Palm Springs International Film Awards Presents Anthony Hopkins with the Career Achievement Award

Palm Springs, CA (February 4, 2021) – The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced Anthony Hopkins is the recipient of the Career Achievement Award for The Father.  

“Anthony Hopkins is one of the greatest and most respected actors of his generation, who has brought to the screen so many memorable performances from The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, The Two Popes, Westworld and so many more. In The Father, Hopkins gives an outstanding emotional performance, his best in years, as an 80-year-old father whose grip on reality is unravelling,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “It is our honor to present the Career Achievement Award to the legendary Anthony Hopkins.”

Past recipients of the Career Achievement Award include Annette Bening, Kevin Costner, Bruce Dern, Laura Dern, Clint Eastwood, Sally Field, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee. 

Hopkins joins this year’s previously announced honorees Riz Ahmed (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), Carey Mulligan (International Star Award, Actress), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Spotlight Award, Actor), Gary Oldman (Chairman’s Award), Chloé Zhao (Director of the Year Award) and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Vanguard Award). The Festival and Film Awards Gala will not take place as an in-person event this year, but honoree selections will be announced to recognize this year’s great performances and Entertainment Tonight will air a tribute to the honorees scheduled on February 11th and February 25th. 

Anthony is 80, mischievous, living defiantly alone and rejecting the careers that his daughter, Anne, encouragingly introduces. Yet help is also becoming a necessity for Anne; she can’t make daily visits anymore and Anthony’s grip on reality is unravelling. As we experience the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can Anthony cling to? How does Anne cope as she grieves the loss of her father, while he still lives and breathes before her? The Father warmly embraces real life, through loving reflection upon the vibrant human condition; heart-breaking and uncompromisingly poignant – a movie that nestles in the truth of our own lives.  The Sony Pictures Classics film is directed by Florian Zeller, written by Zeller and Oscar®-winner Christopher Hampton, and stars Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams. The film received four Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture-Drama and Hopkins received a Best Actor in a Motion Picture- Drama.

Sir Anthony Hopkins received an Academy Award® for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs, as well as Oscar® nominations for his roles in The Remains of the Day, Nixon, Amistad and The Two Popes. He was also honored with the Best Actor Award by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts for The Remains of the Day, The Silence of the Lambs and War & Peace and has received two Emmy® Awards for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and The Bunker. His other credits include Red Dragon, Hannibal, Hitchcock, Wolfman, The Rite, Red 2, The Mask of Zorro, Meet Joe Black, Howards End, Fracture, Legends of the Fall, The Road to Wellville, The Edge, Shadowlands, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Elephant Man, The Bounty, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, Noah, Transformers: The Last Knight, HBO’s Westworld and narrated the popular holiday film classic, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 

About The Palm Springs International Film Festival

The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 136,000 attendees last year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The Festival is also known for its annual Film Awards Gala, a glamorous, black-tie event attended by 2,500, which is presented by American Express and sponsored by AT&T and Entertainment Tonight. The Film Awards Gala honors the year’s best achievements in cinema in front of and behind the camera. The celebrated list of talents who have been honored in recent years includes Cate Blanchett, Mary J. Blige, Sandra Bullock, Mariah Carey, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Cynthia Erivo, Jamie Foxx, Gal Gadot, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Regina King, Jennifer Lawrence, Rami Malek, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon and more. Awards are provided by Chihuly and John Kennedy Studios. Both events are produced by the Palm Springs International Film Society, whose mission is to nurture and encourage new filmmaking talent, honoring the great masters of world cinema, and expanding audience horizons.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival and Film Awards Gala will return in 2022.  Palm Springs ShortFest is still scheduled for June 22-28, 2021. The Film Society has continued to host year-round member screenings and events virtually until theatres are able to open. For additional information visit www.psfilmfest.org or call 760-778-8979 or 800-898-7256.

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Steven Wilson / Lauren Peteroy

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