Penélope Cruz to Receive Variety’s Creative Impact in Acting Award

Penélope Cruz is making a creative impact

Variety will honor the 49-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress, who is currently earning praise for her performance in Ferrari, with the Creative Impact in Acting Award at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Penelope CruzThe award will be presented as part of Variety’s annual 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards brunch on January 5 at the Parker Palm Springs.

Cruz will be recognized for her accomplished career as a four-time Oscar nominee known for her daring, multidimensional and unforgettable performances in Volver, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Nine and Parallel Mothers.

Her latest film, Ferrari, was directed by Michael Mann and stars Adam Driver as the iconic race car driver and entrepreneur. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and comes out in theaters on December 25.

It was named to National Board of Review’s list of the year’s top 10 films and earned Cruz a Gotham Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance.

“More than 30 years after her stunning film debut in Bigas Lunas’ Venice Festival prize winner, Jamón Jamón, Penelope Cruz continues startling global film audiences with her limitless versatility in films created by the world’s finest directors,” said Variety’s Executive Vice President Content, Steven Gaydos. “Her long association with Pedro Almodóvar has won her major accolades, and she took home the Oscar for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She’s now at the peak of her powers in Michael Mann’s masterpiece, Ferrari. It’s Variety‘s great honor to present our Creative Impact in Acting to Penelope Cruz, for both her illustrious career and for her powerful performance as the unforgettable woman at the heart of Ferrari.’

Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos and Killers of the Flower Moon co-writer Eric Roth are also set to receive honors at the January 5 event. Variety  will announce its 10 Directors to Watch on January 3.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival runs January 4 to 15. For additional information visit http://www.psfilmfest.org.

Penélope Cruz to Star in Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari Biopic “Ferrari”

Penélope Cruz is revving her engines for a new role…

The 47-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress, who earned an Academy Award nod this week, will star in director Michael Mann’s passion project Ferrari.

Penelope CruzCruz is among a roster of All-Star cast members that includes Adam Driver and Shailene Woodley for the big-budget biopic of racing mogul Enzo Ferrari.

Driver is replacing Hugh Jackman in the title role while Parallel Mothers star Cruz will play Enzo’s wife Laura.  Woodley will play mistress Lina Lardi.

Four-time Oscar nominee Mann is gearing up for a May start in Italy.

STX is handling international rights and has now picked up the domestic rights in a big deal with Mann. Amazon is aboard in a handful of international markets. STX International will look to close remaining deals this week with some big international pacts already secured, including Leone in Italy.

The movie, which Mann has been working on for two decades, is set during the summer of 1957. Ex-racecar driver, Ferrari, is in crisis. Bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura, built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for one son and the acknowledgement of another. He decides to counter his losses by rolling the dice on one race – 1,000 miles across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.

The project has famously been through multiple iterations, but this is as far along as the casting has been at any stage.

Mann will direct from a script by Troy Kennedy and Mann based on Brock Yates’ book Enzo Ferrari – The Man and the Machine.

“Being able to have these wonderfully talented artists, actors Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley, bring to life these unique characters on location in Modena and the Emilia-Romagna is a vision fulfilled,” says Mann.

Ferrari is so much more than a story about a man and his machine,” says Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STXfilms Motion Picture. “It is an extraordinary and emotional story that Michael has been developing for years and the entire team at STX is looking forward to the start of production with this dream cast and filmmaker. Adam Driver is one of the most talented and fascinating actors working today, and we could not be more thrilled to pair him with Penélope, whose legendary career builds with every role she takes.”

Cruz, nominated this week for the Best Actress Oscar in Parallel Mothers, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and was nominated another two times for her roles in Volver and Nine. In addition to Parallel Mothers for Sony, she currently stars in IFC’s Official Competition opposite Antonio Banderas.

The Steamy Music Video for Cruz & Miguel Bosé’s Duet Released

She’s already earned an Academy Award nomination for her role in the film adaptation of the musical Nine… And Penélope Cruz could soon earn a Grammy nomination.

The 38-year-old Spanish actress – who made her singing debut in Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver, in a role that earned her another Oscar nomination – appears in a new music video for her critically acclaimed duet with her Spanish compatriot Miguel Bosé.

Penelope Cruz & Miguel Bose

In the black-and-white clip, Cruz – looking quite sensual – and Bosé appear in different hotel rooms, where the actress boasts her sweet voice and throws herself onto the bed dressed in sexy lingerie, while singing “Decirnos Adiós,” a song composed by her brother Eduardo Cruz.

“Penelope sings fabulously and, above all, she has a lot of personality in her voice and enjoys it a lot, something that you can’t say about everyone,” Bosé told Spanish wire service EFE.

Cruz was one of the special guests on Bosé’s most recent album Papitwo, along with the voices of Joaquín Sabina, Juan Luis Guerra, Tiziano Ferro, Dani Martin and Pablo Alborán, who also collaborated on the production.

The album was released in August 2012.