Jessica Lange to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at SCAD Savannah Film Festival
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA (Oct. 2, 2026) — The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) announced Jessica Lange will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. Lange will receive her award during the festival's screening of Long Day's Journey into Night, in which she stars as matriarch Mary Tyrone opposite Ed Harris. She previously played the role on Broadway, earning her a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award.
"Jessica Lange has given us some of the most unforgettable performances of the past five decades, bringing extraordinary intelligence, vulnerability, and power to every role," said Christina Routhier, senior executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. "We are honored to celebrate her remarkable body of work and welcome her to SCAD for what promises to be a memorable evening for our students and audiences."
Lange recently returned to American Horror Story for its 13th season and starred in the title role of The Great Lillian Hall. She made her Broadway debut in A Streetcar Named Desire and went on to star in The Glass Menagerie and Mother Play. Her film career includes King Kong, Tootsie, and Blue Sky, while her television career includes Grey Gardens, Feud, and Feud: Capote vs. the Swans. She is also a celebrated photographer, and a documentary about her photography journey titled Jessica Lange: Something About the Light will begin filming this year.
Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is a signature stop on a film's journey to the Academy Awards. More than 74,000 people attend each year. Taking place Oct. 24–31, the festival has also added Paper Tiger, I Play Rocky, and Behemoth! to its 2026 lineup. The festival will open with a screening of A Talent for Murder and closes with Wild Horse Nine.
Variety will present its fifth annual 10 Artisans to Watch at the festival, honoring standout talent in cinematography, costume design, editing, hair and makeup, production design, sound editing and design and visual effects. Variety's senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay will moderate that conversation. Variety's Pixels and Pencils panel also returns to SCAD Savannah Film Festival for a fifth year, spotlighting the directors behind the year's standout animated features. Clayton Davis, Variety's chief awards editor, will moderate the conversation with the six filmmakers.
ABOUT THE SCAD SAVANNAH FILM FESTIVAL
Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.
Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.
SCAD: THE UNIVERSITY FOR CREATIVE CAREERS
SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university's renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more. Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2026 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more.
ABOUT THE SCAD SCHOOL OF FILM AND ACTING
With resources that rival Hollywood studios and Broadway theaters, award-winning faculty, professionally run casting offices, and renowned film and television festivals, the SCAD School of Film and Acting prepares students for impactful careers in film, television, and live performance. Students in acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, sound design, and the school's new music production and vocal performance degree programs work across disciplines on professional-caliber film and TV shoots and stage performances, gaining hands-on experience, production credits, and valuable industry connections before graduation.
The heart of the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the newly completed 11-acre SCAD Film Studios in Savannah, the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in higher education. Designed for professional and student productions, the complex includes purpose-built soundstages and an expansive Hollywood-style backlot with more than 50 façades and practical interiors that can be transformed for different locations and eras. Filmmakers in Savannah also have access to a leading-edge LED volume stage, as well as virtual production, postproduction, and extensive production and costume design facilities. Together with SCAD Film Studios in Atlanta — with its own state-of-the-art spaces, such as an LED volume stage, broadcast studios, and editing facilities — located amid one of the nation's leading film and television production markets, these resources position students on the same sets and spaces they will lead throughout their careers. At SCAD, every set, stage, and studio is a classroom.
Each fall, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival welcomes celebrated filmmakers, actors, producers, and other industry leaders to Savannah, bringing national and international attention to filmmaking throughout the region and Georgia. During the festival's weeklong lineup of screenings and panels, SCAD students enjoy myriad opportunities to connect with major stars in front of and behind the camera, including exclusive master classes and Q&A sessions.
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