Miami Film Festival is proud to honor critically acclaimed actor, writer, and director Paul Dano with a 2022 Precious Gem Award.
Preceding the Closing Night screening of The Fabelmans, Dano received the Precious Gem Award, which honors those one-of-a-kind artists whose contributions to cinema are lasting and unforgettable.
In Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Paul Dano stars as Burt Fabelman, the scientific, successful father to aspiring young filmmaker Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) and husband to Sammy’s artistic mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams).
This spring, Dano starred in Matt Reeves’ The Batman alongside Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell, and Zoë Kravitz as the famed character, The Riddler.
Dano made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed film Wildlife (GEMS 2018), which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Dano co-wrote the screenplay alongside Zoe Kazan adapted from Richard Ford’s American classic.
Dano was nominated for an Emmy in the Supporting Acting category for his transformative role of David Sweat in the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated limited series Escape at Dannemora, directed by Ben Stiller and starring alongside Benicio Del Toro and Patricia Arquette. Escape at Dannemora is based on the true story of the 2015 prison break in upstate New York, which spawned a manhunt for two convicted murderers who were aided in their escape by a married female prison employee. Dano stars as Sweat, a convicted cop-killer who uses his good looks to seduce Tilly (Patricia Arquette) and becomes a reluctant partner in Richard Matt’s plot.
In 2013, Dano appeared in Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe-winning 12 Years a Slave, alongside Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Dano portrayed the role of the wrathful slave-owner, John Tibeats. Also in 2013, Dano starred in Warner Brothers’ critically acclaimed thriller Prisoners, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and alongside Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Terrence Howard. Dano portrayed the role of Alex Jones in a chilling performance as a disturbed man with the IQ of a child who is suspected of kidnapping two little girls.
In 2007, Dano was nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of the identical twin brothers Paul and Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-nominated There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. In 2006, Dano won a Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor for his portrayal as the voluntarily mute brother, Dwayne, in Fox Searchlight’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award-nominated Little Miss Sunshine, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and starring Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, and Toni Collette.
Other film credits include:
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Swiss Army Man
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Youth
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Ruby Sparks
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Okja
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Being Flynn
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For Ellen
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Knight and Day
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The Extra Man
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Meek’s Cutoff
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The Good Heart
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Gigantic
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Cowboys & Aliens
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Taking Woodstock
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The Girl Next Door
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Fast Food Nation
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The King
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The Ballad of Jack and Rose
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Taking Lives