Festivals - SBIFF 2023 : Cinema Vanguard Award Honors Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson

By Mulder, Santa Barbara, théâtre Arlington, 16 february 2023

“Gleeson and Farrell’s individual careers have been exemplary and their collaboration in two McDonagh films show us two actors perfectly in sync - in both pathos and humor.  They’re a joy to behold and quite a treat for us to get to celebrate them together” SBIFF’s Executive Director Roger Durling noted.

Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson have been honored with the Cinema Vanguard Award at the 38th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, on Thursday February 16th, 2023. The event has been an in-person conversation about their careers where they speak on their performances including Martin McDonagh’s The banshees of insherin.

The night began with a brief introduction from the festival's Executive Director, Roger Durling. Durling brought out Dave Karger, host for the evening, and cued up a montage of clips from Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson's outstanding filmographies.

After the montage, Farrell and Gleeson took the stage. The two talked about their unlikely meeting at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, with Gleeson feeling an innate kindness in Farrell. Though their initial idea to work on a Gleeson-directed project didn't work out, fate still had plans for the two.

Gleeson also touched on his pre-actor days, working as a school teacher.  Although he loved teaching, once he found acting, he realized that was his thing. Farrell noted how amazing Gleeson would've been as a teacher, as he truly cares and puts so much effort into what he does.

As for Farrell, he got into the profession a bit earlier, and through a different route. He was at a point in his life where he found himself with a lot of questions and fears. Acting created a space to articulate those things, making it extremely valuable to Farrell.

After a clip from The General and Tigerland, host Karger dove in with questions about the two films. Gleeson spoke to The General, sharing how, at the time it was shot, the gangster it was based on, Martin Cahill, had recently died, making the filming a bit more dangerous. For Gleeson and director John Boorman, the film was about the expression of humanity that could be found on the "other side," though this caused a bit of a backlash in some circles. Gleeson learned a lot from Boorman about the power of the camera and how it can do so much. 

Farrell was in a film a few years later loosely based on Cahill's story, a movie called Ordinary Decent Criminal. Looking back, he sees this as a bad idea, with the film releasing so soon after the powerful The General. Speaking to the controversy Gleeson brought up, Farrell shared that he sees it as a bit unwarranted, as any kind of glorification the film is responsible for is really only attempting to get to the bottom of why figures like Cahill were already being glorified in life. Moving on to Tigerland, Farrell spoke about the complicated feelings involved, including the kind of sincere cockiness he felt, possibly an expression of his unaddressed fear. 

Next came a pair of clips from In Bruges, the first major collaboration between Gleeson and Farrell. Gleeson talked about having worked with director Martin McDonagh before, also explaining how he was through the roof upon reading the script. He also shared how originally, the film was written for cockney Brits, though upon finding his cast, McDonagh changed the main characters to be Irish. Even so, very little of the language actually changed to accommodate this, showing the similarity between the two dialects. 

Farrell had a different reaction to being offered the part. As Farrell had a bit of a reputation at the time, he told McDonagh not to cast him, not wanting audience preconceptions of him to color the work. However, he eventually signed on, to great success. 

Speaking to larger throughlines in McDonagh's work, Gleeson talked about how he and Farrell's characters in The Banshees of Inisherin were almost written as differently as possible, so as to escape any ideas of the film being a kind of follow-up to In Bruges. In Bruges was also notable for its Golden Globe nominations, with Gleeson, Farrell, and McDonagh all up for awards. Though only Farrell won, the team was still happy, Farrell even offering Gleeson a hemisphere of his award.

Clips were then shown from The Lobster and Cold Mountain. Speaking to the southern drawl adopted for Cold Mountain, Gleeson talked about how that specific dialect is more easily brought under control by the Irish palette. In general, Gleeson loves accents, finding that you can learn so much from what makes people laugh in different dialects/languages. For Cold Mountain, he was able to find a real similarity between Irish and Southern music, using that shared sensibility to help him. In the film, Gleeson's character was a fiddle player, a skill the actor shares. However, he wasn't able to play for the film, as, following in the footsteps of the success of O Brother Where Art Thou, a team of professionals was brought in.

Farrell talked about his experience working with The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos. Farrell found that the sets were always very quiet under Lanthimos, the director coming in with a digital camera, examining different angles, and then deciding where to put the camera. Farrell also called out the lack of pretension in his work. For his very understated performance in The Lobster, Farrell noted how this wasn't a directive from Lanthimos. Instead, Farrell was just trying to not bring any recognizable emotion to the very strange work, instead attempting to stay under it.

