The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is honoring Judi Dench with its annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film. Dench will receive the award at a dinner on Thursday, November 30th. The 82-year-old actress (who seems much younger!) has two films in theaters this fall. She (again) plays Queen Victoria in the Stephen Frears film "Victoria and Abdul" and also appears in Kenneth Branagh's "Murder on the Orient Express". The latter film will be released on November 10th.

Judi Dench is superb. She's been one of my favorite actors for decades. I remember seeing her in Stratford at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre way back in 1971 - we were all much younger then - as Viola in Twelfth Night.