Desert Fest Spreads the Kudos Wealth
Laurels given to awards season hopefuls
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET
Spotlight Award
It’s been just one year since Chalamet received PSIFF’S Rising Star Award for his role in “Call Me by Your Name,” for which the thesp garnered an Oscar nom. This year the fest will honor his latest work as Nic Sheff in “Beautiful Boy.” Chalamet portrays a young man struggling with addiction and recovery. Pic is based on memoirs from journalist David Sheff and his son, Nic. In December, Chalamet told Emma Stone during Variety’s Actors on Actors chat that portraying Sheff was “really difficult.” “To go through those scenes where you’re begging your father to come home and he says no. I can’t imagine anything worse than that feeling: ‘You are such a chaos in our life we can’t allow you in our home anymore.’ ” Chalamet has been nominated for a Golden Globe, a SAG Award and a Critics’ Choice Award for his work in “Beautiful Boy.”
GLENN CLOSE
Icon Award
Close has 84 screen credits and six Academy Award nominations, but incredibly she is not yet in possession of a little gold man. Her recent riveting performance in Bjorn Runge’s “The Wife” might change that. In the film, adapted by Jane Anderson from the Meg Wolitzer novel of the same name, Close portrays Joan Castleman, a spouse who has spent 40 years sacrificing her own identity and dreams to support her husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce) and his literary career. “Joan fascinated me,” Close says. “I understood her because I remember a time when women either became a teacher, a nurse or a secretary. Also, being a shy person myself, I understood how somebody could honestly not want to be in the spotlight.” Despite being bashful, Close is excited about her second PSIFF honor in less than a decade. (In 2011 she received the Career Achievement Award for her performance in “Albert Nobbs.”) “Movies are a very collaborative art, so I’m very aware of the people that made it possible for me to make this film and receive this [award]. I feel I’m acting like the captain of the team and I’m showing up for them.”
OLIVIA COLMAN
Desert Palm Achievement Award
Colman officially stole the show with her depiction of Queen Anne in the “The Favourite.” The film follows the court maneuverings of the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), and her down-on-herheels cousin Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) as they jockey for position with Queen Anne. Thus far the pic has nabbed 10 London Film Critics’ Circle nominations, including one for Colman in the lead actress category. Thesp has also been nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award, a Golden Globe and a SAG award. She has taken home actress awards from the British Independent Film Award and the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. But don’t get the A-lister started about trophies. In December she told the Guardian that “the awards chat makes me want to be sick in my mouth.” That being said, Colman also admitted that she has always dreamt of holding an Oscar. “But I’m really trying to sort of keep everything in check, keep calm. This is silly. What are the chances? I don’t want to get excited. I don’t want to face that disappointment. I just want to be on an even keel. I’m a mum, a wife, I’m a mate. I’m other things. You can see how people get sort of swept into it and I want to stay sane.”
BRADLEY COOPER
Director of the Year
This marks Cooper’s third PSIFF kudo. In 2013 he received the festival’s Desert Palm Achievement Award for “Silver Linings Playbook,” and in 2014, he shared the ensemble cast award for “American Hustle.” “A Star Is Born” is Cooper’s latest hit, but undoubtedly his biggest creative challenge to date. He not only plays the lead character (Jackson Maine) who falls for a talented singer (Lady Gaga), but he also directed, produced and co-wrote the script. Cooper says the he didn’t mind making the film on a modest $38 million budget. “I don’t like having an extreme budget,” he says. “I actually like the constraints of budget and time. Even when you find yourself in a really tight place time-wise, or you lose your location, often that’s where the best solutions arise. You liken it to the mistake happening onstage in a play and it winds up being this wonderful, magical moment.” Magical is a good way to describe Cooper directorial debut. So far “A Star Is Born” has garnered around $200 million at the box office and plenty of critical acclaim. Sonny Bono Visionary Award
Taken from Cuaron’s memories of growing up in Mexico City, “Roma” is the director’s most personal work to date. It was also one of the most demanding movies he’s ever made. “The biggest challenge was to transcend any fear and try to stay true to that sense of memory that was guiding the process,” says Cuaron. The filmmaker was not interested in making a nostalgic or political film. Instead, he made a universal story. “You don’t set up to do a film that is universal, you can only trust that the human experience is one in the same. The film is about a very specific character, in the frame of a very specific family, in a very specific city, in a very specific country, in the frame of a very specific time. By following this character, you experience the random nature of existence and how our only comforts are our bounds of affection.”
“GREEN BOOK”
Vanguard Award Director Peter Farrelly had just 35 days and $20 million to shoot “Green Book’s” 120-page script that included dozens of locations, all set in 1962. But shooting a period piece in multiple locations for a limited time and budget wasn’t the most difficult part of getting the drama made.