“Till” star Danielle Deadwyler will receive the Breakthrough Performance, Actress Award at the 2023 Palm Springs International Film Awards on Jan. 5, organizers of the Palm Springs International Film Festival announced Monday.
The award will be presented at the Palm Springs Convention Center in the desert resort city east of Los Angeles, at the start of a film festival that runs through January 16. It places Deadwyler in the company of previously announced honorees Cate Blanchett (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Austin Butler (Best Performance Award, Actor), Viola Davis (President’s Award), Colin Farrell (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor ), Bill Nighy (International Star Award, Actor), Sarah Polley (Director of the Year Award), Michelle Yeoh (International Star Award) and Steven Spielberg and the cast of “The Fabelmans” (Vanguard Award).
Deadwyler stormed into the awards race this year with her portrayal of Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of teenager Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955. Till-Mobley insisted that her son’s swollen and battered body be given a coffin funeral. open, which helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s.
Announcing the award, PSIFF Festival President Harold Matzner called her performance in the film Chinonye Chukwu “undoubtedly moving and memorable” and “incredibly meaningful.”
Deadwyler won the Gotham Award and the National Board of Review Breakthrough Performance Award for “Till.” She has also appeared in “The Harder They Come,” “Watchmen” and the recent Netflix series “From Scratch” and “Station Eleven.”
Past recipients of the Breakthrough Performance Award have included Mary J. Blige, Brie Larson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Rosamund Pike.
