couldn’t help but feel “a little verklempt.”
“There’s something overwhelming about winning an award,” said Molina, whose credits include “Frida” and “Spider-Man 2.” “It’s very flattering, and very, very moving. It means a great deal.”
Molina received the King Vidor Award for Career Excellence on Saturday during a red-carpet event at the Fremont Theater in downtown San Luis Obispo. Past recipients of the King Vidor Award, named after the Oscar-winning director of “War and Peace,” include Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges and Morgan Freeman.
On Saturday, Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz began his tribute to Molina by describing a recent Google search.
“I typed in these words: ‘greatest character actors of all time,’ “ Mankiewicz said. “On virtually every single one of these lists was ... without fail, Alfred Molina.”
Molina kicked off his movie career playing the sidekick who doublecrosses Indiana Jones in the memorable opening sequence of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Unfortunately, Satipo dies about five minutes and a half after he’s introduced, Mankewicz said, impaled by a spike trap.
“That was the end of his character, but that was hardly the end of his career,” Mankiewicz said of Molina.
After a video montage of clips from Molina’s movies, including “Chocolat,” “Enchanted April” and “Love Is Strange” — he has a whopping 189 acting credits on IMDb.com, Mankiewicz pointed out — Molina sat down with the Turner Classics Movie host to discuss his life and career.
Through that discussion, Molina kept the audience chuckling with his self-effacing wit and entertaining show-business stories — discussing his audition with “Raiders” director Steven Spielberg, gushing about film favorite Anthony Quinn and even sharing the recipe used to create fake cocaine on the set of “Boogie Nights.”
“I just said ‘yes’ to everything,” Molina said.
Saturday’s King Vidor award ceremony followed the George Sidney Independent Film Awards.
“Hawaii” won the award for best feature-length narrative film, while “Satan & Adam” won best documentary feature.
“The Little Princess” and “Rani” tied for best short narrative film, while “Selling Lies” won best short documentary. “Dust Rising” took home the award for best student film.
The winners of the Central Coast Filmmakers and Filmmakers of Tomorrow Showcase competitions will be announced Sunday at a closing-night awards ceremony, along with Audience Awards winners.
The free event, which kicks off at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Fremont Theater, includes an on-stage conversation with actor, director and San Luis Obispo native Hannah Marks, followed by a screening of her movie “After Everything.”
Festival award-winning movies will be screened Monday through Wednesday at Downtown Centre Cinemas in San Luis Obispo.
For more information, call 805-546-3456 or visit slofilmfest.org.
This story was originally published March 17, 2019 at 8:34 AM with the headline "’Very flattering and very, very moving.’ SLO Film Festival honors actor Alfred Molina."