Alicia Vikander, who is captivating audiences with her role in The Danish Girl, will receive the Rising Star Award at the 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival 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, Michael Fassbender, Brie Larson, Tom McCarthy, and Saoirse Ronan. The Festival runs Jan. 1-11.
“In The Danish Girl, Alicia delivers a superb performance as Gerda Wegener, the wife of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe,” said Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “She projects so much love and pain as she goes on a journey with Lili during an era when there was no precedent for it. Gerda’s own transformation as a character speaks to the story’s themes of courage and self-acceptance.”
The Danish Girl stars Eddie Redmayne (left) and Alicia Vikander.
Past recipients of the Rising Star Award include Jessica Biel, Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch, Bryce Dallas Howard, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick, Jennifer Lawrence, and Scarlett Johansson. In the years they were honored Howard, Kendrick, and Lawrence went on to receive Academy Award nominations.
The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, portrayed in the film respectively by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper.
The film also stars Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Amber Heard, and Matthias Schoenaerts. For her role in the film, Vikander received a Breakthrough Performance honor from the New York Film Critics Online.
Following her performance in the film Pure, Vikander was named one of the Shooting Stars, representing her native Sweden, for the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.
Her other film credits include A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina, Ex Machina, Testament of Youth, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Hotell. Her upcoming movies include The Light Between Oceans, Tulip Fever, and Paul Greengrass’ new action thriller, opposite Matt Damon as Jason Bourne.
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• 'Spotlight' Director Tom McCarthy Earns Sonny Bono Visionary Award
• Half of Best Foreign Language Film Candidates to Screen in Palm Springs
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