Renee Zellweger to get American Riviera Award

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Los Angeles: Oscar-winning star Renee Zellweger will be honoured at the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) with American Riviera Award.

The ceremony will take place at Santa Barbara's historic Arlington Theatre. The date is still to be determined during SBIFF's 35th edition, which will run from January 15-25, 2020, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

"Ms Zellweger has always displayed a deep commitment and discipline in her performances which has always made me root for her and admire her deeply," said festival director Roger Durling.

"In 'Judy', she adds a ferocity that solidifies her as one of the greatest actors of her time," Durling added.

Zellweger, 50, is regarded as one of the outstanding actresses of her generation, starting from Cameron Crowe's 1996 romantic "Jerry Maguire", which made her an overnight star at 26.

She continued the successful streak with 1998's "One True Thing", 2000's "Nurse Betty", 2002's "Chicago", 2003's "Cold Mountain", 2006's "Miss Potter" and the "Bridget Jones" trilogy -- 2001's "Bridget Jones's Diary", 2004's "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" and 2016's "Bridget Jones's Baby".

She took a break from the spotlight from 2010 to 2016 and disappeared completely from the public eye. She returned to the scene in a major way, garnering some of the best reviews of her career for her portrayal of Judy Garland in Rupert Goold's "Judy".

Previous recipients of SBIFF's American Riviera Award include Viggo Mortensen, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Robert Redford, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane.

Mortensen, Rockwell, Bridges, McAdams, Ruffalo, Arquette, Hawke, Tarantino, Scorsese, Bening, Bullock, Rourke, Jones, Whitaker and Hoffman all went on to receive Oscar nominations; out of which Rockwell, Bullock, Whitaker and Hoffman took home the trophy.