Maverick Spirit Event - Benjamin Bratt

Running time: 180 mins

MAVERICK SPIRIT AWARD RECIPIENT: BENJAMIN BRATT
with a special screening of his latest film La MISSION

For more than 20 years, actor Benjamin Bratt?s career has successfully spanned film and television. Bratt made his fourth appearance at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as an actor (The Woodsman, Thumbsucker, Follow Me Home), and his second as a producer with the film La MISSION.

Bratt?s distinguished film career includes the critically acclaimed films Piñero, for which he was lauded for a striking, haunting, and ?career defining? performance as the poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero; Steven Soderbergh?s Traffic, which received five Academy Award® nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Ensemble Cast; and The Woodsman, a festival and critical favorite starring Kevin Bacon.

Television audiences perhaps best recognize Bratt from his award-winning role as ?Detective Rey Curtis? on NBC?s long-running drama Law & Order. Throughout his tenure on the show, he and the cast won an Emmy for Best Drama Series, while he garnered an Emmy Award nomination for best supporting actor, won two ALMA Awards, a SAG Award nomination with his cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, and an NCLR Bravo Award nomination. Bratt starred in the hit A&E miniseries The Andromeda Strain, from Ridley and Tony Scott, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, which was the number one original movie or miniseries of 2008 and garnered seven Emmy nominations. He recently completed Season 2 on the A&E drama series The Cleaner, for which he also serves as Producer. Additionally, Bratt received a 2009 ALMA Award for his performance as extreme interventionist ?William Banks.?

A veteran of over 25 films, Bratt?s other work of note includes Curtis Hansen?s The River Wild opposite Meryl Streep; Blood In, Blood Out for director Taylor Hackford; Clear and Present Danger starring Harrison Ford; Stephen Gaghan?s directorial debut Abandon opposite Katie Holmes; the World War II drama The Great Raid for Miramax Films; the beloved comedy Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock, for which he won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award; and most recently the theatrical adaption of the acclaimed novel by Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera, co-starring Javier Bardem.

In La MISSION, Bratt re-teams with his writer/director/producer brother, Peter Bratt (Follow Me Home) to star in and produce a story, which recalls the culture, people, and beliefs of their childhood in the Mission district of San Francisco. In bringing ?Che? to life, Bratt portrays a man of proud conviction, frightening intolerance, hard earned respect, and ? love. Throughout his inspiring performance, he delivers to audiences a challenging character with depth and complexity; a character who is sure to define Bratt?s accomplished resume for years to come.

Benjamin and Peter Bratt have recently joined with producer Alpita Patel to form 5 Stick Films, a production company geared towards film of conscience, with an aim towards telling stories with passion, vision and personal reflection.

Director Peter Bratt will introduce the film at a special screening followed by a 30 min. conversation with Benjamin Bratt during which he will receive the Maverick Spirit Award.

Cinequest is proud to present Benjamin Bratt with the festival?s highest honor, the Maverick Spirit Award.

Film Sponsored by the Castellano Family Foundation.