George Clooney Chosen For Palm Springs Film Fest Honors

George Clooney will receive the Chairman’s Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Awards Gala on Jan. 7, 2012, it was announced on Friday.

Clooney’s work in the current motion picture The Ides of March, where he directed, produced, co-wrote the film, takes place during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, when an up-and-coming campaign press secretary, played by Ryan Gosling, finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate?s shot at the presidency.

The candidate is played by Clooney.

?George Clooney brings new definition to the word ?star,?? said Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. ?A consummate actor, director, producer and screenwriter, he?s demonstrated that no discipline within the film industry is beyond his reach. In The Ides of March as an actor, director, producer and screenwriter, Clooney exposes the gritty world of political campaigns where winning is the only option, no matter how devastating the consequences.

Clooney also stars in The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne.

The film, set in Hawaii, follows the unpredictable journey of an American family at a crossroads, where a husband and father must re-examine his past and navigate his future after his wife is in a boating accident. The ensemble cast also includes Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel and Patricia Hastie.

“In The Descendants, he gives a bravura performance as a reluctant patriarch, living in a Hawaiian paradise, who is thrust into making life and death decisions affecting his entire family,” Matzner said. “To this star of many talents, whose career, fortunately for all of us who admire him, is still a work in progress, the Palm Springs International Film Festival is proud to present the 2011 Chairman?s Award to George Clooney.?

Past recipients of the Chairman?s Award include Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman.