Eckhart to receive award

By Jeff Vice
Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 12:12 a.m. MST
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On Sunday, Brigham Young University graduate Aaron Eckhart will receive the 2007 Ray-Ban Visionary Award in a ceremony not officially affiliated with the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

The award honors performers and producers for their contributions to independent film, which unofficially began replacing Sundance's Tribute to Independent Vision in 2003. Previous recipients have included actors Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon, as well as New Line Cinema's Mark Ordesky and HBO's Colin Callender.

Eckhart has been a Sundance Film Festival regular since 1997, when he starred in "In the Company of Men," and the following year's "Your Friends & Neighbors," both films by his fellow BYU grad Neil LaBute. Their film "Possession" was in Sundance in 2002.

Last year, Eckhart received acclaim for his performance in the satire "Thank You For Smoking." He has also been featured in the big-budget features "Erin Brockovich" (2000), "The Core" (2003) and last year's "The Black Dahlia."

The event, which will include a career retrospective and a musical performance by the All-American Rejects, is closed to the public.

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Aaron Eckhart, who scored a hit with last year's satire "Thank You For Smoking," will receive the 2007 Ray-Ban Visionary Award. (Dale Robinette, Fox Searchlight Pictures.)
Dale Robinette, Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Aaron Eckhart, who scored a hit with last year's satire "Thank You For Smoking," will receive the 2007 Ray-Ban Visionary Award.