Cate Blanchett to receive Desert Palm Achievement Award at PSIFF
Organizers of the 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival have announced the first award winning celebrity for this year’s Gala.
Actress Cate Blanchett will be presented with the Desert Palm Achievement Award for her performances in both ‘Carol’ and ‘Truth’. Each year the festival selects an actor and actress to receive this award.
The Awards Gala, hosted by Mary Hart will be held Saturday, January 2 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival wraps up on January 11.
“Cate Blanchett is one of the most award-winning and outstanding actresses of her generation, delivering extraordinary performances throughout her career including her Academy Award-winning roles as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator and the title role in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “In her latest films Carol and Truth, Blanchett yet again brings to life two vibrant characters, both worthy of awards recognition. It is our honor to present the 2016 Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress, to Cate Blanchett.”
According to film festival organizers, past actress recipients of the Desert Palm Achievement Award, include Julianne Moore, Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Halle Berry, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts and Michelle Williams. Last year’s honoree Julianne Moore went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress. Blanchett was previously honored at the festival with the Career Achievement Award and Ensemble Performance Award for Babel.
Officials with the film festival described Blanchett’s title roles for which she will be honored. Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, follows two women from very different backgrounds, unhappily married Carol (Cate Blanchett) and department store clerk Therese (Rooney Mara), who find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change. Directed by Todd Haynes from a script by Phyllis Nagy, Carol stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy and Cory Michael Smith. The film is distributed by the Weinstein Company.
Truth examines the facts and the fallout surrounding a CBS investigative report on the military service record of then-President George W. Bush, aired on September 8, 2004 just prior to the Bush/Kerry presidential election. As the subsequent story turned from the facts themselves to the reporting, however, CBS News producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and CBS News anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) would both soon lose their jobs and reputations. Written and directed by James Venderbilt based on the memoir Truth and Duty by Mary Mapes, Truth stars Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Elizabeth Moss and Dennis Quaid. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 will be live from the Red Carpet during the 27th annual Awards Gala on January 2.
