Parallel Mothers

Source: © El Deseo / Igelsias Más

Parallel Mothers

Penélope Cruz, Oscar-nominated for Parallel Mothers, will receive receive the 39th Miami Film Festival’s Precious Gem Icon Award on March 12.

Cruz will take part in a virtual award tribute and conversation as part of the Awards Ceremony programme that includes the closing night screening of Panamanian shortlisted international feature Plaza Catedral. The festival is scheduled to run from March 4-13.

The Spanish star and longtime Pedro Almodovar collaborator earned a best lead actress Goya Award nomination for Parallel Mothers, in which she plays a photographer involved in a maternity ward mix-up who is separately arranging for the excavation of a Franco era mass grave in her home village.

Cruz won the Venice Coppa Volpi award after Parallel Mothers premiered on the Lido last year, and also received best actress honors from National Society Of Film Critics and LA Film Critics Association.

Miami Film Festival’s Precious Gem Award is the festival’s signature award and honours “one-of-a-kind artists whose contributions to cinema are lasting and unforgettable”. As previously announced the festival’s Precious Gem Awards go to Drive My Car ‘s Oscar-nominated director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Ramin Bahrani, whose 2nd Chance premiered at Sundance.

“From the moment that Penélope Cruz first appeared on Miami Film Festival screens at our 10th edition in 1993 in her screen debut, Jamon Jamon, she has been a beloved favourite of our audience,” said Miami Film Festival executive director Jaie Laplante.

“Over the nearly three decades that have followed, we have been enthralled to follow and screen so much of her extraordinary work, including her complex, overwhelmingly emotional performance in the Oscar-nominated Parallel Mothers.”

Cruz’s credits include Pain & Glory, Volver, Broken Embraces, Live Flesh and All About My Mother, Loving Pablo, The Queen Of Spain, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Nine, To Rome with Love, All The Pretty Horses and Belle Epoque.