Paul Giamatti will receive the Icon Award at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Awards, the Palm Springs International Film Society announced on Wednesday.
Giamatti will receive the award for his performance in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” in which he plays a cranky teacher at a New England boarding school who must spend his Christmas break with students whose families aren’t able to take them for the holidays. His costar Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays the school cook, has previously been announced as the recipient of Palm Springs’ Breakthrough Performance Award.
Past winners of the Icon Award include Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close, Lady Gaga and Michael Douglas.
In a statement, Palm Springs International Film Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said, “In ‘The Holdovers,’ Paul Giamatti inhabits a complex character who is both challenging and rewarding, and ultimately reminds us of what it means to be connected as human beings.”
Giamatti’s other performances include Payne’s “Sideways,” as well as the films “Cinderella Man,” “12 Years a Slave,” “American Splendour,” “The Truman Show” and “Barney’s Version” and the television series “Billions,” “John Adams” and “Too Big to Fail.” He has won four Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Critics Choice Awards and one Independent Spirit Award.
Other honorees this year include Randolph, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Greta Gerwig, Carey Mulligan, Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone, Jeffrey Wright and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The awards ceremony will be held at the Palm Springs Convention Center and will take place on the first day of the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival, which will run through Jan. 15.
