The Spotlight director will receive the 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival’s (PSIFF) Sonny Bono Visionary Award.

Spotlight

McCarthy will receive the award at the festival’s annual awards gala on January 2.

PSIFF chairman Harold Matzner called McCarthy an “expert storyteller” and hailed Spotlight as “a remarkable film that creates cinematic tension between two institutions, as The Boston Globe investigates the Catholic Church.”

Prior recipients include Danny Boyle, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater and Michel Hazanavicius.

The festival runs from January 1-11.