Something Not So Wicked This Way Comes

A harbinger of the high-profile Santa Barbara International Film Festival, two months before the festivities begin, the SBIFF Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film gala is a swanky affair with an on-the-ground beneficiary. A well-heeled, mostly well-behaved black-tie crowd packs into the Ritz-Carlton Bacara ballroom, is fed a sumptuous surf and turf dinner and feted with an elaborate celebrity tribute — this year spotlighting actor Cynthia Erivo (Wicked). 

On the proverbial back end, this annual shindig benefits the festival’s robust education component. Young people in the community and aspiring film students reap the benefits of the gala goings-on. 

As with SBIFFs tribute nights during the festival run, the chosen celebrity subjects are riding waves of publicity and Oscar campaigning for a current hot project. The 18th annual Kirk Douglas Award cast a timely light on Erivo amid her widely praised performance in the currently running Wicked: For Good, following her similarly buzzworthy work in last year’s Wicked. 

Unlike more long established stars in past Douglas award evenings, including Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, and Ryan Gosling, Erivo is a respected mid-career actress whose reputation on stage led her into film work — a realm where the 38-year-old British performer can still be considered a rising star. She is on the brink of attaining rare status as an EGOT, with Emmy, Tony, and Grammy awards in tow, and, so far, three Oscar nominations.

If best known for her powerful portrayals as the not-so-wicked witch Elphaba, of retooled Wizard of Oz fame, Erivo’s filmography also features smaller scale rolls of note, including as Harriet Tubman in Harriet and Aretha Franklin in the National Geographic anthology series Genius: Aretha, and a role in the wannabe-Tarantino film Bad Times at the El Royale, alongside Montecito’s own Jeff Bridges. Duly decked out in my musty monkey suit, I was seated at a table identified as Drift, after the fascinating small film from 2023, starring Erivo as a haunted Liberian refugee in Greece.

SBIFF Board President Ernesto Paredes opened the evening and accentuated its goals, also asserting the importance of a current $25 million fund drive to complete the ambitious SBIFF Film Center in downtown Santa Barbara. Executive Director Roger Durling took the podium with his usual effusive flair, exclaiming that Erivo is “one of the most incandescent artists of our time.”

Wicked producer Marc Platt spoke of the good fortune of landing Erivo in the Elphaba role, as “someone who has felt ‘othered’ her whole life … thank Oz for Cynthia Erivo.” Director John Chu, whose career took off after his Crazy Rich Asians hit and now is toasted for his work on the Wicked films (both shot at the same time), shared in the Erivo admiration society, expressing awe for her attributes. “The nails, the silhouette, the stance,” he commented, before adding that Erivo is a “fierce defender of the arts and expression.” As the complex Elphaba character, Chu said, “Cynthia does not hide behind the green paint; she shines through it.” 

Erivo arrived as the evening’s final course, a striking figure in her sleek body-hugging brown dress and nails of multicolored glory (TikTok videos of people dressed as her elaborate nails for Halloween went viral).

Erivo expressed her appreciation of the educational benefits of the gala event, noting, “When I look at the past recipients of this award, I realize that I am still a student. I believe I will continue to be, because art does that. It’s an ever-changing landscape of stories and experiences that teach us what it is to be human. To be gifted with this task of mining the stories I’ve been privileged to tell, donning a cape and a black pointed hat, for getting to dare to tell you to defy gravity is a great honor.

“I love my job,” she commented, in summary. “I always think of these awards as coming at the end of a career, but I haven’t even reached the middle yet. This reminds me how far I’ve come and how far I’ve yet to go. It is a beautiful pit stop along the way.”

The 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival takes place February 4-14, 2026. See sbiff.org.