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Clint Eastwood will be feted with the Modern Master Award Jan. 29 during the 24th Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival at the Arlington Theater.

"Clint Eastwood is inarguably one of our greatest directors, one of our greatest producers and one of our greatest actors ever -- to call him a Modern Master is simply an understatement," said SBIFF director Roger Durling.

The Modern Master Award is the highest honor presented by SBIFF, and was created to honor an individual for enriching culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Previous recipients include Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Will Smith and Anthony Hopkins.

Eastwood's most recent film, "Changeling,"is in theaters. "Gran Torino," in which he stars and directs, bows Dec. 12.

SBIFF presents American and world independent films and Latin American and Asian sidebars as well as documentary cinema. The fest runs Jan. 22-Feb. 1.