Letter from the Chairman

HAROLD MATZNER, CHAIRMAN

LETTER FROM THE FESTIVAL CHAIRMAN

Since we have not been together in person since our 2020 Festival, I take especially great pleasure in welcoming you to this year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival. Gathering with our audiences in front of the big screen to collectively share the best new films the world has to offer takes on a renewed significance this year. The more than 130 films we will be showing, which were curated for this year’s program by artistic director Lili Rodriguez and her talented staff of programmers, will allow audiences to journey to 64 countries from every region of the world without ever leaving the Coachella Valley.

Our festival offers something to suit every filmgoer’s taste — from escapist comedies and edge-of-your-seat thrillers to deeply moving dramas and eye-opening documentaries. The festival is widely regarded throughout the industry as the festival that screens the most submissions to the Best International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards®. This year, once again, we’re bringing you a large selection of those films in our Awards Buzz program.

No festival would be complete without a taste of Hollywood, so we invite you to don your finest attire and celebrate with us in person at this year’s Film Awards, which opens the festival on Thursday, January 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. We’ll kick off this year’s awards season by honoring some of the biggest A-list movie stars and filmmakers in the world. It’s the only event in the valley where you can celebrate among Hollywood’s best and brightest, see the glitz and glamor of the red carpet with stars like Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Michelle Yeoh, Austin Butler, Michelle Williams and more Oscar® hopefuls, and enjoy a fabulous dinner in our elegantly decorated ballroom. And it’s all for a good cause, raising more than $2.5 million for the Palm Springs International Film Society’s year-round mission.

I want to thank our presenting sponsor, American Express; our title sponsor, City of Palm Springs; and our Film Awards host Mary Hart and Entertainment Tonight for helping to make this one of the most exciting events in the world of film. Our major sponsors are IHG Hotels & Resorts and the Houston Family Foundation.

The Award Gala’s underwriters are Helene Galen, JoAnn McGrath, Sean McGrath, Jordan Schnitzer and myself. Our entire board of directors donates more than $1 million annually to this benefit for the Palm Springs International Film Society. It is an honor to support the vision and passion of our founder Sonny Bono, our past chairman, Earl Greenburg, and James R. and Jackie Lee Houston, who chaired this event for so many years.

We hope you join us in ringing in a very happy new year at the festival!

2022-2023 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Harold Matzner

VICE CHAIRS

David Baron Aftab Dada Helene Galen JoAnn McGrath Scott White

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stephen Breimer James Bruner Nachhattar Singh Chandi Michael Childers

Sidney D. Craig

Bob Deville Robert Dickey Michele Finney Jaci Fitzsimonds Eric Garner Elizabeth Gelfand Stearns Gary D. Hall Wendy Hope-Heckmann Carol Kaplan Terri Ketover Garry Kief Geoff Kors Michelle Krans

Mary Ann LaBahn

Jenny Lavey Kevin McGuire Donna MacMillan Peter Mahler Katherine Malkin Tristan Milanovich Lee Morcus

Patrick Mundt

Marie E. Pinizzotto, M.D., MBA

John Pinkney

Catharine Reed

Jan Salta Aubrey Serfling

Linda Shirvanian Dominique Shwe Ellen Sneider

Emeritus Members:

Fritz Frauchiger, in memoriam Jack Grundhofer, in memoriam Patti Grundhofer, in memoriam James R. Houston, in memoriam

Executive Board Members are noted in bold.