The 18th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) honored the cast of Babel with the Festival’s Ensemble Performance Award and Alejandro González Iñárritu with the Director of the Year Award at the Festival’s annual Awards Gala. Cast members Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi attended along with Iñárritu. This is the first year the Festival has presented an ensemble award to a cast. Directors that the Festival has previously honored include Anthony Minghella, Alexander Payne and Ang Lee. Festival Chairman Earl Greenburg said, “Babel is truly a remarkable film, featuring a diverse cast of both actors and non-actors, all of whom contributed immeasurably to the power of this unique film. We are delighted to have the opportunity to honor these ensemble performances featuring international superstars and unknown locals. Iñárritu has created a masterful film that has earned international praise and acclaim thus earning him the Festival’s Director of the Year Award.” John Lesher, President of Paramount Vantage said, “We are thrilled that the Palm Springs International Film Festival has chosen to honor Alejandro as Director of the Year and that the cast of Babel will receive the Festival’s very first ensemble award. Palm Springs is known for being a festival for true film lovers and it’s a joy to be able to share Babel with them.” The Awards Gala, also honored Sydney Pollack, Kate Winslet, Todd Field and Adam. About Babel: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi lead an international ensemble of actors and non-professional actors from Morocco, Tijuana and Tokyo in Babel. The film follows a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple’s frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a deaf Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. In this mesmerizing, emotional film that was shot on three continents and in five languages – and traverses both the deeply personal and the explosively political - acclaimed director Alejandro González Iñárritu explores with shattering realism the nature of the barriers that seem to separate humankind. Iñárritu evokes the ancient concept of Babel and questions its modern day implications: the mistaken identities, misunderstandings and missed chances for communication that, though often unseen, drive our contemporary lives. Paramount Vantage presents an Anonymous Content Production and Z Films Production of an Alejandro González Iñárritu film. About Alejandro González Iñárritu Iñárritu directed and produced his debut feature film in 2000, Amores Perros, which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film and received over 60 prizes becoming the most awarded film around the world in that year. Iñárritu’s follow-up film, 21 Grams, which he conceived, directed and produced, starred Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and Naomi Watts. Both Del Toro and Watts received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film and Penn won the Jury Prize for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. In May 2006 Iñárritu completed his third feature film Babel, which concluded his trilogy and earned him the Best Director Award at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. The film also won the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes for Best Editing (Stephen Mirrione, A.C.E) and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. ©PRPhoto - Special thanks to Alejandro!