Rosamund Pike, the British actress who started her film career as a Bond girl and found a new level of recognition for her role as Ben Affleck‘s scheming wife in David Fincher‘s “Gone Girl,” has been named the year’s breakthrough actress by the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
PSIFF organizers announced on Friday that Pike will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress at their annual black-tie Awards Gala, which this year will take place on Saturday, Jan. 3 and will serve as the festival’s major fundraiser of the year.
Pike will be one of more than a dozen awards contenders who will be recognized by the festival, which serves as a campaign stop for Oscar hopefuls just as nomination ballots are due from voters.
Other recipients of PSIFF awards this year are Eddie Redmayne, J.K. Simmons and Julianne Moore. A number of other honorees will be announced in the coming weeks.
Pike made her film debut in the 2002 James Bond movie “Die Another Day.” Before starring in “Gone Girl,” she also appeared in “An Education,” “Made in Dagenham” and “Barney’s Version.”
Since “Gone Girl’s” premiere at the New York Film Festival in September, she had largely been off the awards circuit, staying home in London awaiting the imminent birth of her second child.
Previous winners of the Breakthrough Performance Award include Lupita Nyong’o, Carey Mulligan and Marion Cotillard.
The gala is set for the the second day of the annual film festival, which will take place in the desert resort 100 miles east of Los Angeles from Jan. 2 through Jan. 12.