Actor/director Steve Buscemi, one of indie film's luminaries, will be honored with the World Cinema Award at the Sarasota Film Festival, which begins this evening in the Florida Gulf Coast resort city. Buscemi, best known for his turns in FARGO and RESERVOIR DOGS, will attend the Festival for two special event evenings.

On Tuesday, April 17th, Buscemi wil participate in the Festival's A Conversation With....At The Historic Asolo Theater, an opportunity for audiences to savor the anecdotes and remembrances of Buscemi's career. The Brooklyn-born actor made the rounds of Off-Off Broadway in the early 1980s, before receiving his first big break with a seminal performance in a highly influential indie film. As the gay rebel diagnosed with AIDS (at the time, considered a death sentence), he received impressive reviews and a career boost for his arresting performance in PARTING GLANCES (1986).

He continued to impress critics and audiences with his quirky roles in such iconic indie films as MYSTERY TRAIN (Jim Jarmusch), MILLER'S CROSSING (the Coen Brothers), KING OF NEW YORK (Abel Ferrara), BARTON FINK (the Coen Brothers), IN THE SOUP (Alexander Rockwell), RESERVOIR DOGS (Quentin Tarantino), PULP FICTION (Tarantino again), LIVING IN OBLIVION (Tom Di Cillo), and FARGO (the Coen Brothers again). Buscemi received a Golden Globe nomination and several critics association prizes for his role as the lonesome geek in Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of the comic book novel, GHOST WORLD.


Buscemi is also gaining praise as a deft director, with his films TREES LOUNGE and LONESOME JIM major hits at film festivals worldwide. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, Buscemi was in two buzz titles: as the fame-hungry papparazzo in Tom DiCillo's chilly comedy DELIRIOUS and as the director and star of the two-hander INTERVIEW, an adaptation of a Dutch film by slain director Theo van Gogh. INTERVIEW, which stars Buscemi and Sienna Miller, has recently been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, with a theatrical release planned for later this year.

At the Sarasota Film Festival, Buscemi has a featured role in the film PARIS JE T'AIME, an omnibus feature with contributions by twenty directors, who were assigned to create short love poems to the City of Light. The film will screen next Wednesday night. Participating filmmakers include such respected auteurs as Olivier Assayas, Joel and Ethan Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuaron, Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles, Tom Twyker and Gus Van Sant. The sterling cast features an eclectic mix of European and American stars, including Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazarra, Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson, Javier Camara, Leonor Watling, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fanny Ardant, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Nathalie Portman, Emily Mortimer, Gerard Depardieu and Rufus Sewell.
Buscemi appears in the Tuileries segment of the film, directed by Joel Coen. Following the film, there will be a street fair in downtown Sarasota dubbed the World Cinema Celebration, where Buscemi will receive the 2007 World Cinema Award in recognition of his tremendous contributions to the art of film as an actor, director and producer.

Sandy Mandelberger