San Francisco Chronicle, 28 April 2012
By Ruthe Stein
*Thanks Jules

The marquee of the Warfield theater announced David Webb Peoples as its star attraction in the space where rock bands Madness and Pulp and hip-hop singer Tyga had just been advertised.

That was the first hint that something different was transpiring at the popular Market Street music venue Thursday evening. Another clue: the dressy attire on patrons streaming through the lobby. They had come to attend awards night, always a highlight of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Besides Peoples, who won the Kanbar Award for screenwriting ("Unforgiven," "Blade Runner"), other honorees were actress Judy Davis ("Husbands and Wives," "My Brilliant Career"), director Kenneth Branagh ("Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," "Hamlet") and first-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin ("Beasts of the Southern Wild").

Usually this tony affair is held at a four-star hotel. But Bingham Ray, the festival's late executive director, loved old movie houses and wanted the awards dinner held in one. The Warfield, which was a movie palace for much of the 20th century, fit the bill. So 800 seats on the main floor were pulled out and replaced by tables at which people paid from $625 to $2,500 to sit. A festive mood was struck by the Extra Action Marching Band, complete with tubas, that accompanied the honorees down a flight of stairs and into the dining area.

A chatty Branagh, who is probably better known as an actor since his Oscar nomination for "My Week With Marilyn," expressed how pleased he was to be recognized as a director because it made him aware that he had a "block of work" to be judged by.

Noticeably thinner than in recent films, Branagh passed on the appetizers and drinks, requesting only a glass of water. A year past 50, he said he is attending to his body in a way he hasn't before. That morning by the water, he ran for an hour. "There were a few hills I didn't make it up," he admitted, laughing.

Fellow honoree Davis said she was awakened at 6 a.m. by a hotel alarm clock someone else had set. After stumbling attempts to turn it off, she fell back to sleep and didn't get up until after noon. Having flown in from Sydney, where the Australian-born actress lives, she was recovering from jet lag and possibly from the burst of energy she had exuded at a Q&A the night before.

Prodded by moderator Elvis Mitchell, Davis presented herself as resolute but not uncompromising. So she was willing to wear mascara in "A Passage to India" when David Lean asked her to but not willing to wear falsies for a lesser director she didn't like. "I told David I couldn't wear it because it gets in my eyes," she recalled. "He said, 'Leslie Howard - do you know him?' I said, 'I know of him.' He said, 'Mascara.' "

Davis recently finished making "To Rome With Love," the fifth time she has been directed by Woody Allen. Although Allen is known for keeping his distance from actors between scenes, Davis recalled: "I thought, 'Look I was playing his wife.' I thought we would hang out and get to know each other. But we never really talked. Oh my God, the things I could have said to that guy."

At the awards dinner, Davis, in a navy sheath and glistening pearls, said that "the most important and moving moments of my career had been with Americans."

Peoples recalled watching "Psycho" from the balcony of the Warfield. He told the audience how important it was to him to be part of the San Francisco film community and that his award is "coming on my own turf."

Branagh also had a San Francisco connection. Local audiences have proved to be big supporters of his films, even his flop, the musical version of "Love's Labour's Lost."

"Seven people saw it the first weekend. Four of them were family and three I found out lived on Nob Hill," he joked.