Pnyin - Pitt's 'Babel' honored in Palm Springs

ENTERTAINMENT / Movies






Pitt's 'Babel' honored in Palm Springs

(AP)
Updated: 2007-01-08 08:44





Cast members from the film 'Babel,' Brad Pitt, left, Cate Blanchett,
second from left, Rinko Kikuch, second from right, and Adriana Barrazai
pose backstage after receiving the ensemble performance award at the 18th
annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm
Springs, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Movie-goers last year may not have noticed the
dramas "Babel" and "Little Children," but the films got plenty of
attention at the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007 Gala
Awards.

Both drew multiple honors at Saturday night's festivities in this desert
resort city 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

"Babel," which starred Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza and
Rinko Kikuchi, took the Ensemble Performance Award. Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu took home the director's award for the film, which has struggled
at the box office.

Pitt, 43, told Associated Press Television News: "I love the undercurrent
of this film, and that is the inability, sometimes, to understand where
the other side is coming from."

Inarritu, Barraza, Kikuchi and Pitt are nominated for Golden Globe
Awards, to be handed out Jan. 15, and all said they would attend.

Blanchett accepted the festival's Career Achievement Award. She
apologized for making so many movies released in 2006, including "Babel,"
"Notes on a Scandal" and "The Good German."

Kate Winslet won the festival's Desert Palm Achievement for Acting.

Winslet said the attention for her performance in the drama "Little
Children" has done nothing less than resuscitate the commercial prospects
of the $30 million film, which has earned less than $3 million in ticket
sales since hitting theaters in early fall.

"That's the thing that's so fantastic about the nominations," she said.
"It does mean that hopefully people will go and see the movie."

"Little Children" director Todd Field also won the Sonny Bono Visionary
Award. Bono, who died in 1998, founded the film festival in 1989 as Palm
Springs mayor.

Actor Sienna Miller presented Jessica Biel with the Rising Star Award.
Biel, who has logged 10 seasons as a regular and a guest star on the TV
series "7th Heaven," said she gladly accepted the festival's Rising Star
honor.

"You know, I was nothing but pleased, even though I've been working for a
long time," Biel said.

Actor Adam Beach accepted the male actor Rising Star award for his
portrait of an American Indian World War II soldier in "Flags of Our
Fathers."

"Little Miss Sunshine" took the Chairman's Vanguard Award, and Jennifer
Hudson won for breakthrough performance in "Dreamgirls."

The Palm Springs International Film Festival runs through Jan. 15.









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