The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival this summer will present its Freedom of Expression Award to actor Kirk Douglas. The ceremony, which takes place July 24 at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, marks the 50th anniversary of the film “Spartacus,” in which Douglas starred.
Born Issur Danielovitch, Douglas helped break down the Hollywood blacklist when he insisted on giving a screen credit to blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo for “Spartacus,” which Douglas starred in and produced.
Douglas, 94, is scheduled to appear in person to accept the award, and “Spartacus” will be shown. Douglas has more than 87 films, 10 plays and nine books to his credit, and received Oscar nominations for best actor in 1953 (“The Bad and the Beautiful”) and 1956 (“Lust for Life”).
Previous winners of the SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award include blacklist-era screenwriters Walter Bernstein and Norma Barzman, local filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt and curator-filmmaker Aviva Kempner.
This year’s film festival runs July 21 through Aug. 8 in San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto and San Rafael. For more information, visit www.sfjff.org. The full program won’t be announced until June 21, which is when tickets will go on sale.