Mikey Madison (‘Anora’) to Receive Breakthrough Performance Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards

The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced that Mikey Madison will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award, for Anora. The Film Awards will take place on January 3, 2025, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running January 2-13, 2025.

“Since winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Anora has been the most talked about film this season. What makes this film so outstanding is Mikey Madison’s mesmerizing breakout role that serves as the heart and soul of this story,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “It is our honor to present the Breakthrough Performance Award, to this talented actress in celebration of her outstanding work and star-making performance.”

Madison joins this year’s previously announced honorees: Colman Domingo (Spotlight Award, Actor) and Emilia Pérez (Vanguard Award) presented to director Jacques Audiard and actors Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Edgar Ramírez.  

Past winners of the Breakthrough Performance Award include last year’s recipient Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) along with Danielle Deadwyler (Till), Mary J. Blige (Mudbound), Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), Andra Day (The United States v Billie Holiday), Cynthia Erivo (Harriet), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Felicity Huffman (Transamerica), Brie Larson (Room), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl). In the years they were honored, Cotillard, Hudson, Larson, Nyong’o and Randolph went on to win Academy Awards, while Day, Blige, Erivo, Huffman and Pike received nominations.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner Anora is an audacious, thrilling, and comedic variation on a modern day Cinderella story. Mikey Madison captivates as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya, the impetuous son of a Russian billionaire. However, when Vanya’s parents catch wind of the union, they send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.

Mikey Madison, best known for her role in FX’s critically acclaimed series Better Things, has swiftly solidifying her status as a highly sought after young actress across both film and television platforms. With an impressive array of projects under her belt, Madison’s talent and versatility have garnered widespread acclaim. Madison is set to share the screen with Academy Award winner Natalie Portman in the Apple TV+ limited series The Lady In The Lake debuting in July. Madison recently graced the screen in the highly successful Paramount Pictures’ Scream 5 alongside the cast of the original 1996 cult classic. She also had a memorable role in Academy Award nominated film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where she shared the screen with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie.

The event will be presented by Silvercrest 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.

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