Celebrating its 35th anniversary, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will return January 4-15, 2024. The Festival’s culturally diverse program presents a large selection of films submitted for consideration in the Best International Feature Film category for the Academy Awards, as well as highlights American independent and international features and documentaries.
The Opening Night screening of the Festival will be held on Friday, January 5, 2024. Closing Night will be held on Saturday, January 13, 2024, followed by two days of ‘Best of the Festival’ screenings on Sunday, January 14 and Monday, January 15.
The Festival will also hold its annual star-studded black-tie Film Awards on Thursday, January 4, 2024, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The event will honor individuals in the film industry with awards for acting, directing, and lifetime achievement. Many of the Film Awards’ 2023 honorees received Academy Award nominations. Honorees included Cate Blanchett (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Austin Butler (Breakthrough Performance Award, Actor), Viola Davis (Chairman’s Award for acting and producing), Danielle Deadwyler (Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress), Colin Farrell (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), Brendan Fraser (Spotlight Award), Bill Nighy (International Star Award, Actor), Sarah Polley (Director of the Year Award), Michelle Yeoh (International Star Award, Actress), and The Fablemans (Vanguard Award). In total, eight of these honorees were nominated for an Academy Award, with Yeoh, Fraser and Polley winning in their respective categories.
Last year, the Festival opened with the premiere of 80 For Brady, with attendees including Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin, and Harry Hamlin. Following this screening, the opening weekend of the 2023 event included ‘In Conversation’ screenings of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with Angela Bassett, The Banshees of Inisherin with Colin Farrell, Living with Bill Nighy and Kazuo Ishiguro, and The Whale with Brendan Fraser. Later, the Festival held two panels featuring directors from the Oscar-shortlist for Best International Feature Film, including Alejandro González Iñárritu (Bardo, or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), Santiago Mitre (Argentina, 1985), Jerzy Skolimowski (EO), among others. The Festival also screened many of the international films in awards contention, including the Best International Feature Film winner All Quiet on the Western Front. Additional talent attending the 2023 Palm Springs International Film Festival included Anna Kendrick (Alice, Darling), Jim Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn (Linoleum), Ray Romano (Somewhere in Queens), and more.
The Palm Springs International Film Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization whose mission is to cultivate and promote the art and science of film through education and cross-cultural awareness. The Film Society produces the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) and Film Awards in January and the Palm Springs ShortFest in June. In addition to curating the best in international cinema, PSIFF’s Film Awards has come to be known as the first stop on the campaign trail for the Academy Awards® and its Oscar®-qualifying ShortFest is the largest short film festival and market in North America. Its festivals, year-round member screenings and educational programs manifest our organization’s mission by nurturing and encouraging new filmmaking talent, honoring the great masters of world cinema, and expanding audience horizons.
For additional information and tickets, call the festival headquarters at (760) 778-8979 or visit the website at www.psfilmfest.org.
