MarlaLewinGFV

by Marla Lewin

The 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Academy Award winners Marion Cotillard with the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award and Quentin Tarantino with the Sonny Bono Visionary Award, named after the Festival’s founder. The Awards Gala will kick off the 2010 awards season on Tuesday, January 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Hosted by “Entertainment Tonight’s” Mary Hart, the Awards Gala will also honor Jeff Bridges, T Bone Burnett, Mariah Carey, Morgan Freeman, Anna Kendrick, Helen Mirren, Jason Reitman and Jeremy Renner.

Quentin Tarantino made a bold debut with Reservoir Dogs, a cops and robbers tale that Tarantino wrote, directed and produced on a shoe-string budget. Following the film’s success, the screenplays that Tarantino wrote during his tenure as a video store clerk became hot properties including True Romance and From Dusk Till Dawn. Tarantino co-wrote, directed and starred in Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme D’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, numerous critics’ awards and a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Pulp Fiction was nominated for seven Academy Awards® including Best Picture and Best Director, and Tarantino received an Academy Award® for Best Screenplay. Tarantino also wrote and directed Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1and Kill Bill Vol 2. Tarantino will receive the Sonny Bono Visionary Award. His most recent film isInglourious Basterds.

Marion Cotillard will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award. In 2008, Cotillard became the second French actress to ever win an Oscar®, and the first to win an acting award for a performance in the French language in the film La Vie En Rose. For her role, Cotillard also received a Best Actress BAFTA, Golden Globe and César Award as well as a Screen Actors Guild nomination. In 2005, Cotillard received a César Award for her supporting performance in A Very Long Engagement opposite Audrey Tautou. Cotillard’s credits include the successful French Taxi film series; Ridley Scott’s A Good Year, opposite Russell Crowe; Tim Burton’s Big Fish opposite Ewan McGregor;Jeux d’enfants (Love Me If You Dare) opposite Guillame Canet; and the French film, Innocence. She recently completed production on Chris Nolan’s Inception and Guillame Canet’s Les Petits Mouchoirs(Significant Others). Past recipients of the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award include Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet. Cotillard stars in Rob Marshall’s Nine, currently screening in theatres.

Celebrating its 21st anniversary, PSIFF was founded in 1990 by then-Mayor Sonny Bono. This year’s Festival will include over 400 screenings of more than 200 films from approximately 60 countries. The Festival presents a majority of the films submitted for consideration in the Best Foreign Language category for the Academy Awards, as well as a large number of American independent and international features and documentaries marking their world, North American or U.S. debuts. Screenings are held on 15 screens throughout Palm Springs.The Festival runs January 5-18, 2010.