Actor and heartthrob Andy Garcia jumped off the stage at the Arlington Theatre on Sunday to find Jeff Bridges in the audience and forced him to stand up and be recognized Sunday.

The pair were just two of many stars who brought a little more glamour to town for the 17th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival and its closing ceremony, which featured a screening of "The Man From Elysian Fields," about a struggling novelist, featuring Mr. Garcia.

A modern master

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Saturday bestowed its highest honor on Sean Penn, presenting the actor, writer and director with its Modern Master Award.

The festival feted Mr. Penn inside a packed Arlington Theatre, where film critic Leonard Maltin interviewed the star of big screen hits that include "Colors" and "Dead Man Walking," and other films spanning the past two decades.

Spotlight shines on screenwriters' craft

Oscar nominees talked movie-making Saturday at the Arlington Theatre, where screenwriters responsible for "Gosford Park," "Memento," and "Monster's Ball" spoke about character development, story lines and the persistent dilemma of how to get noticed in Hollywood.

Andy Garcia fields another moral dilemma

In Greek religion and mythology, Elysian Fields or Elysium, is the blissful dwelling place for heroes favored by the gods. In a later tradition, and in Virgil's The Aeneid, Elysian Fields is a part of the underworld, a paradisiacal hereafter for the righteous dead.

In "The Man From Elysian Fields", however, one wonders whether the happy hunting grounds of Elysium also happen to be an apt abode for tarnished heroes.

the Royal treatment

In the movies her father made and others her grandfather starred in, Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston sees a core of values she still connects with today.

"What's amazing to me is to have the legacy of my family," Ms. Huston said Friday night during a Santa Barbara Film Festival salute of her career at the Arlington Theatre.