Matt Dillon to Be Feted at Thessaloniki as Star Presents ‘Being Maria’

Matt Dillon will be feted at the 65th edition of Greece’s Thessaloniki Film Festival, where he will present his recent film “Being Maria,” in which he plays Marlon Brando.

Dillon will receive the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander award on Nov. 4, before a screening of his 2002 film “City of Ghosts,” which was his debut as a film director and screenwriter.

Other honorees at the festival, which runs Oct. 31-Nov. 10, include Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, as previously announced.

“Being Maria,” which will screen at Thessaloniki on Nov. 3, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jessica Palud, it revolves around the troubled life of Maria Schneider, played by Anamaria Vartolomei.

When Schneider, a young, struggling actress with promise, is offered the lead role in “Last Tango in Paris,” playing opposite Brando, her dreams seem to be coming true. But what seems like a big break turns out to be the start of a living hell.

Another film in which Dillon recently starred, “Interfears,” directed by Jesper Just, will be screened in the form of an installation during the festival, as part of its tribute to the Danish artist. Dillon will join Just at the official opening of the installation on Nov. 4.

In “Interfears,” Just “explores the emotional topography of an actor’s brain,” the festival said. “Placed in an MRI scanner, the actor recites a monologue while the machine captures and presents his brain waves in two and three-dimensional representations.”

Dillon, once described by critic Roger Ebert as “the best actor of his generation,” starred in “Rumble Fish” and “The Outsiders” by Francis Ford Coppola, “Drugstore Cowboy” by Gus Van Sant, and “Crash” by Paul Haggis, in a performance that won him a best supporting actor nomination at the Oscars.

Most recently, Dillon starred in thriller “Haunted Heart” by Fernando Trueba, which shot in Greece.