Brad Pitt Presents ‘the One and Only’ Bradley Cooper with Award at 2024 Santa Barbara Film Festival

Brad Pitt pays tribute to the “brilliantness” of his friend Bradley Cooper.

On Thursday, Pitt, 60, paid tribute to Cooper, 49, while presenting Maestro star with one of the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s top honors, Outstanding Performer of the Year, for his work as Leonard Bernstein in the biopic he also directed and co-wrote.

When Pitt appeared at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara to present the Oscar nominee with the award, he joked that the duo had “a few things in common,” including being “a movie superstar and also a name.”

He went on to note that he knew Cooper had something special after watching his work Hangover.

“You will see how reckless Alan is [Zach Galifianakis] gets, the more Phil [Cooper] he enjoys that disrespect. It’s subtle. It’s often on the side of the frame, but that’s where it’s interesting, and I know this sounds weird, but I’ve watched it and I know no one else would bring it to the table. And it was something fresh. I knew this guy was going to be around,” Pitt said.

Pitt presented Cooper with the award for Best Performer of the Year at the film festival.

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Pitt then talked about Cooper’s 2018 directorial debut. A star is bornin which the actor also starred and wrote the screenplay.

“[It’s] a movie that’s been made several times, it’s done really well so the bar is so high and yet he’s able to pull off his performance where he can play drunk when he breaks down and still look out for the crew wait for the time when you’ll know he’s got tape and you can continue.”

“To do it really, really well is nothing short of perfect,” Pitt added.

Pitt celebrated Cooper’s ‘brilliantness’ as he paid tribute to his friend in his speech.

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Commenting on Cooper’s latest work, Pitt called Maestro “a masterpiece” and described one scene between Cooper and his co-star Carey Mulligan, who plays the late composer-conductor’s wife Felicia Montealegre, as “alive, kinetic and so natural”.

“This is really, really hard to achieve,” Pitt said. “And yes, it takes great actors, but it also takes great construction.”

“Now I’m not going to say I know for sure what’s at the heart of Bradley’s brilliance, but I’m going to take a stab at it,” Pitt continued. “What I think is his voracious love for this little thing we call the human experience and all its struggles and joys and messes. That’s my man, he doesn’t shy away from any evidence and I think that’s what he brought to every frame he puts on the screen.”

Pitt rounded out his speech by sharing his hopes for Cooper’s success at the upcoming Academy Awards, where the Maestro is up for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Mulligan for Best Actress, and Cooper for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay (shared with co-writer Josh Singer).

Bradley Cooper at the Best Performer of the Year Awards during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Tibrina Hobson/Getty

“He’s been nominated 12 times and I really hope this is his year, because he’s willing, but if he’s not, that’s fine, everybody knows it’s just a matter of time,” Pitt said, calling Cooper “the one and only ‘Bradley’.” , before joking, “And really, Brad’s fine, he’s fine. He’s used to it. He’s a Philadelphia Eagles fan.”

“I didn’t like what you said,” Cooper joked while accepting the award from Pitt.

Sharing how the movies “changed his life” and “kept me alive,” Cooper said of his career, “It’s just such a privilege. I can’t believe I get to do this and I’m so privileged and I’ve been so blessed.”

Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan.

Tibrina Hobson/Getty

“Life is hard, and it seems to me that it’s getting harder. And I need people who love me and can love me, and without that I’d just be walking in the wasteland,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s hard to keep going and you know when you feel love and authenticity, it gives us strength and that’s just being a community person. It’s all about community. And I know that without community I would never have tried to achieve the things I tried on my own without people who believed in me in a way that I myself have never believed in.”

Cooper added that it was “absolutely incredible” to watch himself as a “terrified” fifth-grader who was “so nervous” during a “presentation with a board that he was shaking.”

“It’s just a result of being blessed to meet people, and I can count 50 right now, who believed in me and gave me a chance,” he concluded.

Brad Pitt and Bradley Cooper. Kevin Mazur/Getty

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Santa Barbara Film Festival executive director Roger Durling said, “Cooper has proven himself to be an actor of incredible range and versatility. What impressed me most is that he has grown into one of the most impressive voice directors. He is a renaissance man — truly an outstanding performer!” Pitt presents cooper with his honor comes four years after cooper presented pitt with the best supporting actor award for Once upon a time… in Hollywood at the annual awards ceremony of the National Audit Committee in January 2020.

During his acceptance speech, Pitt credited Cooper for his sobriety and said, “He’s a heart. I got sober thanks to this guy and every day since then he’s been happier.”

Bradley Cooper at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

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Last year’s winner of the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s main prize was Cate Blanchett, known for her work in Tar. Past winners also include Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie, James Franco, Viola Davis, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

The 39th edition of the festival lasts from February 7 to 17. Cooper’s honor marks the first of many ceremonies during the festival, after Barbie star Gosling special Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film acceptance on January 13.

Oppenheimer Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr. will be honored with the Maltin Modern Master Award on February 9, followed by the Virtuosos Award ceremony on February 10, which jointly celebrates Danielle Brooks for PurpleColman Domingo for Rustin and PurpleAmerica Ferrera for BarbieLily Gladstone for Killers of the flower moonGreta Lee for Past livesCharles Melton for May DecemberDa’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers and Andrew Scott for All of us strangers.

Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in ‘The Maestro’.

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Mark Ruffalo, Martin Scorsese, Justine Triet, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright and Annette Bening also receive special awards during the seaside festival.

Among the festival screenings is the film of the final evening Chosen familystarring his writer-director Heather Graham.

Maestro it’s now in theaters and streaming on Netflix.

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Source: HIS Education