Sam Rockwell, who costars with Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson in Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” has been named recipient of the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Spotlight Award, PSIFF organizers announced on Friday.
The news comes on the heels of Thursday’s announcement that “Call Me By Your Name” star Timothee Chalamet would be receiving the Rising Star Award at the festival’s January 2 awards gala, as well as an earlier announcement that Gal Gadot would also receive that honor.
In “Three Billboards,” Rockwell plays a seemingly dimwitted officer who butts heads with McDormand as she tries to get a small-town police department to step up its investigation into the murder of her daughter. The blackly comic film was written and directed by Irish playwright McDonagh, and has picked up substantial awards buzz since its debut at the fall festivals.
Rockwell’s other films include “Box of Moonlight,” “Conviction,” “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and McDonagh’s “Seven Psychopaths.”
Past winners of the Spotlight Award include Amy Adams, Bryan Cranston, J.K. Simmons and Jessica Chastain.
PSIFF’s annual Awards Gala will take place in the Palm Springs Convention Center, two days before the start of a festival that will run from January 4 through January 15 in the desert resort east of Los Angeles.
Additional honorees will be announced in the coming weeks.