Adam Sandler to Receive Chairman’s Award from Palm Springs International Film Awards for ‘Jay Kelly’

Erik Anderson November 7, 2025

The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced that Adam Sandler is the recipient of the Chairman’s Award for his performance in Netflix’s Jay Kelly.

The Film Awards will take place on January 3, 2026, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running January 2-11, 2026. The event will be presented by Kering and sponsored by Entertainment Tonight.

“Adam Sandler delivers a deeply moving and career-best performance in Jay Kelly,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “It is a performance which underscores his standing as one of the most versatile and respected actors of his generation. We are proud to honor Adam—a singular talent whose work continues to surprise and inspire—with this year’s Chairman’s Award.”

Netflix’s Jay Kelly, from Academy Award nominee Noah Baumbach, follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly (two-time Academy Award winner George Clooney), as he embarks on a journey of self-discovery confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler). The film also stars Academy Award winner Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Jay Kelly co-writer Emily Mortimer.

This is the second awards announcement for Sandler, who will also receive a Career Achievement honor from AARP The Magazine on January 10 at their annual awards ceremony.

Sandler joins previously announced honorees, the cast of Sentimental Value (Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning) who will receive the International Star Award. Past recipients of the Chairman’s Award include last year’s recipient, Timothée Chalamet, who went on to receive the Academy Award nomination for Best Actor along with previous honorees Amy Adams, George Clooney, Viola Davis, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Regina King, Gary Oldman, and Reese Witherspoon.

The Palm Springs International Film Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization whose mission is to cultivate and promote the art and science of film through education and cross-cultural awareness. The Film Society produces the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) and Film Awards every January and Palm Springs ShortFest in June, an Oscar-qualifying ShortFest and the largest short film festival and market in North America.

The City of Palm Springs is the title sponsor of both festivals. The Film Awards are presented by Kering and sponsored by Entertainment Tonight.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.