Courtesy of Chad Griffith
Brendan Fraser will receive the Spotlight Award, Actor at the Palm Springs Film Festival’s awards ceremony, taking place in person at the Palm Springs Convention Center on January 5. The award comes in recognition of the actor’s performance in the critically acclaimed A24 drama The Whale from filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.
The presumptive Oscar nominee joins a list of Spotlight Award winners that includes Trumbo‘s Bryan Cranston and Hacksaw Ridge‘s Andrew Garfield, both of whom went on to noms from the Academy for their respective projects.
Additional, previously announced honorees of this year’s Palm Springs Film Awards include Tár‘s Cate Blanchett, (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Elvis‘s Austin Butler (Breakthrough Performance Award, Actor), The Woman King‘s Viola Davis (Chairman’s Award), Till‘s Danielle Deadwyler (Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress), The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Colin Farrell (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), Living‘s Bill Nighy (International Star Award, Actor), Women Talking filmmaker Sarah Polley (Director of the Year Award) and Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s Michelle Yeoh (International Star Award), as well as Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical feature, The Fabelmans (Vanguard Award).
In The Whale, Fraser plays Charlie, a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who reconnects with his estranged teenage daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) for one last chance at redemption. The film based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter — who adapted the script — also stars Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton. Pic secured a seven-minute standing ovation following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and has also thus far netted Fraser a TIFF Tribute Award for Performance, as well as Golden Globe, Gotham and Critics Choice Award nominations and other accolades, hitting theaters on December 9.
“Brendan Fraser demonstrates his impressive talent in Darren Aronofsky’s powerful adaptation of The Whale,” said Palm Springs Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “Fraser gives an extraordinary and haunting performance that paints a vivid portrait of our inability to escape our own sadness. For this award caliber performance, it is our honor to present the Spotlight Award, Actor to Brendan Fraser.”
Boasting a career spanning more than three decades, Fraser is known for his portrayal of Rick O’Connell in The Mummy trilogy, and for films like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Crash, Bedazzled, George of the Jungle, Glory Daze, Airheads, School Ties and Encino Man, among many others. Notable TV credits include Doom Patrol, Condor, Trust, The Affair and Scrubs.
Other upcoming projects for the actor include Max Barbakow’s comedy Brothers for Legendary and Martin Scorsese’s crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon for Apple.
Post a Comment