Date: 4th January 2016

Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon top Palm Springs Festival awards.


Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon were among the winners at Palm Springs Film Festival, with Damon saying director Ridley Scott deserved an Academy Award.

Damon, who starred in Scott's film The Martian, said of Scott: "I hope that this is his year".

Carol star Blanchett thanked the festival for giving its honourees "a moment of glory" even if "we are not nominated for any other award".

Damon, who was given the chairman's award, added that he thought Scott already had an Oscar for best director - for Gladiator, which won five Academy Awards in 2001 - but he had lost out to Traffic's Steven Soderbergh.

"What he's given to cinema, it's not an accident," Damon said of Scott.

"He's just a master director. There are a handful of them on planet earth, but he is one of them. Gladiator won best picture, but he wasn't a producer on Gladiator. And so, the bottom line is, he's given more than enough to cinema, so I hope that this is his year."

Source: Press Release