The American Cinematheque presented the 31st American Cinematheque Award to five-time Oscar nominee (Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle) Amy Adams at the Cinematheque’s annual benefit gala on Friday night (11/10) at The Beverly Hilton.
Adams was the unanimous choice of the Cinematheque Board of Directors selection committee. Since 1986, the organization has annually honored an extraordinary artist in the film industry, who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of the motion picture. For many years, the event was known as the Moving Picture Ball. Funds raised benefit the year-round programming of the non-profit cultural organization, the American Cinematheque (founded in 1981 by Gary Essert and Gary Abrahams).
Presenting the honor to Adams–after some of her most memorable movie scenes played before the gala audience–were a succession of notables including Tom Hanks, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman, Justin Timberlake, Chris Messina, and Denis Villeneuve who directed Adams in Arrival.
Previous American Cinematheque Award honorees include: Eddie Murphy (1986), Bette Midler (1987), Robin Williams (1988), Steven Spielberg (1989), Ron Howard (1990), Martin Scorsese (1991), Sean Connery (1992), Michael Douglas (1993), Rob Reiner (1994), Mel Gibson (1995), Tom Cruise (1996), John Travolta (1997), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1998), Jodie Foster (1999), Bruce Willis (2000), Nicolas Cage (2001), Denzel Washington (2002), Nicole Kidman (2003), Steve Martin (2004), Al Pacino (2005), George Clooney (2006), Julia Roberts (2007), Samuel L. Jackson (2008), Matt Damon (2010), Robert Downey Jr. (2011), Ben Stiller (2012), Jerry Bruckheimer (2013), Matthew McConaughey (2014), Reese Witherspoon (2015), and Ridley Scott (2016).
Meanwhile, another notable, director Christopher Nolan, earlier in the evening at the Cinematheque festivities presented the 3rd Annual Sid Grauman Award to Richard Gelfond and Greg Foster on behalf of IMAX for their outstanding contribution to theatrical exhibition.
Cinematheque chairman Rick Nicita said of Gelfond and Foster, “Their leadership of IMAX has resulted in a breathtaking expansion of not only box office grosses around the world but in a quantum leap forward for the excitement and enjoyment of the movie-going audience. There is no better way to see a movie than on the big screen and IMAX gives us the biggest screens of all.”
Nolan deployed IMAX cameras for his latest lauded feature, Dunkirk, which is very much in this season’s Oscar conversation. Nolan was actually one of the first directors to use IMAX cameras on a feature to great effect, yielding The Dark Knight.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More