Gal Gadot to receive prestigious Rising Star Award

Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot will kick start 2018 in style by picking up a major award at the Palms Springs International Film Festival in California.

The Israeli actress has been chosen as the latest recipient of the event's Rising Star Award, and she'll pick up the honour on 2 January (18).

Past recipients of the film prize include Oscar winners Alicia Vikander and Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, and Dakota Fanning.

Announcing the news on Thursday (09Nov17), festival chairman Harold Matzner says, "Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman showed us a strong, capable, poised, curious and compassionate character, and her performance has been universally praised, resonating with audiences everywhere.

"Gal plays the immortal warrior so well, and the film’s themes are especially apt for today, empowering all types of people - women and men, young and old - the world over."

It has been an amazing year for the 32-year-old-actress, whose DC Comics blockbuster shattered records at the box office upon its release in June (17), becoming the highest grossing live action film by a female director, Patty Jenkins, and scoring the highest three-day take at the box office for a movie by a female director. Gal also became a mum for the second time in March, after giving birth to a daughter, named Maya Versano.

She'll return as Wonder Woman for this month's all-star Warner Bros./DC Comics blockbuster Justice League, which experts predict will open to at least $100 million (GBP76 million) over the 17 November weekend.

Gadot made her international film debut in Fast & Furious and returned for Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6.

She first appeared as Wonder Woman in 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.