Julianne Moore to receive Desert Palm prize at Palm Springs film fest

Julianne Moore will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award, an honor given to one actor and one actress at the Palm Springs International Film Festival every January.

A prolific actress and four-time Oscar nominee, Moore has recently emerged as an awards-season contender for her striking performance in Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s drama “Still Alice,” which tells the story of an accomplished professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and struggles to retain her life and identity for as long as she can.

The film will have a one-week qualifying run beginning Dec. 5 before opening wide Jan. 16 from Sony Pictures Classics.

Moore also costars in Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1” (in theaters Nov. 21) as the rebel leader President Alma Coin. Her previous films include “Far From Heaven,” “Boogie Nights,” “Maps to the Stars,” “Magnolia” and “The Big Lebowski.”

“Throughout her career, Julianne Moore has delivered a wide range of extraordinary performances,” festival chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement Thursday. He added that in “Still Alice,” Moore “faces one of her most demanding and challenging roles” and “delivers another career-defining performance that is sure to captivate audiences and bring attention to this devastating disease.”

Eddie Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” was previously announced as the recipient of the other Desert Palm. The honors will be presented at an awards gala Jan. 3; the festival runs Jan. 2-12.

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