Helen Mirren to be honored with Career Achievment Award at PSIFF

The 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Helen Mirren with the Career Achievement Award! The Festival runs January 5-18, 2010.

Helen Mirren starred as Morgana le Fay in the dark fantay film Excalibur, appeared in an episode of the 1970's TV series Thriller and the 1980's Twilight Zone, as Caesonia in the cult film Caligula, as Tanya Kirbuk in the sci-fi sequel 2010, and as the star of the Prime Suspect thriller/crime film and its 6 sequels...

She directed a short segment in the comedy/sci-fi anthology On The Edge called "Happy Birthday" in 2001.

She will appear in the 2010 Shakespearean adaptation of The Tempest as Prospera. The film is directed by Julie Taymor (also director of the futuristic 1999 film Titus.) In Taymor's version, the gender of Prospero has been switched to the female Prospera. You'll also see her in the upcoming thriller Brighton Rock.

Festival chairman Harold Matzner commented, “We are honored to present Oscar winner Helen Mirren with the Festival’s Career Achievement Award for her large and distinguished body of work. Mirren is one of the most outstanding actresses of her generation and she delivers another fine performance in The Last Station.”

Mirren stars in the Sony Pictures Classic release The Last Station, a tale of two romances, one beginning and one near its end. The film is a complex, funny, rich and emotional story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it. Scheduled to open in late December, the film written and directed by Michael Hoffman also stars Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy.