Brie Larson accepts the breakthrough performance award for Room at the 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala.Chris Pizzello
"Can you believe it's 2016?" boomed Helen Mirren.
We could, and we did, because if ever there was a memorandum that the big ball had indeed dropped, it was the fact that we were here, in a mythic desert town, traversing the Oscar campaign trail on day two of the newborn calendar. Destination: the gala for the 27th Palm Springs International Film Festival. The gang: everyone from Cate to Kate.
Underneath the veil of monolithic mountains, ingenues like Brie Larson and kids-at-heart like Michael Keaton all showed up this past weekend for what's become a harbinger of the big awards shows to come over the next few weeks. This is partly because of the Old Hollywood halo that still prevails here – back during the studio system, contracts stipulated that actors couldn't be more than 100 miles from Hollywood during filming, one of the reasons Palm Springs drew Frank and Ava and Marilyn and Joe – and partly because the timing of this night – Oscar ballots are due next week – the gala constitutes the last best chance for actors do the hustle, make their pitches, sharpen their thank-yous and tweak their speeches.
"Last year, both Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne were honoured," a man with a cadaverous smile told me as I was settling into my seat at the 2,000-person benefit, sponsored by BigHorn. His eyes darkened with a look that read, "and you know how that turned out."
What tea leaves were there to be read, as the Dale Chihuly-designed statuettes were being given out, and the rigamarole amped up before much of this same troupe heads to the Golden Globes this upcoming weekend? Let us consider:
It's Ridley's turn
No Oscar narrative – like political campaigns, they thrive on the so-called "narrative" – is more powerful than "It's Time." It worked for Martin Scorsese and the year of The Departed. And that's the same drum that Matt Damon was beating for the director of his bona fide blockbuster The Martian. "What he's given to cinema, it's not an accident," Damon, recipient of the Chairman's Award, started to say about Ridley Scott, from the stage. "He's just a master director. There are a handful of them on planet Earth." Rather than stump for himself in what is admittedly a crowded actor category – Leonardo DiCaprio was not in the room, but he looms large in that particular Oscar race – Mr. Good Will Hunting devoted the bulk of his speech to expressing shock that the director of Blade Runner and Alien is Oscar-less. "I thought he already had an Academy Award because he directed a best picture. Gladiator won best picture, but he wasn't a producer on Gladiator ... I hope that this is his year."
Fassbender is in the game
Although everyone's favourite Irish-German hunk has been allergic to stumping for gold in the past – Michael Fassbender famously skipped the Oscar nominees luncheon even when he was nominated for 12 Years a Slave, and told GQ re: campaigning, "I'm an actor, not a politician" – he now seems more partial. Making the rounds, and looking good – the man knows how to fill out a tuxedo – he was here to receive an award, during which he took a poke at the under-performance, money-wise, of his biopic Steve Jobs, all the while sending a message to Academy members: Don't hold it against us. "It's unfortunate about the box-office figures, but thank God for Jurassic World [also made by Universal]," Fassbender quipped. Notably, the actor did not walk the red carpet with his girlfriend, Alicia Vikander, who was also in Palm Springs to get her own award, which might just be the way these two are playing things this Oscar season.
A factory of It Girls
Speaking of Vikander: The Danish Girl star, Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan walk into a room. Is there a punchline? This trio will be much seen over the next few weeks, even though none are exactly household names (many at the gala didn't know who they were). But all are in the swim for their breakthroughs – Vikander for both The Danish Girl and Ex Machina, Brie Larson for Room, and Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn. All three were here receiving awards, and if nothing else it was a chance to hone up on the pronunciation for the latter's name – it's Saoirse like "Ser-sha." It was also a chance for Vikander, the recently announced face of Louis Vuitton, to cement her place as fashion's new darling. In Palm Springs, though, she did not wear LV – possibly saving those gowns for the bigger televised award shows.
Flattery will get you most places
Bryan Cranston may have been speaking directly to Academy members when he accepted his Palm Springs prize for Trumbo, playing up what is a timeless theme for Oscar – movies about movies. Riffing on the screenwriter he plays in the film about the 1950s Hollywood blacklist, the class act told the room that he hopes the film will help educate younger audiences, who "will realize that the blacklist was not a show on NBC." Reflecting on his favourite scene in the film, Cranston said he likes it when his character tells John Wayne, "The whole point of this fight is that we both have the right to be wrong."
Some of the other hardware given out on Saturday, by the way?
They included an "Ensemble" prize for the film The Big Short, the Sonny Bono Visionary accolade to Tom McCarthy (director of Spotlight), a pair of actress statuettes to both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and the Desert Palm Achievement Award to Johnny Depp. The latter, who was working a Vidal Sassoon-style asymmetrical haircut, asked the gala crowd, "Is Michael Eisner here?' and, also, "How was the beef?"