Glenn Close has become the first of many Oscar contenders who will be honored by the two awards-season festivals, with the Palm Springs International Film Festival announcing that the veteran actress and star, producer and co-writer of "Albert Nobbs" will be given the Career Achievement Award at its awards gala on Saturday, January 7.
Over the next two months, both the Palm Springs festival and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival will jockey to line up slates of awards contenders for an array of tributes and awards.
The Palm Springs festival bestows all of its awards at its gala, which happens toward the beginning of the festival's 12-day run in early January, at a time when Oscar ballots are in the hands of voters.
Santa Barbara, which begins at the end of January on the heels of Oscar nominations, runs a series of tributes over the course of its festival.
In the press release announcing Close's award, PSIFF chairman Harold Matzner called the five-time Oscar nominee "a superstar in every sense of the word" and said, "Glenn Close has the gift of mesmerizing an audience whenever she performs. Since her film debut in 1982, Close’s ability to capture the essence of a character is unparalleled, be it a femme fatale, a notorious stalker or the trusted aide to a president."
The actress, who appeared at TheWrap Screening Series presentation of "Albert Nobbs" on Monday, has been working to put that film on the screen since 1982, when she first appeared in a stage production based on the story of a woman in poverty-stricken Dublin who lives her life as a man in order to hang onto a job as a waiter.
In the past, PSIFF's Career Achievement Award has been given to the likes of Helen Mirren, Clint Eastwood, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Cate Blanchett and Robert Duvall.
This year's Palm Springs International Film Festival, the 23rd, begins on January 5 and runs through January 12.
