Michael Fassbender continues the international reach of the 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival after being named to receive the fest's International Star Award, Actor at the Awards Gala on Jan. 2 at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
The Gala will also present awards to previously announced honorees Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Brie Larson, Tom McCarthy and Saoirse Ronan. The Festival runs Jan. 1-11.
Ronan will receive the International Star Award, Actress at the Awards Gala, which was previously announced. Past International Star Award honorees include BAFTA and Academy Award winning actors Javier Bardem and Helen Mirren.
Fassbender, whose latest film, Macbeth, is just out in theaters, is being honored by the festival for his performance in Steve Jobs. Set backstage in the minutes before three iconic product launches spanning Jobs’ career—beginning with the Macintosh in 1984, and ending with the unveiling of the iMac in 1998 — the film takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.
Steve Jobs is directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, working from Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography of the pioneering Apple co-founder. Fassbender plays Steve Jobs, the pioneering founder of Apple, with Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet starring as Joanna Hoffman, former marketing chief of Macintosh.
Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple, is played by Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels stars as former Apple CEO John Sculley. The film also stars Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brennan, Jobs’ ex-girlfriend, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Apple Macintosh development team.
Fassbender is an award-winning actor and producer. He made his big-screen debut in Zack Snyder’s 300. His other film credits include Hunger, Fish Tank, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Prometheus, A Dangerous Method, 12 Years a Slave, Inglorious Basterds, Jane Eyre, Haywire, The Counselor, Frank, and Slow West. In 2016, Fassbender will be seen in X-Men: Apocalypse and Assassin’s Creed.
For his role in Hunger, Fassbender won numerous international awards for best actor including the British Independent Film Award, Irish Film & Television Award, London Film Critics’ Circle Award and honors at the Stockholm Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival. In 2014, he was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor as Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave.
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