Last Wednesday night, the Santa Barbra International Film Festival was held at the Arlington Theatre. The night’s highlight was the eight Virtuoso Awards handed to the actors in recognition of their breakthrough performances in 2022. The actors awarded for their performances were: Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”), Nina Hoss (“Tár”), Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”), Jeremy Pope (“The Inspection”), Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) and Jeremy Strong (“Armageddon Time”)

The night also consisted of a panel moderated by Turner Classic Movies’ Dave Karger, where he asked the actors about their various projects. 

Strong spoke about the “massive responsibility” he felt playing James Gray’s (the director of “Armageddon Time”) father, while Hoss discussed their working relationship with Cate Blanchett. Pope talked about the self-reflection of playing a Black gay man serving in the military during the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell.” He said, “It started to bring up some ugly truths in myself, things that I hadn’t dealt with, and it was very healing.” 

Condon laughed about the language barrier between American English and the English of her native Ireland, as well as what it was like to work on a male-dominated set. Deadwyler highlighted the importance of her role as Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmet Till, and the importance of telling Till’s story. 

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” co-stars Hsu and Quan spoke about the emotional role, primarily Quan showing gratitude for being able to return to acting. “That acting bug that I buried for so long slowly crawled its way back to the surface,” he said. “All of those experiences that I’d had, I brought all of them into that character.”

The most-talked-about actor on stage was Austin Butler, who shared his challenges while portraying singer Elvis Presley. He also mentioned his close relationship with the Presley family, including Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Maire, who died last month. 

Butler, Condon, Hsu, and Quan all garnered Oscar nominations for their respective roles. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12, 2023.