Actress Christina Ricci explains the important role film festivals play in the success of independent films Friday evening while on the A&B Amphitheater stage to accept the Maui Film Festival’s Nova Award Friday night at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Maui Film Festival honoree Christina Ricci credits independent film festivals with helping to launch her acting career.

“Most of my career owes its success to independent film, and independent films live and die with these festivals,” Ricci said in an interview on Friday evening. “When I first started in 1997, festivals made independent films explode.”

The Emmy and Golden Globe nominee was honored Friday evening with the Maui Film Festival’s Nova Award, which recognizes an actor or actress “whose performances infuse each character they embody with unique insight, humanity and wisdom.”

“I’m so grateful and honored,” Ricci said. She praised the evolution of the Maui Film Festival as “a stunning achievement,” and director Barry Rivers as “someone who loves films so much and wants to spread the love of independent films.”

An acclaimed actress, Ricci most recently starred in Showtime’s provocative hit series, “Yellowjackets,” about a high school girls’ soccer team which descends into savagery after their plane crashes in the remote wilderness. Ricci plays the adult version of the Misty Quigley character, an unhinged hospice nurse with a pet parrot named Caligula. The New Yorker noted that “Ricci, who started acting professionally at the age of seven, brings a terrifying perkiness to the role of Misty.”

“My main motivation with everything is I want to do something different and play a character I’ve never seen before,” she explained of her attraction to playing Misty. “I loved that I got to play a main character that we’ve never had before. I was really intrigued by that.”

Shooting begins soon for season two of “Yellowjackets,” and it’s expected to launch before the close of 2022. Ricci said the cast is kept in the dark as to what happens next. “I have no idea,” she said, laughing.

With 30 years in show business, Ricci feels grateful that quality television productions now offer so many leading roles for women.

“I wanted to do TV a long time ago, and back then it was considered if you had a film career, why would you ever do television? I loved television. I spent days on end at home watching things,” Ricci said.

“I wanted to be part of that long-form storytelling. Now all the filmmakers have come into TV. There’s no real difference anymore between the quality of film and television. That’s amazing and especially what it has done for women. They can only make so many movies a year, but streaming platforms have opened up more opportunities, so of course more women have to be hired. It’s really changed things for actresses.”

Tending to portray offbeat characters, some of Ricci’s most memorable roles include playing Wednesday Addams in “The Addams Family,” along with roles in Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow,” Ang Lee’s stunning “The Ice Storm” and Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections.”

Ricci was only 10 years old when she played Wednesday Addams with such extraordinary confidence. Director Barry Sonnenfeld described her at the time as “the most articulate and intellectually gifted of any cast member.”

“It was the confidence of a child,” she said. “I entered the industry as a child and had the confidence of a child, as I didn’t know the negative consequences. No one told me what could go wrong. I was allowed to be that comfortable on camera, and I’ve never lost that. I feel so comfortable on camera.”

Upcoming roles for Ricci include starring with Mena Suvari in the cyberpunk indie feature “The Dresden Sun,” and re-teaming with director Tim Burton for a part in “Wednesday,” a Netflix supernatural comedy TV series, based upon the character of Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family, due in the fall.

“It was great to be working with him again,” she said.