Willem Dafoe to receive Palm Springs International Film Festival Icon Award

Willem Dafoe will be presented with the Icon Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The 62-year-old actor will be handed the accolade at the annual gala on January 2, 2018, after appearing in more than 100 movies throughout his career, including ‘Platoon’ and ‘The English Patient’. According to Deadline, Palm Springs International Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner said Dafoe “delivers a career defining performance” in ‘Florida Project’. In the motion picture, he portrays beleaguered Orlando motel manager Bobby Hicks who has to deal with a group of youngsters constantly getting into trouble in his building. Dafoe will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep when he picks up the accolade. It might not be the only gong the Hollywood star wins next year because he has been nominated for an array of Best Supporting Actor accolades for his ‘Florida Project’ portrayal. Dafoe is up for a Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild Award for the film. This comes after he won Best Supporting Actor prizes for the part this year at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Awards and Boston Society of Film Critics Awards among others. Dafoe recently admitted he likes to try to appear in movies which “engage” him and he loves to try out different types of roles he’s never played before. He said: “Something that really taps into a sense of curiosity or wonder. “I’d say the basic condition is to say you’re going to do something you’ve never done before and no matter how it turns out, it’s going to be interesting and if you’re open to it, something’s going to happen. “You aren’t always guaranteed what that’s going to be but it’s going to be something - you’re not just going to make another movie, you’re going to make a movie you have a stake in.”