Yahoo Lifestyle Greta Gerwig To Receive Palm Springs Film Festival’s Director Of The Year Award
UPDATED with latest: Greta Gerwig on Monday was named the recipient of the Palm Springs Film Festival’s Director of the Year Award for Barbie, Warner Bros’ zeitgeisty blockbuster that became the year’s biggest box office hit grossing $1.44 billion worldwide.
Gerwig, who has three Oscar noms — including one for directing Lady Bird, which made her a Palm Springs Directors to Watch winner in 2018 — will be honored January 4 at the festival’s opening-nigh Film Awards gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
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“Director Greta Gerwig has brought us the cinematic experience of the year with Barbie, the
perfect blend of comedy, emotion and adventure that has both entertained and resonated with
audiences, becoming a cultural touchstone around the world,” festival chairman Nachhattar
Singh Chandi said today. “Gerwig is a masterful filmmaker, and her vision is brought to life so vividly by both the script she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, and by her clear and singular collaboration with
her extraordinary crafts teams, whose visuals are matched only by the outstanding performances
delivered by Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and the entire cast.”
See the 2024 festival’s list of honorees so far below.
PREVIOUSLY, November 20: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays a school cook mourning her son in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, will receive the 2024 Breakthrough Performance Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
She co-stars as Mary Lamb, whose 20-year-old son recently died while on military duty. She is stuck with a curmudgeonly teacher (Paul Giamatti) and five male “holdover” students who are left behind at an Eastern boarding school where most of the students are heading out for the holidays to be with family. Watch a trailer here and read Deadline’s review here.
“In The Holdovers, Da’Vine Joy Randolph brings not only her significant comedic talents to the table but also extremely moving emotional depth to her portrayal of Barton Academy head cook Mary Lamb, who is grieving the recent loss of her son,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “It is our honor to present the Breakthrough Performance Award, to this talented actress in celebration of her outstanding work and recognizing her emerging talent.”
See the 2024 festival’s list of honorees so far below.
PREVIOUSLY, November 17: Cillian Murphy, the Peaky Blinders alum whose film Oppenheimer is a near-billion-dollar global smash, will receive the 2024 Desert Palm Achievement, Actor, award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Cillian stars in Christopher Nolan’s gripping pic as the title character, a complicated but brilliant physicist tasked with leading America’s secret effort to create the nuclear bomb and end World War II. His story plays out in an unusual first-person approach, with a moral conundrum gathering in Oppenheimer’s head as he begins to envision the dangers beyond a short-term use of a weapon that could — and did — spark an arms race and a new world order that changed us forever. Watch a trailer here and read Deadline’s review here.
“Murphy gives a stunning portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer as a conflicted scientist leading the Manhattan Project to produce the world’s first atomic bomb,” said PSIFF Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “For this career-best performance, we are honored to present the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, to Cillian Murphy.”
See the 2024 festival’s list of honorees so far below.
PREVIOUSLY, November 16: Emma Stone, the La La Land Oscar winner whose latest film Poor Things premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Golden Lion prize, will receive the 2024 Desert Palm Achievement, Actress, award from the Palm Springs Film Festival.
She stars in the pic as Bella, a young woman brought back to life by a brilliant and unorthodox scientist (Willem Dafoe). Under his protection, she is eager to learn and hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, running off on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation. Watch the trailer here.
The Searchlight title also played the Telluride, New York, London and Busan film festivals and opens domestically on December 8.
PREVIOUSLY, Nov. 14: With the SAG-AFTRA strike behind us, the all-important film festivals that occur in the heart of awards season are starting to take shape. A key stop is always the Palm Springs Film Festival gala, which has just announced its first award: the Vanguard, which goes to a film’s director as well as its ensemble cast. It is probably no surprise that this year’s recipient is Apple Original Films and Paramount’s epic Western drama Killers of the Flower Moon.
Director Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone will be on hand to accept at the Palm Springs gala January 4 in the desert city. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, winning much acclaim. It opened a wide theatrical release through Paramount on October 20 and has earned north of $100 million globally to date.
“Killers of the Flower Moon is a powerful and important film not only for its cinematic poetry but also as
a complicated story about the suspicious murders of members of the Osage Nation, one which fully
illustrates the evils of racism and corruption,” PSIFF chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said Tuesday.
Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Gladstone), Killers of the Flower Moon tracks the suspicious murders of members of the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight after oil was discovered underneath their land. It also stars Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons along with a cast of Native American actors including veteran Tantoo Cardinal. Scorsese directed from a screenplay he wrote with Eric Roth, based on David Grann’s bestselling book. The film features an original score from the late Robbie Robertson.
Past recipients of the fest’s Vanguard Award include Best Picture Oscar winners Green Book and The
Shape of Water and nominees Belfast, La La Land, Little Miss Sunshine, The Fablemans and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Palm Springs will be rolling out its annual awards list leading up to the festival, which runs January 4-15 in the desert city east of Los Angeles. Here’s the list of recipients so far:
Director of the Year: Greta Gerwig
Vanguard Award: Killers of the Flower Moon
Desert Palm Achievement, Actress: Emma Stone
Desert Palm Achievement, Actor: Cillian Murphy
Breakthrough Performance Award: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
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