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<\/a><\/p>\nAtticus Finch: The Greatest Hero in Cinematic History? <\/p>\n
In 2003, the American Film Institute \u201c100 Years\u201d Series, celebrating cinema\u2019s first century, released a much-publicized list of the 100 greatest movie characters. AFI named its 50 greatest heroes and 50 greatest villains. As one might expect, AFI\u2019s list of heroes included Robin Hood, Tarzan, Indiana Jones, Rocky Balboa, Batman and even Lassie! But what character topped the AFI list as the greatest hero of the first 100 years of movies? Atticus Finch, a small-town depression-era southern lawyer who fails at defending his client, a client who is then killed before Atticus can appeal his conviction. This begs a question: Why is Atticus Finch considered the greatest hero in cinematic history?<\/p>\n
To explore, discuss, and debate this character and these enduring themes, cinephiles of all ages are invited to the Winn Room on Feb. 22, at 1:30 pm. This special screening invites audiences to step into the role of contributing \u201ccinema scholars.\u201d<\/p>\n
This cross-generational initiative invites grandparents, students, and film lovers of all ages to experience, discover, and discuss the classic films that defined Hollywood\u2019s Golden Era \u2014 many of which younger generations have never had the opportunity to see on the big screen or explore in conversation together.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Program Series theme, \u201cThe Art of Adaptation,\u201d is exemplified by Horton Foote\u2019s Oscar winning screenplay adaptation of Harper Lee\u2019s 1960 bestselling Pulitzer Prize winning novel. As in Lee\u2019s novel, the story of widower attorney and father Atticus Finch is told cinematically through the eyes of his children, primarily his six-year-old daughter, Jean Louise \u201cScout\u201d Finch, played brilliantly by Mary Badham. The role earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She was, at the time, the youngest person ever recognized (at age 10) with a competitive Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n
Her father Atticus was portrayed by Gregory Peck with such understated magnificence that it earned Peck his only Best Actor Oscar in a distinguished movie career that spanned six decades. In all, To Kill a Mockingbird earned eight Oscar nominations, winning three.<\/p>\n
At this special screening, Coronado\u2019s own Phil Garn, grandson of the film\u2019s Oscar winning Art Director, Alexander Golitzen, will share research about his grandfather\u2019s contribution to the production and thoughts about the exceptional craftsmanship of \u201cGolden Age\u201d studio-era motion pictures. Don\u2019t miss this unique opportunity to see a landmark motion picture in the American film canon and a chance to participate in post-screening discussion of its significance culturally, cinematically and historically. The \u201cscholar\u201d with the Best Take during post-screening discussion will receive a handsome hard-copy of Harper Lee\u2019s novel compliments of CIFF.<\/p>\n
On the set of To Kill a Mockingbird, Pulitzer Prize winning Lee reportedly said of Gregory Peck, \u2018The minute I saw him I knew everything was going to be all right, because he was Atticus.\u2019<\/p>\n
The 2026 \u201cThe Art of Adaptation\u201d line-up includes, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Captains Courageous (1937), Shane (1953), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), A Tale of Two Cities (1937), and Les Mis\u00e9rables (1935).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now in its fifth season, the Educational Classic Film Program (formerly known as the Student Classic Series*) is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5943,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-180851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-coronado-island-film-festival","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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