The Advanced Imaging Society (AIS) and EARTHDAY.ORG announced that Academy Award-winning director, writer, producer James Cameron and Academy Award-winning producer Jon Landau will be presented with the Voices For The Earth Award at the 2023 AIS Lumiere Awards for their transcendent and immersive Avatar: The Way of Water. The 13th annual awards ceremony will take place at a luncheon on Friday, February 10, 2023 at The Beverly Hills Hotel.
“James Cameron and Jon Landau’s first Avatar revolutionized filmmaking technology 13 years ago, winning several of our top awards including Best Picture,” said AIS president Jim Chabin. “With Avatar: The Way of Water, these masters of film have again left us awestruck with magnificent characters and stories, but also reminders of just how fragile life and ecosystems are. We are thrilled to honor them and this epic film for being ‘Voices for the Earth’ to millions of movie fans across the world."
The film re-acquaints viewers with the magical wonders of nature and, through its engaging story of intense environmental and cultural preservation, imparts to viewers the urgency of caring for and preserving the wonders of our natural world now–before it’s too late. The film’s incredible artistry in creating lush jungle landscapes and vibrant oceans teeming with colorful sea life also imparts a profound sense of awe and reverence for the beauty and treasures of our shared natural world. The film highlights–in its gripping character journeys–the vital need to organize against any threats to the vibrant, sentient, and astonishing interconnectedness of our shared planet.
The Voices For The Earth Award celebrates innovation and inspiration in environmental storytelling and acknowledges creatives who have found a unique approach to strengthen the audience’s appreciation for nature and illustrate the importance of taking care of our shared planet. Academy Award®-nominated writer/director Adam McKay received in 2022 the inaugural Voices for the Earth Award for his film Don’t Look Up.
Presenting the award to Cameron and Landau will be Kathleen Rogers, president of EARTHDAY.ORG. Rogers said, “James Cameron’s first Avatar is a testament to extraordinary filmmaking, human ingenuity, and technology. It is also a tribute to nature and ecology. Avatar wasn’t just about our relationship with trees, it was about our utter dependence on them. In 2010 EARTHDAY.ORG joined forces with James Cameron to plant over 1 million trees in vulnerable areas around the world in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and the release of Avatar. Now more than a decade later, the world is experiencing Avatar: The Way of Water, another extraordinary film focused on our deep and spiritual connections with nature. This extraordinary experience will inspire millions of people to support the protection of water, the very basis of life to all species. We are proud to present this award to a dedicated filmmaking genius who also shares a deep love for our planet and its species.”
The Lumiere Awards have been presented over the last decade to the industry’s most respected creative and technical leaders. In addition to awards for motion pictures, episodic and new media content, the society will bestow awards for best musical motion picture, best musical scene or performance, and best immersive audio.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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