ROSAMUND PIKE TO RECEIVE THE BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE AWARD, ACTRESS
The 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Rosamund Pike with the Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress at its annual Awards Gala. The Gala will also present awards to previously announced honorees Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne and J.K. Simmons. Presented by Cartier, and hosted by Mary Hart, the Awards Gala will be held Saturday, January 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The Festival runs January 2-12.
“Rosamund Pike perfectly taps into Gillian Flynn’s complex character from the novel “Gone Girl” bringing to life the privileged, manipulative and calculating Amy Dunne. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role,” said Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “For this outstanding performance it is an honor to present her with the 2015 Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress.”
Past recipients of the Breakthrough Performance Award include Marion Cotillard, Lupita Nyong’o, Carey Mulligan, Felicity Huffman, Jennifer Hudson and Jeremy Renner. In the years they were honored, Cotillard, Hudson and Nyong’o went on to receive Academy Awards®, while Huffman and Renner received nominations.
From the tour de force thriller that became a bestselling must-read comes David Fincher’s screen version of Gone Girl, a wild ride through our modern media culture and down into the deep, dark fault lines of an American marriage – in all its unreliable promises, inescapable deceits and pitch-black comedy. The screenplay is by Gillian Flynn based upon her novel. The Twentieth Century Fox film stars Ben Affleck with Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry.
Rosamund Pike was nominated for a 2011 London Critics’ Circle Award for “British Actress in a Supporting Role” for her role in Made in Dagenham. For Barney’s Version Pike earned a 2011 London Critics’ Circle Award for “British Actress of the Year” and a Genie Award nomination for best actress. Pike’s other film credits include An Education, The World’s End, Jack Reacher, Wrath of the Titans, Johnny English Reborn, The Big Year, Women in Love, The Libertine, Pride and Prejudice, Fracture, Fugitive Pieces, Surrogates, Burning Palms, What We Did on Our Holiday, Hector and the Search for Happiness, A Long Way Down and Die Another Day.
Pike’s theater roles include “Gaslight,” Patrick Hamilton’s Victorian thriller, at the Old Vic Theater, The Donmar Warehouse Production of “Madame de Sade” in The West End, The Royal Court Theatre production of “Hitchcock Blonde,” and the title role in “Hedda Gabler.” On television, Pike has been working on the upcoming re-invention of classic kids series “Thunderbirds Are Go!”
JULIANNE MOORE TO RECEIVE DESERT PALM ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Each year the festival selects an actor and actress to receive this award. “Throughout her career, Julianne Moore has delivered a wide range of extraordinary performances, from such diverse Oscar-nominated films as Boogie Nights and Far from Heaven to this year’s Cannes win for Best Actress in the riveting Maps to the Stars,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “In her latest film Still Alice, she faces one of her most demanding and challenging roles as Alice, a woman diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Moore delivers another career-defining performance that is sure to captivate audiences and bring attention to this devastating disease. It is our honor to present the 2015 Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress, to Julianne Moore.”
Past actress recipients of the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress, include Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Halle Berry, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts and Michelle Williams.
Moore plays Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, and is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she received diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested. Her struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking and inspiring. The Sony Pictures Classics film stars Moore, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Alec Baldwin, Hunter Parrish and is directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. The film is being released in New York and Los Angeles for a one-week qualifying run on December 5, 2014 and opens on January 16, 2015
Moore’s notable films include the remake of Carrie; Non-Stop; Crazy, Stupid, Love; The Kids Are All Right; A Single Man; The Forgotten; What Maisie Knew; The English Teacher; Laws Of Attraction; Chloe; 6 Souls; Blindness; Savage Grace; I’m Not There; Children Of Men; Hannibal; Jurassic Park: The Lost World; The Fugitive; Nine Months; Benny & Joon; The Hand That Rocks The Cradle; The End Of The Affair; Boogie Nights; Magnolia; Cookie’s Fortune; Short Cuts; Don Jon; Gus Van Sant’s re-make of Psycho; Safe; Vanya On 42nd Street; Surviving Picasso; and The Big Lebowski. Moore will next be seen as President Alma Coin in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Next year she will star in The Seventh Son due out on February 6, 2015 and Maps To The Stars. She is currently in production on the indie drama Freeheld.
Moore is a four-time Academy Award nominee, eight-time Golden Globe nominee, six-time SAG Award nominee, four-time BAFTA nominee, and a three-time Independent Spirit Award nominee winning in 2003 for Far From Heaven. In 2012, she won the Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the HBO original movie Game Change. This role also garnered wins at the 2013 SAG Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
J.K. SIMMONS TO RECEIVE THE SPOTLIGHT AWARD, ACTOR
“Throughout his career J.K. Simmons had played a wide range of roles from tough guys in “Oz” and Sam Raimi’s Spider Man films to nicer guys in Juno and Up in the Air,” said Harold Matzner, Chairman of the Palm Springs International Film Festival. “In Whiplash, Simmons’ shines with his tough guy portrayal of a music teacher, who physically and emotionally terrorizes a young drummer, and gives a captivating performance that is alternately hilarious and terrifying. We are honored to present J.K. Simmons with the 2015 Spotlight Award, Actor.”
Past recipients of the Spotlight Award include Julia Roberts, Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams and Helen Hunt. All four recipients received Academy Award® nominations in the year they were honored.
In Whiplash, Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability—and his sanity. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the Sony Pictures Classics film stars Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.
J.K. Simmons has appeared in diverse projects spanning motion pictures, television and the stage on and off Broadway. His motion picture credits include Sam Raimi’s Spider Man trilogy, Hidalgo, The Ladykillers, The Mexican, Off the Map, For Love of the Game, The Gift, Thank You for Smoking, Rendition, Burn After Reading, Juno, The Words, The Music Never Stopped, Jennifer’s Body, Extract, The Vicious Kind, I Love You Man, Beginner’s Guide to Endings, Contraband, Up in the Air, Jobs, Labor Day. His upcoming projects include The Reluctant Professor opposite Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei, Gillian Raimi’s next feature Murder of a Cat and Jeremy Sisto’s feature Breakpoint.
On the small screen Simmons played roles in TNT’s hit series “The Closer,” HBO’s acclaimed drama “Oz,” NBC’s “Growing Up Fisher” NBC’s “Law & Order,” NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” and a recurring role on TBS’ new hit comedy “Men at Work.” Simmons has appeared on the Broadway stage in performances of “Guys and Dolls,” “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” “A Change in the Heir,” “Peter Pan” and “A Few Good Men.”
