Brie Larson, Saoirse Ronan win Santa Barbara Film Festival top honor

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The Santa Barbara Film Festival is honoring two actresses for the first time -- Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan -- for the same Outstanding Performer of the Year Award.

The award ceremony will take place during the festival on Feb. 8 to honor Larson for her work in the film Room and Ronan for hers in Brooklyn.

Festival director Roger Durling says the actresses' respective roles "transcend time, place and circumstance," in terms of the condition of young women. "We are so proud to be jointly celebrating these two great actresses in such strong performances," he said.

Larson, 26, and Ronan, 21, succeed past recipients as Steve Carell, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Viola Davis, James Franco, Colin Firth, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie and others.

Larson took to Twitter Tuesday to share her reactions to the news. "Couldn't be happier to be sharing the Virtuoso Award...with my bad ass friend and partner in crime Saoirse Ronan!!!" Larson tweeted, adding a series of emojis.

"Wait. I was so excited to get to hang with Saoirse I didn't realize we are receiving OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR?!! WHAT," Larson added in another message.