We think actress Jennifer Lawrence deserves an Oscar for her role in Debra Granik's thriller Winter's Bone. And the Palm Springs International Film Festival agrees. They'll be presenting her with the Rising Star Award at the 2011 fest.
“Call it a gift for us all when a young performer comes along, demonstrating such natural theatrical instinct,” said Film Festival chairman Harold Matzner. “Jennifer Lawrence has delivered an Oscar quality performance in her latest role, in the jarring, critically-acclaimed Winter’s Bone. It is a great honor for the Palm Springs International Film Festival to present Jennifer Lawrence with the 2010 Rising Star Award.”
In Debra Granik's Winter’s Bone (read our gushing review), Lawrence portrays Ree Dolly, a 17 year old teenager trying to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. The film was awarded the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Lawrence won the Best Actress Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, The Blue Angel Award for Best Female Performance at the Bratislava Film Festival and a Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Actor. She also starred in Lori Petty's Poker House opposite Selma Blair and Bokeem Woodbine, for which she was awarded the prize of Outstanding Performance in the Narrative Competition at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival.
Lawrence will next be seen in The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster, Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class and Mark Tonderai's House at the End of the Street.
The 22nd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival runs January 6-17 2011 www.psfilmfest.org.
