Jessica Lange to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at SCAD

The Savannah College of Art and Design announced that Jessica Lange will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which runs Oct. 24–31.

Lange will accept the honor at the festival's screening of "Long Day's Journey Into Night," directed by Jonathan Kent, in which she stars as matriarch Mary Tyrone opposite Ed Harris. She previously played the role on Broadway, earning a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award.

"Jessica Lange has given us some of the most unforgettable performances of the past five decades, bringing extraordinary intelligence, vulnerability and power to every role," said Christina Routhier, senior executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. "We are honored to celebrate her remarkable body of work and welcome her to SCAD for what promises to be a memorable evening for our students and audiences."

The festival will open with a screening of "A Talent for Murder," Anton Corbijn's film from Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment, and close with "Wild Horse Nine," directed by Martin McDonagh for Searchlight Pictures. "The Debut," directed by Jesse Eisenberg for A24, screens Oct. 27 as the Centerpiece Gala Presentation.

The lineup of distinguished screenings also includes newly added titles "Paper Tiger" (dir. James Gray, Neon), "I Play Rocky" (dir. Peter Farrelly, Amazon MGM) and "Behemoth!" (dir. Tony Gilroy, Searchlight Pictures), alongside Danny Boyle's "Ink," Mike Leigh's "Tender Loving Care," Siân Heder's "Being Heumann" and Peter Berg's "The Mosquito Bowl," all for Netflix, Bleecker Street, Apple Original Films and Netflix respectively.

The Signature Screenings series brings Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's "Project Hail Mary," Olivia Wilde's "The Invite," Chris Rock's "Misty Green" and a screening of "The Matrix," directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski.

Lange joins a roster of honorees that includes Helen Mirren (Legend of Entertainment Award), Julianne Moore (Icon Award), Paul Bettany (Virtuoso Award), Meghann Fahy (Spotlight in Television Award), Ethan Hawke and Sterlin Harjo (Outstanding Collaboration in Television Award), Emmy Rossum (Outstanding Achievement in Television Award), Guitarricadelafuente (Discovery Award) and Patrice Vermette (Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award).

Variety returns as festival media partner with its fifth annual 10 Artisans to Watch event, honoring standout talent in cinematography, costume design, editing, hair and makeup, production design, sound editing and design, and visual effects, moderated by senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay. Variety's "Pixels and Pencils" panel also returns for a fifth year, with chief awards editor Clayton Davis moderating a conversation with six filmmakers behind the year's top animated contenders, including Brad Bird's "Ray Gunn," Travis Knight's "Wildwood" and Daniel Chong's "Hoppers."

Routhier praised the program's breadth. "This is one of those lineups where you look at the filmmakers and performers and realize just how much incredible work is happening across the industry right now," she said. "What I love most is that our students get to experience it all by being in the room with these artists, hearing how the work came together, asking questions and making connections that can shape their own careers."

The juried competition, drawn from more than 2,300 entries annually, includes narrative features such as Suzanne Andrews Correa's "The Huntress" and documentary features including Sam Pollard's "The Lorraine." The 13th annual Docs to Watch series features Ron Howard's "Avedon," Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's "Everest: The Other Side" and Rory Kennedy's "The Trial of Alec Baldwin," with a roundtable hosted by The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg.

Lange recently returned to "American Horror Story" for its 13th season and starred in the title role of "The Great Lillian Hall." Her Broadway credits include "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Glass Menagerie" and "Mother Play," and her screen work spans "Tootsie," "Blue Sky," "Grey Gardens" and "Feud: Capote vs. the Swans." A documentary about her photography, "Jessica Lange: Something About the Light," begins filming this year — arriving as the festival, which draws more than 74,000 attendees annually and has screened over 250 Academy Award-nominated films, cements its place on the road to the Oscars.