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Mary J Blige | Breakthrough Performance Award
MARY J. BLIGE TO RECEIVE BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE AWARD AT 29th ANNUAL PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FILM AWARDS GALA
Palm Springs, CA (December 7, 2017) - The 29th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Mary J. Blige with the Breakthrough Performance Award for her performance in Mudbound at its annual Film Awards Gala. Blige joins previously announced 2018 honorees Timothée Chalamet, Gal Gadot, Holly Hunter, Allison Janney, Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and The Shape of Water. The Film Awards Gala, hosted by Mary Hart, will be held Tuesday, January 2nd at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The Festival runs January 2-15, 2018.
"Mary J. Blige is a global superstar in the world of music who continues to make her mark as an actress in both television and film," said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. "In her current film Mudbound, Blige gives a quiet yet fantastic performance as Florence Jackson, a strong woman supporting her sharecropper family in rural Mississippi. It is our honor to present the 2018 Breakthrough Performance Award to Mary J. Blige."
Past recipients of the Breakthrough Performance Award include Mahershala Ali, Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Hudson, Felicity Huffman, Brie Larson, Lupita Nyong'o, David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike and Jeremy Renner. In the years they were honored, Ali, Cotillard, Hudson, Larson and Nyong'o went on to receive Academy Awards®, while Huffman, Pike and Renner received nominations.
Set in the rural American South during World War II, Dee Rees' Mudbound is an epic story of two families pitted against one another by a ruthless social hierarchy, yet bound together by the shared farmland of the Mississippi Delta. Mudbound follows the McAllan family, newly transplanted from the quiet civility of Memphis and unprepared for the harsh demands of farming. Despite the grandiose dreams of Henry (Jason Clarke), his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) struggles to keep the faith in her husband's losing venture. Meanwhile, Hap and Florence Jackson (Rob Morgan and Mary J. Blige), sharecroppers who have worked the land for generations, struggle bravely to build a small dream of their own despite the rigidly enforced social barriers they face. The war upends both families' plans as their returning loved ones, Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell), forge a fast but uneasy friendship that challenges the brutal realities of the Jim Crow South in which they live.
Mary J. Blige is a Grammy® Award-winning singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist, with a track record of eight multi-platinum albums, nine Grammy Awards (plus a staggering 32 nominations), a 2012 Golden Globe® nomination, and five American Music Awards. She has appeared in Tyler Perry's dramatic comedy I Can Do Bad All By Myself and starred in Rock of Ages. Her other credits include the TV movie Betty & Coretta, the holiday musical drama Black Nativity and guest spots on Black-ish, Empire, The Wiz Live! and How To Get Away With Murder.