Have no fear: Jane Lynch has survived playing the murder victim on “Only Murders in the Building.”

Lynch, winner of five Emmy Awards, will be both alive and honored as the Boulder International Film Festival’s “Entertainer of the Year” on March 15 at the Boulder Theater.

Lynch, known for her inimitable comic stylings on “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” “Glee” and, of late, as host of the TV Game show “The Weakest Link,” will sit for an hourlong career retrospective moderated by The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg. Other credits include “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Lynch was the entire focus of the fourth season of “Only Murders in the Building,” but, alas, as the murdered Sazz Pataki, longtime stunt double for Steve Martin’s character. Martin has credited Lynch’s work for giving him room to go emotionally deeper with his role than he ever has before on the show.

Lynch shot to stardom as the maniacal yet melodic Sue Sylvester on “Glee,” which led to her Broadway debut as the drunk and dastardly Miss Hannigan in a 2013 production of “Annie.”

If you were lucky, you saw Lynch appear in Denver back in 2015 to perform her “anti-cabaret show” titled “See Jane Sing” with Kate Flannery (Meredith on “The Office.”) Before that appearance, I got to be the 3,876,321st journalist to ask Lynch to pick her favorite role in a Christopher Guest film.

“Laurie Bohner was almost everything to me in ‘A Mighty Wind,’” she told me. “She sang. She was in porno. She was married to John Michael Higgins. She had a fake tan. She said ridiculous things, and she worshiped color. What more could you ask for?”

Tickets to see Lynch in bask in her Boulder award glory are $25.

The 21-year-old Boulder International Film Fest manages to pull a surprising array of celebs to Colorado each year. Javier Bardem, Alec Baldwin, F. Murray Abraham, Tony Goldwyn, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, James Franco, Shirley MacLaine, Alan Arkin, Martin Sheen, Oliver Stone, William H. Macy, Peter Fonda, Chevy Chase and Emilio Estevez all have made appearances. Info on this year’s fest, running March 13-16, at biff1.com.

Other big Boulder screenings

There are two other big film events in Boulder next week that awkwardly have nothing to do with the Boulder International Film Festival. One is a special screening of “Daruma,” billed as “the first film in U.S. cinematic history to star two leads with disabilities in a narrative not about overcoming a disability.”

Those two actors are Tobias Forrest and John W. Lawson in the story of a paraplegic who enlists his amputee neighbor to drive his newly discovered 4-year-old daughter to live with her grandparents. It screens at 7 p.m. March 13 at the Dairy Arts Center, and Forrest will be there for a post-film Q&A.

A few months after graduating college, Forrest had a spinal-cord injury diving off of a waterfall into shallow water at the Grand Canyon. Lawson lost both hands in an accident 30 years ago. Forrest is also this year’s emcee at the annual Christopher Reeve Foundation Summit taking place March 10-12 in Boulder.

Also: Filmmaker Justin Owens will introduce the Colorado premiere of “Beacon of Hope” at 7 p.m. March 12 at Cinemark Century Boulder (1700 29th St.). It’s a 30-minute doc that shares the story of the Temple Grandin School, a small non-profit that serves neurodivergent students in Boulder.

Creede doc at SXSW

There’s no place in the world like Creede. I’ve been saying so (through my words) for 25 years, and soon a lot more people are going to know it thanks to a new documentary that will debut Sunday at the prestigious SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Oscar-nominated director Kahane Corn Cooperman (“Joe’s Violin”) will introduce “Creede U.S.A.” to the film world. Her film, she says, “takes a nuanced look into the small mountain town of Creede, Colorado: its rich history, people, and myriad points of view that make up its community.” Longtime Creede Repertory Theatre actor and staff member Kate Berry will represent the company (the largest employer in Mineral County) and the town in Austin.

No film on Creede Rep would be complete without an appearance by 50-year actor Christy Brandt, and this film has her. No word yet on when it might be more widely seen.

‘Wicked’ star Erivo to speak in Boulder

Cynthia Erivo, who after this week remains just one Oscar away from an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards), will be the keynote speaker at the  University of Colorado Boulder’s 77th annual Conference on World Affairs on April 7.

Erivo, who plays Elphaba in “Wicked,” will participate in a discussion moderated by Stefanie K. Johnson,  director of CU Boulder’s Center for Leadership. The discussion “will span Erivo’s life journey and her experience of being a woman in the arts industry,” according to a release. 

Registration opens the week of March 17.  The conference, running April 7-11, is annual community tradition at CU, with a theme this year of “lead, innovate and impact.” The conference is is intentionally free

It was previously announced that Ervio will headline the Colorado Symphony’s 2025 gala benefit concert on May 10 at Boettcher Concert Hall as part of Colorado Symphony’s largest annual fundraising event. Tickets on sale at coloradosymphony.org.

And finally …

Smaller movies didn’t mean smaller viewer numbers for the Oscars. An estimated 19.7 million viewers watched Sunday night’s 97th Academy Awards ceremony, the biggest audience in five years, according to figures released by ABC this week. The triumph of “Anora” drew more than the 19.5 million viewers who watched last year’s “Barbenheimer” telecast.