Rooney Mara will join fellow cast member Cate Blanchett from the movie, Carol, at next month's 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival after being picked to receive the Spotlight Award at the Jan. 2 annual Awards Gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
The Gala will also present awards to previously announced honorees Johnny Depp, Michael Fassbender, Brie Larson, Tom McCarthy, Saoirse Ronan and Alicia Vikander. The Festival runs Jan. 1-11.
“Rooney Mara’s nuanced portrayal of Manhattan shopgirl Therese Belivet opposite Cate Blanchett’s Carol Aird, brings integrity and depth to this story of forbidden love set against the sexual mores of the early 1950s,” said Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner.
Past recipients of the Spotlight Award include J.K. Simmons, Julia Roberts, Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams and Helen Hunt. All recipients received Academy Award nominations in the year they were honored, with Simmons receiving the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, has already garnered five Golden Globe nominations including ones for Blanchett and Mara. Both actresses also received Screen Actor Guild award nominations.
The movie follows two women from very different backgrounds – unhappily married Carol (Blanchett) and department store clerk Therese (Mara), who find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change.
Directed by Todd Haynes from a script by Phyllis Nagy, Carol also stars Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy and Cory Michael Smith. The film is distributed by the Weinstein Company.
Mara’s film credits includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Side Effects, Her, Pan, Tanner Hall, The Social Network, Trash, Youth in Revolt and The Winning Season. She will next be seen in the Untitled Terrence Malick film, Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture along with Vanessa Redgrave and Jeremy Irons, and A House in the Sky.
See related stories:
• "Brooklyn" star Saoirse Ronan Earns Film Festival Recognition
• Cate Blanchett Garners 1st Film Festival Honor
• Johnny Depp Tapped for Desert Palm Achievement Award-Actor
• 'Spotlight' Director Tom McCarthy Earns Sonny Bono Visionary Award
• Half of Best Foreign Language Film Candidates to Screen in Palm Springs
• Palm Springs Film Fest Adds Mary Pickford Theater
• Palm Springs Film Fest Taps Michael Fassbender
• Palm Springs Film Fest Recognizes Alicia Vikander's Rising Stardom
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