The 45-year-old actress will receive the Montecito Award at the festival on January 30th “in honor of her celebrated career,” a festival statement said.
The award includes her role in Cake, where Aniston portrays a woman in a chronic pain support group. She has received a Golden Globe best actress nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the role.
The Montecito Award was created “in recognition of a performer who has given a series of classic and standout performances throughout his or her career and whose style has made a major contribution to film,” according to the festival statement.
Previous recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Naomi Watts and Annette Bening.
Jennifer Aniston(Photo: Kevin Mazur, WireImage)
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“Once in a while a performer who we thought we knew gets outside of his or her comfort zone and shows us the unexpected,” said SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling in the statement. “When that happens it is cause for celebration — and this is why the 2015 Montecito Award is bestowed upon Ms. Aniston.”
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The Santa Barbara Film Festival has grown in importance due to its scheduling around key voting times for the Academy Awards, which will be televised on Feb. 7.
Aniston earned five Emmy nominations, two SAG Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations as Rachel Green on TV’s Friends.
Aniston most recently appeared onscreen as a sexually predatory dentist in Horrible Bosses 2.
![Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who suffers from chronic pain in the independent film Cake. Aniston says she was drawn in by Claire — "someone who is suffering from an unimaginable trauma and loss, [while] also dealing with the daily physical pain that is a constant reminder of that trauma and loss."](http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2015/01/02/cake_custom-98fb2407cf27f959dc0b91c8c872d27159b8493c-s800-c85.jpg)
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