UDPATED: Elvis star Austin Butler will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival’s gala on January 5.
Butler joins this year’s already announced honorees Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Sarah Polley, Michelle Yeoh and The Fabelmans for the fest’s annual kickoff event.
More details below.
PREVIOUSLY, December 1 AM: Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will receive the Vanguard Award at the 2023 Palm Springs Film Festival’s gala in January.
The semi-autographical film centers on a young man’s discovery of a shattering family secret and an exploration of the power of movies to help us see the truth about each other and ourselves. Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett, Keeley Karsten and Judd Hirsch star in the pic penned by Spielberg and Tony Kushner.
The Fabelmans began its limited rollout last month, scoring a $40k per-theater average at four New York and Los Angeles venues.
Last year’s Vanguard honoree, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, when on to earn seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture, and won for Branagh’s original screenplay.
Read about other Palm Springs fest honorees below.
PREVIOUSLY, November 29: Michelle Yeo will receive the International Star Award, Actress at the 2023 Palm Springs Film Festival’s gala in January.
Yeo was picked for her work starring in A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, which just scooped up the Best Feature prize Monday at the Gotham Awards. She is the latest to join the fest’s honorees list; the group will receive their honors January 5 in kickoff ceremony at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
Last year’s Palm Springs honoree in the International Star, Actress category, Penélope Cruz, when on to earn a Oscar Best Actress nomination. Previous winners include Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, Saoirse Ronan and Charlize Theron.
In the Daniels-directed Everything Everywhere All at Once, Yeo plays Evelyn, an overwhelmed immigrant mother. When an interdimensional rupture threatens to unravel reality, the fate of the world is suddenly in her hands. The pic, which bowed at SXSW this year, also has eight Spirit Awards noms including for Yeoh and Best Feature.
SXSW Review: The Daniels’ ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’
The Palm Springs Film Festival runs January 5-16.
PREVIOUSLY, November 21: Cate Blanchett, the two-time Oscar winner and seven-time nominee whose latest film Tár premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won her the lead acting prize, will receive the 2023 Desert Palm Achievement, Actress, award from the Palm Springs Film Festival.
She stars in the pic as Lydia Tár, an orchestra conductor considered one of the greatest at her craft and the first female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. Watch the trailer here.
The Focus Features title also played the New York Film Festival and opened domestically on October 7.
Venice Review: Cate Blanchett In Todd Field’s ‘Tár’
PREVIOUSLY, November 18: Sarah Polley, whose latest feature Women Talking hits theaters in December, has been named Director of the Year by the Palm Springs Film Festival. The honor will be bestowed January 5 at PSIFF’s annual awards gala to kick off the festival’s 2023 edition.
The past two recipients of the Palm Springs director award — Jane Campion last year for The Power of the Dog and Chloé Zhao for Nomadland — each went on to win the Best Director Oscar.
Polley joins fellow 2023 award winner Colin Farrell, who will be given the Desert Palm Achievement, Actor award for Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.
Adapted and directed by Polley, Women Talking follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men. Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil and August Winter star Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand.
The pic hits theaters December 2.
“Sarah Polley continues her outstanding work as a writer and director in her latest film Women Talking,” festival chairman Howard Matzner said. “She brings together a stellar cast in her adaptation of the Miriam Toews book, taking us on a cinematic journey filled with raw emotions and performances.”
Palm Springs will be rolling out its annual awards list leading up to the festival, which runs January 5-16. Here’s the list of recipients so far:
Breakthrough Performance: Austin Butler
Vanguard Award: The Fabelmans
International Star Award, Actress: Michelle Yeoh
Desert Palm Achievement, Actress: Cate Blanchett
Director of the Year: Sarah Polley
Desert Palm Achievement, Actor: Colin Farrell
