Two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich will receive the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 42nd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, following his recent Best Actor win at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in Martin McDonagh’s WILD HORSE NINE. Malkovich will be honored for his acclaimed performance in the film, which recently screened at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals and will be released by Searchlight Pictures on November 6. Hailed by critics as a “tour de force” and one of the finest performances of his career, Malkovich stars alongside Sam Rockwell as two CIA agents who travel from Santiago to Easter Island on the eve of the 1973 Chilean coup, where they confront their dark pasts and become entangled in present-day conspiracies.
“A legendary actor gives this year in ‘Wild Horse Nine’ his best performance to date in which he combines pathos, volatility, vulnerability and tenderness,” says SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. “It’s a high wire act that shows us what a commanding artist he is and we are thrilled to be honoring him with our Outstanding Performer of the Year Award,” he added.
Photo Credit: Lukas Beck and Hello Genius
John Malkovich is an acclaimed actor, director and producer whose distinguished career across film, television and theater spans five decades. A founding member of Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Malkovich earned an Obie Award for his performance in Sam Shepard’s “True West” and an Emmy Award for “Death of a Salesman.” He made his feature film debut in “Places in the Heart,” earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and received a second Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Clint Eastwood in “In the Line of Fire.” His remarkable body of work also includes films like “Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Killing Fields,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Rounders,” “Burn After Reading,” “Con Air,” “Red,” “Shadow of the Vampire,” “Ripley’s Game,” “Color Me Kubrick,” “Klimt,” “Le Temps Retrouvé,” “Deepwater Horizon” and “Of Mice and Men,” as well as television series including “The New Pope,” “Billions,” and “Space Force,” among many others.
Malkovich’s recent screen work includes “Sacrifice” opposite Salma Hayak and Anya Taylor-Joy, Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hand of Dante” alongside Oscar Isaar and Al Pacino which US premiered at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and A24’s “Opus” opposite Ayo Edebiri. He also recently appeared in Apple TV’s acclaimed series “Bad Monkey” and is currently in production on the Amazon Prime Thriller “Bishop.” Malkovich continues to work extensively on stage and internationally as both a performer and director, including touring his acclaimed classical music and spoken-word productions around the world.
Throughout his career, Malkovich has collaborated with many of cinema and theater's most celebrated artists, including Steven Spielberg, Bernardo Bertolucci, Michelangelo Antonioni, Volker Schlöndorff, Manoel de Oliveira, Raúl Ruiz, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Joel and Ethan Coen, Spike Jonze and, most recently, McDonagh.
