Da’Vine Joy Randolph to receive award for 'The Holdovers' at Palm Springs film festival

Da’Vine Joy Randolph will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award for her performance as Mary Lamb in "The Holdovers" at the Palm Springs International Film Awards.

The Film Awards will take place on Jan. 4, 2024, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running through Jan. 15.

Directed by Alexander Payne, "The Holdovers" is set in 1970 at a New England boarding school where a cantankerous classical students teacher, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), is required to remain on campus during the holiday break to care for five students with nowhere to go. The students include the scholarly but rebellious Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), Angus' nemesis Teddy Kountze (Brady Hepner), a son of Mormon missionaries (Ian Dolley), a student from South Korea (Jim Kaplan) and the football team's quarterback (Michael Provost). During the break, Paul forms a bond with Angus and the school's head cook, Mary Lamb (Randolph), who has just lost a son in the Vietnam War.

"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,” PSIFF Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said in a statement.

Randolph gained prominence on Broadway in 2012 for her performance as Oda Mae Brown in "Ghost: The Musical" and received a Tony Award nomination. Her role as Lady Reed opposite Eddie Murphy in the 2019 film "Dolemite Is My Name" earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

Recently, she appeared in the HBO series "The Idol," and reprised her role as Detective Williams in the third season of the Hulu series "Only Murders In The Building." Her other credits include "Lee Daniel's The United States v Billie Holiday," "The Lost City," "Kajillionaire" and more.

Past winners of the Breakthrough Performance Award include last year’s recipient, Danielle Deadwyler, along with Mary J. Blige, Marion Cotillard, Andra Day, Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Hudson, Felicity Huffman, Brie Larson, Lupita Nyong’o and Rosamund Pike. In the years they were honored, Cotillard, Hudson, Larson, and Nyong'o went on to receive Academy Awards, while Day, Blige, Erivo, Huffman and Pike received nominations.

Randolph joins this year’s previously announced honorees "Killers of the Flower Moon" (Vanguard Award), Emma Stone (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress) and Cillian Murphy (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor)

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Da’Vine Joy Randolph to be honored at Palm Springs film festival