Jessica Chastain will receive the Chairman’s Award at the 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Awards Gala, PSIFF organizers announced on Tuesday.
She is being honored for her role in Aaron Sorkin’s “Molly’s Game,” where she plays the real-life Molly Bloom, who traded in her aspirations of being an Olympic skier to run high-stakes, star-studded poker games in Los Angeles and New York, running afoul of the law in the process. The performance has put her in the thick of a hugely competitive Best Actress race this year.
Chastain was a previous PSIFF honoree in 2012, when she capped a breakthrough year that included “The Tree of Life,” “Take Shelter” and “The Help” by receiving an Oscar nomination for the last of those films.
Past recipients of the Chairman’s Award include Amy Adams, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Nicole Kidman.
Other honorees at this year’s gala include Timothée Chalamet, Gal Gadot, Holly Hunter, Allison Janney, Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and director Guillermo del Toro and the cast of “The Shape of Water.”
The 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival will begin with the Awards Gala on January 2 and run through January 15.