The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will begin selling tickets for this year’s event next Monday at the Arlington Library.

The 26th annual event begins on Jan. 27 and continues to Feb. 6. Organizers of the event announced the lineup earlier last week. This year’s opening night show is “Sarah’s Key,” a French novel-turned-film, in which a modern-day woman becomes obsessed with the story of a young Jewish girl detained by Nazis during the Holocaust.

Carol Marshall, director of publicity for SBIFF and owner of Marshall PR — the firm handling SBIFF’s PR — said the premiere night typically has the biggest draw.

“Opening night always seems to be one of the best nights of the festival,” Marshall said. “It is a great party and everyone comes out for it, especially when we have as great a film as we do this year.”

The festival will also show the first opera ever shot using 3D cameras — “Carmen in 3D” — on closing night.

Joe Palladino, academic advisor for UCSB’s Film & Media Studies Dept., said the festival will include an extensive list of foreign-made films.

“I really like the heavy list of foreign films,” Palladino said. “A lot of times American film festivals lose sight of the foreign projects, so it will be nice to finally be able to see some of these movies on the big screen for a change.”

In addition to showcasing films, the festival will present awards to several A-list Hollywood celebrities including Christopher Nolan. Palladino said the actors will draw a large audience to the event.

“I do not think that there is any doubt that the biggest crowd will be turning out to see Mr. Nolan get his award,” Palladino said. “He has just done such great work recently, and on top of that the event will be hosted in the Arlington Theatre, which is such a fantastic venue.”

Other actors to be honored at this year’s event include James Franco, who will receive Outstanding Performance of the Year for his work in “127 Hours,” and Geoffrey Rush, who will receive the Montecito Award.

Fourth-year film studies major Vinnie Inzano said he is excited to see some of the industry’s finest.

“It is great that they get such big-time stars to come out here to Santa Barbara,” Inzano said. “I am especially excited about Tom DeLonge’s new movie that is coming out. I hear that it is going to be great.”