“The Imitation Game,” an award-winning film about a man who is only now being recognized as the father of modern computing, will receive the Ensemble Performance Award Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala.
The cast includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech and Matthew Beard. Cumberbatch and Knightley are expected to attend the sold-out event at the Palm Springs Convention Center, along with other cast members.
Director Morten Tyldum is expected to present the award. Also scheduled to attend are writer Graham Moore and producers Teddy Schwarzman, Nora Grossman and Ido Ostrowsky.
Festival board chairman Harold Matzner called the film, “one of the very best ensembles to grace the screen this season.
“Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley lead an outstanding cast in ‘The Imitation Game,’” Matzner said, “a film about Alan Turing as he attempts to crack Germany’s Enigma machine.”
Cumberbatch portrays Turing, a mathematician and cryptanalyst who is arrested for “gross indecency” in 1952 after British authorities enter his home to investigate a reported burglary. He is convicted of the criminal offense of homosexuality by officials who don’t realize he is a war hero who saved thousands of lives by cracking a heretofore unbreakable Nazi code.
The film has been nominated for four British Independent Film Awards and it won awards at festivals in Toronto, Chicago, Mill Valley, Hawaii and San Diego, to name just a few.
Cumberbatch, who stars in the BBC series, “Sherlock,” also has appeared in such recently acclaimed films as “12 Years A Slave,” “August: Osage County” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Knightly received an Oscar nomination in 2006 for her lead role in “Pride & Prejudice.”
Past recipients of the Ensemble Performance Award include the Oscar winner for Best Picture, “Argo,” and past Best Picture nominees “American Hustle,” “Babel” and “The Social Network.”
The Gala, hosted by Mary Hart, also will feature awards presented to previously announced honorees Julianne Moore, Rosamund Pike, Eddie Redmayne, J.K. Simmons and Reese Witherspoon.
The festival runs Jan. 2-12. Information: (760) 322-2930 or psfilmfest.org.
Source: The Desert Sun
