Timothée Chalamet was honored with the prestigious Arlington Artist of the Year Award at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, on Feb. 11, 2025. Fellow actor Josh Brolin presented the award at the Arlington Theater during an in-person tribute and career retrospective, highlighting his performances in two acclaimed films, A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two.

Brolin introduced Chalamet as the “talent of his generation,” comparing his career to the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, James Dean, and Meryl Streep.

“A great motion picture is a beautiful thing to watch, but if you don’t care about the character inside the story, the personality that propels the story, then you are dead in the water,” Brolin told the audience. “It is the subtlety of the performance that makes you identify with his or her words and actions or dilemmas and whims. Once in a while and it’s not often someone comes along that has an innate talent nobody understands.”

Chalamet discussed how he found his passion for acting while growing up in New York City and attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a place he said “didn’t feel like school.”

“Sometimes your need to say something is greater than what you have to say,” Chalamet said. “That’s why I admire Bob Dylan, these great lyricists or artists that generate the work – maybe one day I’ll generate the work, maybe one day I’ll write something great. But for now I’ll bring life too. And LaGuardia gave me that path.”

Now, Chalamet holds an impressive acting career having played a variety of characters, from the renowned chocolatier in “Wonka” to Lee, a cannibal drifter in the romantic horror film “Bones and All.” At 20 years old, Chalamet was the youngest “Best Actor” Oscar nominee since 1939 for his breakout role in “Call Me By Your Name” in 2018. He has starred in five “Best Picture” nominees: “Call Me By Your Name,” “Lady Bird,” “Dune,” and “Don’t Look Up.”

This year, he is nominated for “Best Actor” once again for his reprisal of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” a biographical musical drama film about Dylan’s rise to fame in the 1960s, which was also nominated for “Best Picture.” “Dune: Part 2,” a science fiction film in which Chalamet stars as Paul Atreides, is also a nominee for “Best Picture” this year.

“I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan, and I was blown away by Chalamet’s transformation in ‘A Complete Unknown,’” said SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. “His performance is galvanizing and electrifying, especially coming on the heels of the major box office triumph earlier this year with ‘Dune: Part Two.’ Truly, this is the age of Chalamet.”

The Arlington Artist of the Year award recognized Chalamet’s “unparalleled talent and his enduring impact on the cinematic landscape.” Inaugurated in 2024, the award is named for the historic venue, honoring artists who are “greatly admired and have demonstrated an incomparable commitment to film and its craft.”

As the evening concluded, “A Complete Unknown” Director James Mangold presented the award to Chalamet.

“You’re only as vibrant as your surroundings,” Chalamet said in his acceptance speech. “I’ve been lucky in my come up to be surrounded by deep and passionate and open thinkers like James Mangold and Josh Brolin and to be inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and James Baldwin. … I seek to leave behind a body of work that can do the same for someone else one day.”

DPNEWS

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is one of the few opportunities for big names in the film industry to talk to high school students. DPmedia students took the opportunity to discuss with filmmakers on the red carpet about the impact they hope their films will have on audiences.

“I would love for this film to make people question how people navigate or get to navigate the healthcare space,” said Olivia Nakintu, actress in “Mango”, a film about a woman’s struggle with fibroids while trying to build her career. “Some people don’t get listened to in that space, some people don’t get the treatment that they need,” she said.