LALIFF’s Opening Night Gala will be held on Thursday, October 5th. The festival will run until Sunday October 15th when the Closing Night Gala & Award Ceremony will take place. The Gabi Award Night will be held on Saturday, October 14th. All screenings will take place at the Egyptian Theatre.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will be recognized with the Gabi Lifetime Achievement award at the 10th Annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF). The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 14th at the Egyptian Theatre. LALIFF, co-founders independent producers Marlene Dermer and George Hernandez; and actor, director, producer and activist Edward James Olmos, will be held from October 5th -15th.

The “Gabi” Lifetime Achievement Award was created in 1997 during the inaugural Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and was bestowed posthumously on the legendary Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa. The award was then named after him. During the last nine years, LALIFF has presented the “Gabi Lifetime Achievement Award” on personalities, whose body of work has achieved international acclaim, leaving an unforgettable legacy. Other recipients of the “Gabi” award have been Raul Julia (1998), Carlos Saura (1999), María Félix (2000), Anthony Quinn (2001), Nelson Pereira dos Santos (2002) Federico Luppi (2003) and Rita Moreno (2004), Ricardo Montalban (2005).

Since his introduction to American cinema in the highly acclaimed Mambo Kings, Antonio Banderas has not stopped impressing critics and fans alike, and is irrefutably one of the leading international actors of his generation. He received critical praise and a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination for his acting and vocal talents as ‘Che’ opposite Madonna in the big-screen adaptation of the musical Evita. He went on to receive another Golden Globe nomination for playing the title role in the box office hit The Mask of Zorro, opposite Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones, a role which he recently reprised in the highly anticipated sequel, The Legend of Zorro.

Banderas stole the show in the 2004 blockbuster animated film, Shrek 2 – as the voice of “Puss in Boots,” a role which he will revisit for Shrek 3. Most recently he starred in Take the Lead, based on a true story about an international ballroom dancer who taught dance to a group of New York public school students. He will next be seen in Gregory Nava’s Bordertown starring opposite Jennifer Lopez.

Banderas also directs, and made his directorial debut with Crazy in Alabama, starring Melanie Griffith. Recently, he also directed the Spanish film El Camino de Los Ingleses.

In 2003, Banderas earned a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theater Company production of NINE, a musical inspired by Fellini’s 8 1Ž2. He also received a Best Actor Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award and Theatre World Award. NINE, directed by David Leveaux, also starred Chita Rivera, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Banderas also starred in two Robert Rodriguez films in 2003: the follow-up to Desperado – Once Upon a Time in Mexico, alongside Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek, and then Spy Kids 3. He was also nominated for 2004’s Golden Globe Best Actor in a TV Movie category for his performance as the infamous Pancho Villa in HBO’s fall 2003 release of And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself.

His resume includes critically acclaimed Philadelphia, House of the Spirits, Interview with a Vampire and Miami Rhapsody. His first starring role in an American film came in 1995’s Desperado. Other film credits include Never Talk to Strangers, Assassins, Four Rooms, Two Much, The 13th Warrior, Play it to the Bone, Original Sin, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Brian de Palma’s Femme Fatale, Spy Kids and Spy Kids 2.

Born in Malaga, Spain, Banderas attended the School of Dramatic Arts in his hometown, and upon graduation he began his acting career working in a small theater company based there. He later moved to Madrid and became an ensemble member of the prestigious National Theater of Spain.

In 1982, Banderas was cast by writer/director Pedro Almodovar in Labyrinth of Passion. It was the first of five films Banderas would do with Almodovar, the others being Matador, Law of Desire, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! The international success of these films introduced to him to Hollywood. Notably, for his American film debut in Mambo Kings in 1992, he spoke no English yet learned all of his dialogue phonetically.

LALIFF 2006