Palm Springs Gala Awards Hollywood Stars Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep The 2014 film award season has kicked-off and the biggest names in Hollywood have already begun to sweep the prizes. A-listers arrived in Palm Springs this past Saturday (Jan 4th) to attend the 25th annual Palm Springs Film Festival award gala, which around 2,100 people attended.

Without a doubt this date is highlighted on the nominee's calendar as it is considered one of the major stops in the award season and actors who picked up the big prizes were Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and of course, Meryl Streep.

Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was presented with the Chairman's Award

57 year-old Hanks collected the coveted Chairman's Award, which was presented by Bullock, for his incredible year which saw him star in 'Captain Phillips' and 'Saving Mr Banks'. In usual style, Tom brought a smile to all the attendee's faces and was as charming as ever when discussing the huge differences in both films.

"I think it's fascinating that so many of the films you've chosen to honor are based on a true story," he said (via The Hollywood Reporter). "And if you ever start to doubt the power of what you do here," he added, "just know that tonight at table 607, the executives of the Walt Disney Company and Sony have gotten along just fine."

Sandra also managed to get a laugh out of the packed Palm Springs Convention Center, the 47 year-old was honoured for her role in the visually stunning sci-fi 'Gravity. While been presented with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, she discussed the cons of Googling herself. 

Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock took home the Desert Palm Achievement Award

"Sidenote: No human being should ever read the comments section or Google oneself at any time," she joked.

'The Heat' actress also sarcastically spoke about her alleged rivalry with Julia Roberts over her 'Gravity' co-star George Clooney. "Julia (Roberts), apparently you and I are in a dispute over George Clooney. We talked about this. It's shared custody and we both are fine with it," she told the crowd.

The biggest award of the night went to Hollywood icon Meryl Streep who was presented with the Icon Award which had only been presented once before to Michael Douglas in 2011.

"I don't feel like an icon. Most of the days I feel like 'I can't," she said. "I feel like I'm an example now in my dotage that you can't put those old gals out to pasture -- we've got a lot to say."

Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep won the Icon Award