Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and The Cast of 'Young Adult' to Be Honored at the Palm Springs Film Festival

Philip V. Caruso/Paramount Pictures

The cast of Jason Reitmans new film Young Adult has been selected to receive the Vanguard Award, which recognizes an outstanding creative ensemble, at the 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

What is more bittersweet than realizing that your glory days, particularly those in high school, when everything was possible, may truly be a thing of the past, festival chairman Harold Matznersaid in announcing the honor. In Young Adult, a writer of teen literature gets a major reality check when her plan to reclaim a former high school sweetheart goes awry, but leads her to forge an unlikely bond with a former classmate who is similarly time warp-challenged.Young Adult (is)a truly unique and utterly enjoyable film. The filmmakers and cast represent the some of the best and most exciting filmmaking work of the year and have delivered a biting black comedy as deeply poignant as it is funny.

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Cast members from the film including Charlize Theron andPatton Oswalt, director Jason Reitman and screenwriterDiablo Cody are expected to attend the Awards Gala on Jan. 7 at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

This is the second Vanguard Award for Cody and Reitman, who first received the honor in 20! 08 for < em>Juno. Reitman also was the recipient of the 2010 PSIFF best director award for Up in the Air, and Theron previously earned the 2006 Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award for North Country.

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The festival itself runs January 5-16.