Editor

The 19th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honor Academy Award® winner Halle Berry with its prestigious Desert Palm Achievement Award at the Festival’s annual Awards Gala on Saturday, January 5, 2008. Previously announced Daniel Day-Lewis will also receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award. Past actresses that have received this award include Charlize Theron, Laura Linney, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet.

Festival chairman Earl Greenburg said, “We’re excited to honor Halle Berry with the Festival’s Desert Palm Achievement Award for her impressive body of work and mesmerizing performance in this year’s Things We Lost in the Fire. Her dramatic acting and powerful emotion shine throughout the film, showing her incredible talent as an actress.”

Hosted by “Entertainment Tonight’s” Mary Hart, the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala will also honor Juno with the Chairman’s Vanguard Award, Hairspray with the Ensemble Performance Award, Sean Penn with Director of the Year, Daniel Day-Lewis with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Jerry Weintraub with the SAG Foundation Patron of the Arts Award, Marion Cotillard with the Breakthrough Performance Award and Emile Hirsch and Nikki Blonsky with the Rising Star Awards at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

This year Berry starred in the emotional drama, Things We Lost in the Fire, directed by Susanne Bier from DreamWorks Pictures. Berry has received critical acclaim and awards attention for her portrayal of ‘Audrey,’ a woman coping with the sudden death of her husband. The film also stars Academy Award® winner Benicio Del Toro.

Berry was last seen on the big screen starring in the Sony thriller, Perfect Stranger, opposite Bruce Willis. The third installment of the X-Men series, directed by Brett Ratner, in which Berry reprised her role of ‘Storm,’ continued the franchise’s worldwide success. In 2006, she also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her acting work in the Oprah Winfrey produced movie Their Eyes Were Watching God and as executive producer for the HBO telefilm Lackawanna Blues.
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For her spectacular performance in Lionsgate Films’ Monster’s Ball, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as the SAG Award, the Berlin Silver Bear Award and was named Best Actress by the National Board of Review. No stranger to accolades, Berry earned the Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG and NAACP Image Award for her extraordinary, critically-acclaimed performance in HBO’s telefilm, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which she also produced.

Critics and filmgoers first took notice of Berry in her feature film debut, Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. She went on to star opposite Warren Beatty in the socio-political comedy, Bulworth. Other film credits include Losing Isaiah, opposite Jessica Lange; Executive Decision (for which she won a Blockbuster Award for Best Actress in an Action Drama); the live-action version of The Flintstones; The Last Boy Scout; Strictly Business; Reginald Hudlin’s Boomerang opposite Eddie Murphy; Swordfish with John Travolta and Hugh Jackman; Robots; Gothika; and Die Another Day, opposite Pierce Brosnan, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Bond franchise and becoming the largest-grossing Bond film to date.

Founded in 1990 by then Mayor Sonny Bono, the PSIFF is one of the largest film festivals in North America. The Festival has an attractive film sales and distribution record and is seen by American distributors as one of the best Academy Award campaign marketing tools. The Festival also features cultural events, filmmaker tributes, industry seminars and an annual black-tie gala award presentation.

Renewing their support of this year’s Festival is Title Sponsor, The City of Palm Springs and Presenting Sponsors, Spencer’s Restaurant, The Desert Sun, the City of Indian Wells, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Entertainment Tonight and Wessman Development. Major sponsors include Mercedes-Benz, the Official Vehicle of the Festival, Integrated Wealth Management, Bank of America, Regal Entertainment, Ciroc/Don Julio/Johnnie Walker and Wells Fargo.

The 19th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, scheduled from January 3-14, 2008, will feature a line up of more than 230 films from 65 countries, seminars, special events and Gala receptions. For additional information call 760-322-2930 or 800-898-7256 or www.psfilmfest.org.