[IMG:L]The Palm Springs Film Festival honored the best and brightest in the biz over the weekend with a star-studded Awards Gala paying tribute to this year’s hottest films and filmmakers.
Top honors went to Halle Berry and Daniel Day Lewis, who received the Desert Palm Achievement Awards for Best Actor and Actress, while Sean Penn took home the Director of the Year Award for his biography Into the Wild about the adventures of Christopher McCandless.
“I am three times the girl I used to be,” Berry said when she took the stage to accept her award. The seven-months-pregnant star joked, “This is the first red carpet where I didn’t have to think about sucking in my stomach–because I can’t!”
[IMG:R]Rising Star Awards went to Hairspray’s leading lady Nikki Blonsky and Wild star Emile Hirsch who confessed “[Sean Penn] is a really intelligent, thoughtful and courageous guy. You know when it comes to his craft and his art, he really goes for the jugular.”
Blonsky waited until she had an audience to gush about her matronly costar John Travolta saying, “I would like to thank John Travolta for being the best mommy a girl could have!” during her acceptance speech.
The newcomer and her Hairspray costars also received the Ensemble Award for the movie musical about a Baltimore teen who takes a stand for what she believes in.
“It has been amazing,” Travolta told Hollywood.com of the past year. “Between Wild Hogs and Hairspray I have had a tremendous year and I am very appreciative of it. I have been around long enough to know what a good year is and I think it is my best year in awhile.”
Hairspray wasn’t the only cast walking away with honors. The festival paid tribute to Juno, a dramedy about teen pregnancy, with the Vanguard Award. “I am really happy people are responding well to the film and it has opened more doors for me,” star Ellen Page told Hollywood.com.
[IMG:R]After the awards, the celebrities and their guests headed from the Palm Springs Convention Center to the Parker resort for the ultimate after party and reunion. While Penn caught up with Hirsch outside, Brittany Snow and Amanda Bynes took some time to catch up with Hairspray costar Zac Efron and his girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens.
“It’s kind of like a dream come true,” Snow told Hollywood.com of the movie musical’s success. “[It is] the weirdest thing because it is just the movie that will never go away, which I love but I am having so much fun going to all these parties and I get to meet all these people.”
