Ben Affleck: Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Modern Master Award Recipient!

Ben Affleck suits up in Dolce&Gabbana while attending the 2013 Santa Barbara International Film Festival held at Arlington Theatre on Friday (January 25) in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The 40-year-old actor was given the highest honor, the Modern Master Award, by his close pal Matt Damon.

“That’s what made him [Ben] such a great writing partner — he could problem-solve. That’s the same skill that got him in a lot of, well, mediocre movies,” Matt joked.

Matt added, “You know, 10, 15 years ago, I’d read a script of a movie he was doing — he’d signed on to do the movie, and I’d read it, and I’d go, ‘Why are you doing this? There’s a horrible problem in act one, and they don’t solve it in act two and it gets worse in act three.’ And he goes, ‘I know, but if you do this, this, this and this the movie’s gonna be fantastic.’ And I go, ‘You’re absolutely right.’ The problem was he wasn’t directing the movies.”

10+ pictures inside of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon at the Santa Barbara Film Festival…