U2 will receive an award at Palm Springs International Film Festival

U2 will be making an appearance at the 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival in January.

The band will receive the Sonny Bono Visionary Award on Saturday at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The award is traditionally introduced by gala honorary chairwoman Mary Bono, widow of the festival founder and award namesake.

“We normally present the Sonny Bono Visionary Award to a director, but for our 25th anniversary we wanted to take the occasion to celebrate U2, a visionary group and the world’s premier rock band, for their unparalleled humanitarian work against extreme poverty, disease, and social injustice,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner.

“Their latest song ‘Ordinary Love’ from the film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is an ode to Nelson Mandela, who had such a powerful impact on our world, and a man whom the band worked with in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Palm Springs International Film Festival is honored to present the 2014 Sonny Bono Visionary Award to U2,” Matzner said.

Film festival organizers said the movie, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, chronicles the inspirational life of Nelson Mandela as an international icon and one of the world’s most revered leaders. The Weinstein Company film is directed by Justin Chadwick and adapted by Academy Award® nominated screenwriter William Nicholson, the film spans Mandela’s exceptional life journey from his early years as a herd boy in South Africa’s rural Cape region, to his days as a lawyer and Apartheid resistance leader, and on to his twenty-seven years spent in Robben Island prison before becoming the nation’s first democratically elected President.

Acclaimed actor Idris Elba stars, with Naomie Harris playing the role of his wife Winnie Mandela, with whom he shared a passionate and troubled love affair that endured over decades.

The song “Ordinary Love” from the film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the Best Original Song category for a Motion Picture, as well as a nominee for Best Song from the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Movie Awards.

U2 was a previous Oscar nominee for “The Hands That Built America” from the Gangs of New York, according to officials with the film festival.

U2 band members include Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is scheduled from January 3-13.