Into the Storm and The Batman were then highlighted with clips, showing the actors disappearing into roles. Farrell made sure to point out Gleeson's Golden Globe win for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Into the Storm. Initially, Gleeson wasn't sure about the role, with England's history of imperialism weighing heavy on his mind, although his agent (who he forgot to thank in his Golden Globes speech), convinced him. Gleeson settled on the idea that it would be a learning experience, so he jumped at it. 

Farrell talked about the sheer transformative nature of the makeup created by designer Michael Marino. He also shared how fun the experience was, with the sort of mask really freeing him up to go wild with it. Unlike with his work on The Lobster, where the difficulty was in getting under the thing, on The Batman, the challenge was to rise to its power. 

The final clips showcased the men's latest work, The Banshees of Inisherin. Asked about whether his focus was on the themes or the character, Gleeson shared how the answer was more complex, as his character, Colm, was very aware of the larger ideas being considered in the film. In fact, he almost loses his grasp on his relationship to the sort of profundities involved in his existential questioning. Farrell's character, Pádraic, on the other hand, is more focused on the relationship itself. 

Farrell addressed the idea that Pádraic is dull, sharing that he doesn't see that at all, as no one is really dull, even as we all are found and find others to be dull. In Pádraic, Farrell sees a man caught in the sort of archetypes we all create to move through life a bit easier. Colm leaving him is a big loss, robbing Pádraic of a protector. However, it also keeps Pádraic from seeing his best self, as this is something found, as so often is true, through the eyes of his friends. 

Gleeson talked about the friendship between the two men, seeing Pádraic's innate joy as a real balm for Colm. Farrell noted that this became cloying after many long years, getting in the way of Colm's search for peace. He also shared how he saw the film as a sort of parable for the inevitability of affecting our communities. Colm's attempt to withdraw ends in violence. Kerry Condon's Siobhán is the only one able to escape, though this isn't without its consequences for her and those around her.

After the conversation, Martin McDonagh, director of In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin took the stage, sharing his deep love for both Gleeson and Farrell and noting their kindness, fun, talent, and wit. With that, he presented the two with the Vanguard Award.

Colin Farrell has a distinguished career of nearly twenty-plus years in film and television. He can be seen in Warner Bros.’ The Batman for director Matt Reeves; in the MGM film Thirteen Lives for director Ron Howard; in the BBC / AMC drama “The North Water”; and After Yang which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and also made its North American debut at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Farrell was most recently seen in Tim Burton’s 2019 live action film Dumbo and Fox’s 2018 ensemble feature Widows, directed by Steve McQueen and co-starring Viola Davis. In 2017, Farrell made his second film with Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of the Sacred Deer opposite Nicole Kidman for A24. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival along with Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled in which he also starred with Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Kirsten Dunst. That same year, he appeared opposite Denzel Washington in the Sony film Roman Israel, Esq., written and directed by Dan Gilroy.

 A former teacher, Dublin-born Brendan Gleeson left the profession to pursue a career in his first love – acting. He joined the Irish theater company Passion Machine and has since starred on the stage, in films, and on television, winning fans and awards worldwide. Other recent films include: The Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for Netflix; Hampstead, opposite Diane Keaton; Paddington 2 also starring Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins, and Julie Walters; Trespass Against Us opposite Michael Fassbender; Vincent Perez's Alone in Berlin opposite Emma Thompson; Assassin's Creed once again with Michael Fassbender; the Warner Bros. Ben Affleck starrer Live By Night; Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea; and Suffragette opposite Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep, once again winning the BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The Cinema Vanguard Award recognizes actors who have forged their own path, taking artistic risks and making a significant and unique contribution to film. Previous honorees include Benedict Cumberbatch, Carey Mulligan, Laura Dern, Michael B. Jordan, William DaFoe, Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Rooney Mara, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Amy Adams, Jean Dujardin, Bernice Bejo, Nicole Kidman, Peter Sarsgaard, Christoph Waltz, Vera Farmiga, Kristin Scott Thomas, Stanley Tucci and Ryan Gosling.

Videos and photos: Courtesy of SBIFF
Photos: Copyright Becky Sapp / Getty images