Awards contenders who hit the trail to the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival this weekend were talking about the breathless pace of this year’s race. No sooner than the last parade float left Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day than a herd of Oscar hopefuls hit the road for the desert to start the next phase of this wide open awards season.
Earlier than ever , Saturday night’s PSIFF awards gala , timed to land right in the middle of the crucial Oscar nominating balloting, brought out a bevy of contenders who were being presented pre-negotiated trophies at the glitziest of ceremonies 
this side of the Golden Globes ( which take place in a week , also disturbingly earlier than normal). In a ceremony hosted by the ever-enthusiastic Mary Hart( and sponsored in key part as usual by Cartier) Rosamund Pike ( Breakthrough Actress winner for Gone Girl) , David Oyelowo (Breakthrough Actor for Selma), J.K. Simmons ( Spotlight winner for Whiplash), Robert Duvall (Icon Award for The Judge), Boyhood director Richard Linklater ( Sonny Bono Visionary Award), Julianne Moore (Actress, Still Alice), Eddie Redmayne (Actor , The Theory Of Everything), 
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ( Director, Birdman), The Imitation Game (Ensemble Cast) and Reese Witherspoon ( Chairman’s Award, Wild) , all got to try out speeches they might get a chance to deliver at the Golden Globes or the Oscars if they’re lucky. Even presenters like Steve Carell (for Moore), Michael Keaton (for Inarritu) , director Morten Tyldum (for his Imitation Game cast) and Laura Dern ( for Witherspoon ) , who are all contenders in their own right , were given an opportunity to make an impression on the gigantic Palm Springs Convention Center stage in front of a silver screen that even eclipsed the size of Cinerama. But it was probably two other Best Actor possibilities (although further down the list in this uber competitive year) Robert Downey Jr. presenting to co-star Duvall and Brad Pitt presenting to Oyelowo , star of his Plan B’s Selma who made the greatest impression of all stealing the show in all their superstar glory.
Early in the evening Pitt had the crowd in the palm of his hand getting them to follow his lead in learning how to correctly pronounce Oyelowo’s tricky name ( Oyellow-o). First you had to try to say it in unison, then with Pitt leading the chorus, you had to try to sing it. The actor was clearly having fun and it got the three hour-plus show off to a great start early on. Breakthrough winner Oyelowo charmed the crowd when he said in his acceptance, “you know you have really broken through when Brad
Pitt sings your name!” And Downey, wearing sunglasses , was the epitome of Downey Jr. Cool, before getting serious about Duvall. “Did you see my Mercedes parked out in front ? That’s called preferred parking. And you would think Cartier could give me this watch instead of asking for it back at 7:30 tomorrow morning!” Both came on relatively early in the show and really got the crowd going. Some of the other speeches could have used a little editing, particularly PSIFF Board Chair Harold Matzner who took his time thanking the less famous, but deep pocketed donors in the room. But Matzner , who puts this key 
awards event on each year, did succinctly point out its importance to the industry and why so many show biz types make this annual trek to the desert. “Last year we are proud to say that 10 of our 11 awards gala honorees were nominated for Academy Awards. This year’s honorees are that same magnificent quality and we believe bound to experience similar success with Academy voters,” he said. And ain’t that what this is all about? Sort of. When then-Mayor Sonny Bono came up with the idea over a quarter century ago of a film festival for Palm Springs it was a good one, guaranteed to bring big bucks into the city. And a big, less publicized part of it are still the actual movies, particularly the long list of Oscar -contending foreign language films this fest specializes in thanks to the guidance of fest director Darryl MacDonald and artistic director Helen du Toit. But I doubt he knew it would also become one of the must -stops on the awards circuit for its glamorous , if sometimes garish, trophy trot that includes a full orchestra on stage playing honorees on with the themes from their movies. No expense is spared for this thing, The centerpieces utilize 19,000 flowers that required the efforts of 45 designers to assemble them – just part of the spare-no-expense nature of the annual PSIFF gala.
I have to confess this all is one of my guilty awards season pleasures. You just have to admire the sheer scale of it . Tons of volunteers urge every attendee to hit the red carpet and applaud you as you walk into the cavernous ballroom which is filled to the rafters with 2400 attendees. Somewhere in the dead center of all those tables sit the honorees and their entourages from the studios and distributors who
arranged these awards for their best and brightest hopefuls in order to further push their Oscar chances. But the best thing these contenders can do for this opportunity is to make a coherent , concise speech that turns on the crowd ( which does include more than a few Academy voters). To that end most did nicely, but in some cases might have benefitted from a little editing.
Nevertheless this is a place where you can really get your campaign rolling. I recall last year’s PSIFF Actor winner, Matthew McConaughey really ignited the audience with his speech and set a tone that took him all the way to the Oscar. If anyone did that this year it was probably Redmayne , who hit all the right notes in a classy acceptance. I would say the same for Benedict Cumberbatch, the appointed speaker for 
The Imitation Game cast. He was eloquent , funny, thoughtful and touching in talking about the person he plays in the film, Alan Turing , and in making a sincere , textbook perfect acceptance. He was amusing too in explaining the absence of co-star Keira Knightley . “She got mixed up and thought this was in Palm Beach. She’s enjoying a nice tan right now, ” he said. Not really. She’s ill and couldn’t make it. At the ridiculously crowded Parker Hotel after party Cumberbatch told me they wanted him to use a teleprompter for his speech but he nixed it, preferring to go off the cuff. It worked , right from the Chariots Of Fire slow motion run he and his castmates made in entering the stage. He told me they had planned even more gags but he forgot them when he was up there. He also paid a high compliment to his friend and one-time The Other Boleyn Girl co-star Redmayne. “Eddie, I thought did such a beautiful speech and such a job of encompassing everything from the personal to the film to Stephen to the subject matter that when he was up there talking I felt my head exploding. There are just so many different ways to go with this.” he said. He chose the right one .
As did Redmayne who lavished praise on his presenter, and former Savage Grace co-star Julianne Moore who played his mother in the film about an incestuous relationship. At the Parker afterparty he still was talking about how great Moore was to work with and how she helped him get that early role as he had mentioned on stage earlier. ” In the end she fought for me in a way that had never been done for me before. And that was so lovely of her to do this tonight,” he said. Redmayne also mentioned on stage he was newlywed with wife, Hannah for just two weeks. He told me how they spent their holiday honeymoon . “We went skiing in the alps . Unfortunately there was no snow, just a lot of sunshine. A few more freckles. It was just great being away from everything and being super relaxed, ” he said before jumping back into the awards season grind where he will be again on the Q&A circuit this week before beginning prep work on his next film , The Danish Girl which starts in a month and a half – just around Oscar time.
The show may have run long , but it had many highlights from terrific career tips from Duvall (deservedly getting the evening’s only standing ovation) and Shirley MacLaine who presented to her Bernie director Linklater and reminisced about working with Hitchcock, Wilder and Wyler along the way. There was Carell’s charming intro
to recent co-star Moore, to the genuine warmth and respect between Keaton and his Birdman director Inarritu, and particularly between Dern and Witherspoon. And Simmons, whose award was presented by his frequent director Jason Reitman , seemed genuinely touched by the recognition for Whiplash after decades of journeyman acting work on stage, TV and in movies. He was soldiering through extremely painful back spasms all day. I was happy to moderate a 45 minute “Talking Pictures” conversation with him earlier Saturday but, despite the pain which he hid, he got through it like a true pro and the Palm Springs film fans loved him. Tomorrow he’s on a plane to New York for Monday’s New York Film Critics banquet where he will get yet another of many awards in the next few weeks. It’s that thing you do this time of year.
Pete Hammond
