The British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles will honor actor and
director Sean Penn with its most prestigious film award, the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film, at the 2008 BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards on Thursday, November 6, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, it was announced today. “As a celebrated actor, director and producer, Sean has become a film icon over the past three decades,” said BAFTA/LA Chairman Peter Morris in a statement. “The roles and subject matter he chooses to tackle as a filmmaker are both challenging and inspiring to audiences worldwide.”

Penn, who has been nominated four times for the Academy Award as Best Actor, and won the
Oscar in 2003 for his searing performance as a grieving father in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic
River, will next portray gay rights icon Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s biographical drama Milk, which is slated for a November release from Focus Features.