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“Tonight, we honor someone who has done something very few artists achieve,” began Laura Dern when she took the stage before thousands of guests seated at the Palm Springs Convention Center for the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Film Awards presented by Kering on Saturday, Jan. 3.
“He has become part of our cultural DNA: We quote him. We reference him. We try to do his voices at parties. And we all have at least one memory of laughing so hard we spilled a drink all over somebody else,” Dern continued, “because Adam Sandler has made the world more joyful, more beautiful, more connected and, thank God, a bit sillier, than it ever dreamt of being before he came along.”
Dern pledged that her Jay Kelly co-star’s career “has been about so much more than just comedy.” However, when Sandler came to the podium to accept the Chairman’s Award, he showcased exactly what he does best and brought some of the night’s only levity.
“Like every actor, when I decided to become an actor, my parents were disgusted,” Sandler began, recalling how his father gave him one year to try to make it before coming to working for him as an electrical contractor. He succeeded — but noted that he sometimes thinks about what his life would be like now if he had gone and worked for his dad.
“First off, I’d probably still be married to my wife, Jackie,” he said, “but we’d definitely have a different house. Probably 10 less bathrooms and a few less statues of me. … I would probably still get stopped on the street for pictures, but not because of the fame factor as much as they’ve never seen somebody with that much scoliosis.”
He went on: “I probably would have not just had a vacation in Hawaii. If I wanted to go swimming, I’d just do it in the pond up the street next to the nuclear power plant. But not all bad news, because then, my penis wouldn’t glow in the dark. Actually, thinking about it, my wife might not want to be with me! … I’d be with, probably, that man right there. Then, he would have divorced me after six months because he couldn’t stand looking at my scoliosis in the nude. But you’re going to miss the glow-in-the-dark penis, buddy!”
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And finally: “I”d probably still have a deal with Netflix. But I’d be paying them a monthly fee, so I could watch Stranger Things,” Sandler said. “I definitely would not be here right now accepting an award for acting. I’d be at a Burger King accepting an award for best customer. … I think I would still have met the Safdie brothers. But only because they were doing a movie about a crazy Jew guy with a glow-in-the-dark penis, and they wanted to study me.”
Fortunately for everyone, Sandler concluded, “it all worked out,” and he’s been doing movies for 40 years.
Also at the starry annual ceremony, Jane Fonda received a standing ovation when she came out to present the Vanguard Award to the team behind Focus Features’ Hamnet — a film about which she organically raved.
She began by asking the audience members to plant their feet on the ground and take a deep breath in — because the director of Hamnet asks audiences to do a breathing exercise before they see her film. “I understand why,” Fonda said. “This world right now, it seems to shrink us, to corset us, to put scales over our heart. And what the breathing exercise does is it lets you open up.”
Fonda recalled how she first saw Hamnet upon her son’s urging that she see it immediately — and she urged the crowd to see it, or see it again. “This is what film is supposed to be,” Fonda said. “This is a perfect film, in my opinion.”
Then, Hamnet director Chloe Zhao and actors Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal came up to humbly accept.
The night kicked off with Meghann Fahy’s presentation of the Breakthrough Performance Award to If I Had Legs I’d Kick You star Rose Byrne. “We premiered the film at Sundance almost a year ago,” Byrne said. “Prior to that, [director] Mary [Bronstein] worked to get this movie made for eight years.”
Byrne joked about how she was receiving the “breakthrough award” at age 46. “Forty-six is definitely the wrong side of 40 to breaking through anything in this business, so it makes it even cooler! I’m so honored.”
The cast of Sentimental Value (Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning) received the International Star Award from Joachim Trier.
Timothee Chalamet received the Spotlight Award from Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie, whom he went on to praise. “This man’s a genius!” Chalamet said. “What’s cooking in this man’s mind is unbelievable.”
Paul Feig gave the Visionary Award to the Frankenstein team (director Guillermo del Toro and cast members Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth). “Collaborating with Guillermo del Toro on Frankenstein has been the honor of a lifetime,” Isaac said. “Guillermo makes bold, impossibly rich films pulsing with emotion and humanity. “This project has been his 50-year dream.”
Mahershala Ali presented the Career Achievement Award to Ethan Hawke. “He plays the notes between the notes,” Ali said, noting how he’s thrown himself into his projects for four decades. Hawke reflected on the film industry, including early encounters with actors like River Phoenix.
Hawke returned to the stage to award the Desert Palm Achievement Award Actress honor to The Testament of Ann Lee star Amanda Seyfried. The Abba song “Dancing Queen” played as Seyfried took the stage. “That music will never stop following me!” she quipped. “And I’m fine with that.”
Past Palm Springs honoree Colman Domingo presented the Icon Award to Sinners star Michael B. Jordan — who expressed concern for a male guest taken out on a stretcher by paramedics.
Jack Champion presented the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award to Miley Cyrus — who recalled how she’d volunteered to James Cameron that she would write a song for him, leading to the Avatar hit.
After opening with a few notes of the song, Cyrus praised the celebratory nature of the Palm Springs Awards gala, where people weren’t competing with each other. “It is truly the most elegant Palm Springs party I have ever been to. There are fewer drag queens than I would have liked,” Cyrus joked, “but I’ll be stopping by Tucans on my way back to L.A. to get my fix.”
Desert Palm Achievement Award recipient Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t able to fly there (rumored to have been on account of the travel delays caused by U.S.’ capture of the Venezuelan president). However, his One Battle After Another co-stars Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor praised him before he delivered pre-recorded remarks in a video.
Finally, Rob Marshall presented the night’s final award, the Icon Award, Actress, to Song Sung Blue star Kate Hudson.
“To Adam Sandler: I’ve been looking for a glow-in-the-dark penis for decades,” Hudson joked from the stage. “And Jackie Sandler’s a very lucky woman.”
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Jasmin Rosemberg
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