Palm Springs Film Festival: ‘The Holdovers’ Star Paul Giamatti Set For Icon Award
UPDATED with latest: The Palm Springs Film Festival said today that Paul Giamatti will receive its 2024 Icon Award for The Holdovers. He will be feted January 4 at the festival’s Film Awards gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
“In The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti inhabits a complex character who is both challenging and rewarding, and ultimately reminds us of what it means to be connected as human beings,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “For his storied career of quintessential cinematic roles, it is our honor to present the Icon Award to Paul Giamatti for this career-best performance.”
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See the full list of honorees below.
PREVIOUSLY, December 14: The Palm Springs Film Festival said Thursday that Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell will receive the fest’s 2024 Chairman’s Award to recognize their Barbie song “What Was I Made For?”
The honor will be bestowed January 4 at the festival’s opening-night awards gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
The song written by the brother-sister duo has been racking up honors, picking up five of Barbie‘s 11 Grammy Award nominations for its songs, soundtrack and score. It also recently scored noms from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.
Barbie is the year’s biggest box office blockbuster, smashing records on its way to its current global gross of $1.44 billion.
“Billie and Finneas, with their unparalleled talent, have created a beautiful and ethereal ballad that perfectly evokes the poignancy of the journey Margot Robbie’s Barbie takes in the film,” festival chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said. “The Palm Springs International Film Festival proudly honors these visionary artists for their award-worthy musical contribution.”
Eilish and O’Connell join a 2024 honorees list that already includes Carey Mulligan, Cillian Murphy, Colman Domingo, Danielle Brooks, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Emma Stone, Greta Gerwig, Jeffrey Wright and Killers of the Flower Moon.
See the full list of honorees below.
PREVIOUSLY, December 7: The Color Purple co-star Danielle Brooks will receive the honorary Spotlight Award, Actor, at the Palm Springs Film Festival on January 4.
“In The Color Purple, Danielle Brooks revisits her Tony-nominated portrayal of Sofia, a force to be reckoned with who challenges traditional female roles and stands for what she believes in,” festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said.
See the full list of 2024 PSIFF honorees below.
PREVIOUSLY, December 4: Rustin star Colman Domingo has been selected to receive the Spotlight Award, Actor next month at the Palm Springs Film Festival.
The honorary award will be handed out January 4 at the festival’s Film Awards gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
Domingo joins a list of previously announced honorees that includes Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Greta Gerwig, Jeffrey Wright, Carey Mulligan and Killers of the Flower Moon, which is receiving the Vanguard Award.
“In Rustin, Colman Domingo demonstrates his impressive talents bringing to life civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington,” said PSIFF chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said Monday. “For this career defining performance, it is our honor to present the Spotlight Award, Actor to Colman Domingo.”
Domingo was previously nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and SAG Ensemble Award for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and a second Spirit Award and Gotham Award for Zola. He won the Emmy Award in 2022 for HBO’s Euphoria. He’s next up in the musical adaptation of The Color Purple.
See the 2024 festival’s list of honorees so far below.
PREVIOUSLY, December 1: The Palm Springs Film Festival said that Carey Mulligan will receive the International Star Award, Actress, for her performance in Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.
“In this historical and personal examination of famed composer Leonard Bernstein, Carey Mulligan measures both ends of true love – its extraordinary heights and intense lows – conveying a striking role as Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “For this performance and her remarkable stature in world cinema, we are honored to present the International Star Award, Actress to Carey Mulligan.”
PREVIOUSLY, November 27: 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.
“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.”
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:
Icon Award: Paul Giamatti
Chairman’s Award: Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell
Spotlight Award, Actress: Danielle Brooks
Spotlight Award, Actor: Colman Domingo
Career Achievement Award: Jeffrey Wright
International Star Award, Actress: Carey Mulligan
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
Erik Pedersen and Patrick Hipes contributed to this report.
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