The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) will bestow its prestigious Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation upon One World: Together at Home, a globally televised and streamed special produced remotely last April by international advocacy organization Global Citizen and the World Health Organization (WHO) in support of the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, powered by the UN Foundation. The HPA honor recognizes creative storytelling and technical innovation. The recipient is selected by a distinguished jury of industry luminaries. The award will be accepted by Lee Rolontz, sr. VP of event and broadcast at Global Citizen, during the 15th annual HPA Awards gala, which will be held online on Thursday, November 19.
The Creativity & Innovation jury, led by co-chairs Carolyn Giardina and Joachim Zell, issued a statement in announcing the award: “The jury selected the One World: Together At Home special for its timely and relevant response to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, uniquely bringing people together in a comforting and entertaining way. Conceived and produced in April, the global production was inclusive in nature and harnessed cloud-based and other technologies to enable remote workflows. It was also a charitable event, raising $127.9 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.”
A stunning creative and technical achievement, One World: Together at Home was organized by Global Citizen and curated by Lady Gaga. In addition to supporting frontline workers and the WHO, the concert was intended to promote the practice of social distancing while staying together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The historic eight-hour globally promoted special, hosted on April 18, 2020, garnered unprecedented worldwide distribution, reaching billions. More than 60 global broadcast networks, across more than 175 countries, nine digital platforms and hundreds of affiliates, celebrated and supported brave healthcare workers doing life-saving work on the front lines. One World: Together At Home kicked off with a six-hour digital stream that was followed by a two-hour broadcast special. The broadcast special was hosted by Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel of Jimmy Kimmel Live and Stephen Colbert of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with friends from Sesame Street. All were on hand to help unify and inspire people around the world, focusing on communities impacted by COVID-19. The eight hours included conversations with, and tributes to, the scientists, healthcare professionals, and other essential services workers that have championed the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rolontz said, “We are proud that as of October, 100 percent of the funds committed to the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and 25 of the 26 commitments pledged to local and regional response organizations during the broadcast have been disbursed. We could not have executed this production without the help of our producer Jeff Jacobs, Michael Cioni and Frame.io, Mike Polito and Bill Deronde, and all at Sim International. Thank you HPA for recognizing innovation in entertainment as a catalyst for change.”
In addition to the Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation, the HPA Awards will recognize excellence in 11 craft categories as well as special honors for engineering excellence. Creative category nominees and winners of the Engineering Excellence Awards were previously announced. The HPA Awards will be held online this year, and attendance is free with registration in recognition of the valiant work being done by artists and technologists under challenging conditions. Registration is available online.
