Veteran actor Christopher Plummer, the current frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actor Oscar race for his heartfelt performance as a man who comes into full flower in his final years in the film BEGINNERS, will receive the Modern Master Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival later this month. Although well loved by the public for his role as Captain Von Trapp in the Hollywood blockbuster version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), the Canadian-born actor has been in many distinguished films over a career that now spans six decades. Beginning with his debut in STAGE STRUCK (1958), he has had memorable roles in such films as THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, WATERLOO, TWELVE MONKEYS, THE INSIDER, A BEAUTIFUL MIIND, SYRIANA, INSIDE MAN and THE LAST STATION, to just mention a few. He is currently on screens around the world in a supporting role in director David Fincher’s adaptation of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, and will next portray stage and screen legend John Barrymore in BARRYMORE, a film adaptation of the one-man show for which he won the Tony Award on Broadway. Plummer joins an illustrious group of past recipients including Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Diane Keaton, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Cate Blanchett, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, and Christopher Nolan.