Director Fred Schepisi will be honored with the Vail Film Festival’s Vanguard Award,
while Krysten Ritter, who plays a lead role in the Starz series Gravity, has been
chosen to receive the festival’s Excellence in Acting Award.

The festival, which runs from March 29 to April 1 in Vail, Colorado, will present the
honores at its awards ceremony on its closing night.

Schepisi, whose credits include Six Degrees of Separation and The Chant of Jimmie
Blacksmith, most recently directed The Eye of the Storm, starring Geoffrey Rush,
Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. The film, which will be released in the United
States by Sycamore Entertainment, will have its U.S. premiere as the festival’s
opening night film.

Ritter’s film credits include She’s Out of My League, Confessions of a Shopaholic,
What Happens in Vegas, 27 Dresses and Vamps. She stars in Kat Coiro’s L!fe
Happens, which will screen as the festival’s closing night film.

3/20/2012 by Gregg Kilday – THR