Examiner.com, 19 March 2012
By Omar Moore

Actor-writer-director Kenneth Branagh is to receive the San Francisco Film Society Founder's Directing Award on Thursday, April 26 at The Warfield Theatre on Film Society Awards Night as part of the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, it was announced today.

The following night at the Castro Theatre (Friday, April 27) Mr. Branagh will be feted in a special evening celebrating his directing efforts on the big screen. Clips of his films will be shown. The Oscar-nominated actor (most recently for his supporting work as Laurence Olivier in 'My Week With Marilyn') will also be part of an on-stage conversation to be followed by a screening of his 1991 film 'Dead Again', which he directed and starred in.

Said interim S.F. Film Society director Melanie Blum in a statement released today: 'We are thrilled to honor Kenneth Branagh for his remarkable directorial achievements and multifaceted career at this year's Festival. He is in the midst of a much-lauded career that has included a number of the most innovative stagings of Shakespeare's work ever put to the screen, for which he is best known.'

Kenneth Branagh has directed numerous films, including the Oscar-nominated 'Henry V' and 'Hamlet', as well as 'Much Ado About Nothing', the aforementioned 'Dead Again', 'Sleuth', and 'Thor', which was released last year in the U.S. and Canada.

The S.F. Film Society Founder's Directing Award is given annually to those considered 'master(s) of world cinema'. The award is given in memory of S.F. International Film Festival founder Irving M. Levin.

Prior recipients have included such directors as Oliver Stone (last year), Francis Ford Coppola, Walter Salles, Spike Lee, Milos Forman, Mike Leigh, Ousmane Sembene, Satyajit Ray, Abbas Kiarostami, Clint Eastwood, Akiro Kurosawa, Michael Powell, and Robert Altman.

The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival runs from Thursday April 19 through Sunday, May 3, 2012