Lincoln Center honors Whitaker
Gotham event to take place Jan. 19-20
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Specialty division has partnered with Film Society of Lincoln Center for a Whitaker weekend Jan. 19-20. Org will screen several movies at the Walter Reade Theater, including "Ghost Dog" and "Bird."
Whitaker, who actually helped get the awards buzz going with a press conference that mesmerized the media at the Toronto Film Festival in September, will also sit for an interview with org's associate director of programming Kent Jones.
Thesp, who plays Idi Amin in Kevin Macdonald's historical pic "The Last King of Scotland," has won nearly every major acting award to date, including, most recently, a nod from the National Society of Film Critics. "Scotland" will also screen at the Whitaker weekend.
While most retrospectives tend to be one-night-only affairs, attention Whitaker is drawing makes a more elaborate event a natural fit, said a Film Society spokesperson.
Whitaker's appearance indicates how a kudos campaign can benefit not only a story-hungry media -- the L.A. Times, for instance, recently announced it was launching a run of print editions of its online kudos blog "The Envelope" -- but also organizations like the Film Society.
Event will occur shortly after balloting for Oscar nominees closes this weekend but well ahead of the Feb. 9 due date for final ballots. The event will be open to the general public.
Searchlight is no stranger to having the Gotham arts org serve as a possible Academy springboard: last month, division arranged an evening with Alan Arkin, who could be in consideration for supporting thesp for his role as a ribald grandfather in "Little Miss Sunshine."
