MUMBAI: The Vail Film Festival will honour director Fred Schepisi with the Vail Film Festival's Vanguard Award. Krysten Ritter, who plays a lead role in the Starz series Gravity, has been chosen to receive the festival's Excellence in acting award.

Schepisi, whose films include Six Degrees of Separation and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, most recently directed The Eye of the Storm. The film, which will be released in the United States by Sycamore Entertainment, will have its US premiere as the festival's opening night film.

Ritter's film credits include She's Out of My League, Confessions of a Shopaholic, What Happens in Vegas, 27 Dresses and Vamps. She stars in Kat Coiro's L!fe Happens, which will screen as the festival's closing night film.

The festival, which runs from 29 March to 1 April in Vail, Colorado, will present the honorees at its awards ceremony on the closing night.