Academy Award-winner Alexander Payne to be honored prior to opening night screening of 'Nebraska' at 16th annual Savannah Film Festival, Oct. 26-Nov. 2

Bruce Dern, winner of the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for his performance in 'Nebraska,' an Academy Award-nominee and previous Savannah Film Festival honoree, will present award to Payne

Full festival lineup will be announced on Oct. 1

Savannah, Georgia — The Savannah Film Festival will open this year's festival with Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" as its opening night screening. Academy Award-winner Payne will be presented with an Outstanding Achievement in Cinema award by the film's star, Academy Award-nominee and 2006 Savannah Film Festival honoree Bruce Dern.

An annual event, this year's festival runs Saturday, Oct. 26 through Saturday, Nov. 2. The full festival schedule will be unveiled on Tuesday, Oct. 1, when tickets go on sale to the public.

Shot in black and white across four states, "Nebraska" tells the stories of family life in the heartland of America. After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Bruce Dern) thinks he's struck it rich, and wrangles his son (Will Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune.

Alexander Payne's first two feature films were the comedies "Citizen Ruth" (1996) and "Election" (1999). "About Schmidt" premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002. Both "Sideways" (2004) and 'The Descendants" (2011) won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and were nominated for four others, including Best Picture and Best Director. Four of his six feature films were shot in Nebraska.

Bruce Dern has appeared in more than 75 films in a career that spans 50-plus years. He has collaborated with some of the foremost filmmakers in the history of cinema, including Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Bob Rafelson, Hal Ashby, Douglas Trumbull, Sydney Pollack, Quentin Tarantino and most recently, Alexander Payne. Notable films include "Silent Running," "The King of Marvin Gardens," "Smile," "The Great Gatsby," "Black Sunday" and "Coming Home," for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In May, 2013, Dern won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his starring role in "Nebraska."

Hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Savannah Film Festival has become one of the largest entertainment events in the Southeast. For the past eight years, the university has been one of the top ten U.S. film schools for producing Student Academy Award finalists.

Both Dern and Payne will host separate master classes with SCAD students while they attend the festival.

Past festival attendees and honorees include Peter O'Toole, Michael Douglas, Oliver Stone, Jane Fonda, Sidney Lumet, Diane Lane, Sir Ian McKellen, Isabella Rossellini, Lily Tomlin, Ellen Barkin, Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, Matt Dillon, Norman Jewison, James Marsden, Tommy Lee Jones, John Waters, James Franco, Alec Baldwin, Ray Liotta, Aaron Eckhart, Roger Ebert, Terrence Malick, Sydney Pollack, Malcolm McDowell and Milos Forman.

For more information on the Savannah Film Festival, please visit filmfest.scad.edu or follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @savfilmfest

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