The Montecito Award honoring Lupita Nyong'o will take place Monday, January 20th, 2020 at 8:00pm, Arlington Theatre Santa Barbara, CA

Today SBIFF announced that Lupita Nyong’o will receive the Montecito Award. She will be honored on Monday, January 20th for her impressive career and most recent performance in Jordan Peele’s Us.

“Lupita is a ferocious performer, gifted with both boundless appeal and precision. We are a huge fan of everything she’s done and remain in awe of her double performance in Us.  We’re giddily rolling out our red carpet for her,” states Roger Durling.

Nyong’o most recently starred in a dual role as Adelaide Wilson and her doppelgänger, Red, in Us. Written and directed by Jordan Peele, the film tells the story of a family of four terrorized by sinister doubles of themselves. 

Lupita Nyong’o is an Academy Award®-winning actress, producer and New York Times best-selling author. In October 2019, Simon & Schuster published Sulwe, Nyong’o’s debut book, which quickly earned a #1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Nyong’o made her feature debut in Steve McQueen’s Academy Award®-winning film 12 Years a Slave, for which she received the Academy Award® in the category of Best Supporting Actress as well as multiple accolades including the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Critics’ Choice Award, the Independent Spirit Award and the NAACP Award. She has starred in critically acclaimed films such as Marvel’s Oscar®-nominated Black Panther and J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and she will next appear in 355, a female-driven spy thriller. Nyong’o is set to produce and star in Americanah, Danai Gurira’s adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, which will air as an HBO Max limited series.

The Montecito Award is named after one of the most beautiful and stylish areas in Santa Barbara. Past recipients include Melissa McCarthy, Saoirse Ronan, Isabelle Huppert, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Bill Condon, and Naomi Watts.