Robert Zemeckis

Credit: AP Photo

Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis will need to make some more room on his award shelf.

The 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival will present Zemeckis with the Director of the Year Award for "Flight."

The Awards Gala will be held Saturday, January 5, at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

Previously announced honorees Helen Hunt ("The Sessions") and Naomi Watts ("The Impossible") will also receive their awards at the gala.

Zemeckis won an Oscar for directing "Forrest Gump," and also helmed such groundbreaking films as "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," "Contact," "The Polar Express" and "Cast Away."

"Flight" stars Denzel Washington as a heroic airline pilot struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly and John Goodman co-star.

“For 35 years, Robert Zemeckis has been creating some of the most iconic and indelible images in cinema, garnering international acclaim as a filmmaker of extraordinary vision,” said Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner in a release.

He continued, "In his latest work, 'Flight,' Zemeckis continues to tell fascinating stories by combining strong characters with groundbreaking visual effects, which includes one of the most memorable plane crashes in cinematic history, while following the compelling emotional journey of Denzel Washington’s character of an emotionally damaged man dealing with addiction.  For these achievements the Palm Springs International Film Festival is honored to present the 2013 Director of the Year Award to Robert Zemeckis.”

Previous recipients include Stephen Daldry, Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, Alexander Payne, Sean Penn, Jason Reitman and David O. Russell.

The festival runs January 3-14.

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Dave Lewis has been a Los Angeles-based entertainment writer and editor for nearly ten years. Originally hailing from Minneapolis, he moved to L.A. in 1996 to attend USC, before working for various periodicals and web sites including a lengthy stint at Variety.com. He joined the HitFix staff in 2011.