Angelina Jolie broke down in tears as she paid tribute to her late mother Marcheline Bertrand at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday night.
The Hollywood star, 49, received the event’s highest honour, the Maltin Modern Master Award, for her incredible accomplishments in the film industry.
She took to the stage to accept the prestigious gong and became overwhelmed with emotion when discussing her beloved mother Marcheline during her speech.
Angelina choked back tears as she praised Marcheline for always supporting her acting career after she gave up her own dreams of becoming a creative.
She also moved the audience when she revealed Marcheline used to write letters to all of her characters, something she misses since her mother’s death in 2007.
‘I’m very thankful to be a part of this community, many people go through life without a creative outlet,’ Angelina shared.
Angelina Jolie broke down in tears as she paid tribute to her late mother Marcheline Bertrand at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday night
‘I think of my mother, she had to give up her dreams of a creative life but she embraced that side of mine.
‘My mother would write letters to my characters – Dear Gia, Dear Lisa Rowe, Dear Lara Croft – and for the last 16 years, I haven’t had those letters.’
Angelina said she wonders what her mother would write to her latest character, real life opera singer Maria Callas, who she portrayed in the 2024 musical biopic, Maria.
‘I try to imagine sometimes what she would write, and she would probably have told Maria that she loved her because Maria had many things but she never had a mother’s love,’ she went on.
‘I would be absolutely nothing without mine. She passed away many years ago at this time of year, so it’s always this weather that reminds me of her.
‘And that feeling and that sensibility that makes that actually hard for me is part of what is my work and what connects many artists to their work, and I know I’m not alone in this.’
Marcheline died at the age of 56 on January 27, 2007, after an eight-year battle with ovarian and breast cancer.
As well as Angelina, Marcheline also shared a son, James Haven, with her ex-husband, actor Jon Voight.
Marcheline (pictured with Angelina in 2001) died at the age of 56 on January 27, 2007, after an eight-year battle with ovarian and breast cancer
While accepting the Maltin Modern Master Award, Angelina praised her mother for always supporting her acting career after giving up her own dreams of becoming a creative
Marcheline pursued her own career in the movie industry, auditioning tirelessly for theatre roles in Chicago and film gigs in Los Angeles before stepping back to raise her two children.
Angelina has previously told how she originally pursued acting as a career to achieve her mother’s dreams, making she doesn’t recall ‘making the choice’ herself.
‘I did it in the beginning because… it was my mother’s dream,’ she told W Magazine.
‘But by the time my mom was 25, she was divorced with two kids and she decided she would focus her life solely on motherhood.
‘She loved being being a stay-at-home mom, but she really wanted me to be an actress so I don’t remember making the choice to be an actress. I remembered it made my mom happy.’
In 1982, then six-year-old Angelina made her acting debut alongside her father in Lookin’ to Get Out and she has since carved out a hugely successful career in Hollywood.
On Wednesday night, Angelina was honoured for her impressive work as an actress and filmmaker at the 40th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
She was the 2025 recipient of the Maltin Modern Master Award, which is the festival’s most prestigious honour.
For the awards ceremony, Angelina showed off her incredible figure in a simple white silk gown as she stormed the red carpet ahead of accepting the top gong
Her huge win comes after she was snubbed in the 2025 Oscar nominations, failing to receive a Best Actress nod for Maria despite soaring to critical acclaim in the role
Named after film critic Leonard Maltin, the award goes to actors who have ‘enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry’.
For the occasion, Angelina showed off her incredible figure in a simple white silk gown as she stormed the red carpet ahead of accepting the top gong.
She gave herself a few extra inches in a pair of black stiletto heels and accessorised with a silver thumb ring.
Her huge win comes after she was snubbed in the 2025 Oscar nominations, failing to receive a Best Actress nod for Maria despite soaring to critical acclaim in the role.
The celebratory night proved to be a star-studded affair as the likes of Kathy Ireland and Ava DuVernay also showed up in support of Angelina.
Leonard Maltin was also on hand for the award festivities, which were renamed after him in 2015.
