Description Breaking News SBIFF 2011 Presented by UGG Australia Green Hornet Seth Rogen Honors SBIFF 2011 Actor James Franco Awarded Santa Barbara SBIFF 2011 Actor James Franco Awarded Santa Barbara The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is proud to present James Franco with the Outstanding Performance of the Year Award on Saturday, January 29, 2011. He will be honored for his compelling performance in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours at the 26th edition of the Fest which runs January 27-February 6, 2011, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. This fall will see the release of the highly anticipated 127 Hours, in which Franco stars in the true story of young adventurer, Aron Ralson. After embarking on a journey through the Moab Desert, Ralson finds himself trapped and alone after a boulder crushes his arm deep within a canyon. There he is forced to take any means necessary to escape with his life. "A truly, an exceptional actor who embraces the character and lives the story to tell it," comments Durling, "James Franco eases onto the screen, seducing the audience no matter if he is the hero, the villain or the victim." While the audience embraced him from the moment he burst on to the small screen in 1999's Freaks and Geeks , it was his convincing performance and striking likeness to James Dean in the 2001 TNT made-for- TV movie bio-pic James Dean that gained respect from the public and his fellow actors. In the summer of 2002, Franco proved to be a box-office <b>...</b>