Veteran location manager Aine Furey will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) at the 8th Annual LMGI Awards. With a career spanning almost four decades and over 400 hours of screen time, Furey can easily be called a pioneer who was instrumental in establishing Ontario as an attractive production environment for film and television production. The LMGI Awards “Celebrate the Where” gala will be held on Saturday, October 23, at 2 p.m. PT, presented, via a digital ceremony on YouTube.
LMGI Awards chair John Rakich noted, “Aine was a mainstay in local production from its early days of small local productions to the thriving global production center Ontario is today. The Location Managers Guild International is proud to have Aine Furey accept our Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Furey’s many credits include Canadian Bacon, Relic Hunter, Lost Girl, Mutant X, The Littlest Hobo, Night Heat and Due South. She helped established a path for location professionalism in not just establishing industry practices and standards but in the legacy of dozens of careers she trained and mentored. Even now in her retirement, she still does the occasional bit of location scouting for productions in need and is always helping the local film commissions in creating image packages.
Furey grew up in Dublin at a time before television existed in Ireland so going to “the films” was a big deal and it became a lifelong fascination. Her family moved to Los Angeles in 1959 where her first step into “showbiz” was working at the Mission Playhouse while in high school. After graduation, she returned to London and began to get work as an actress. That came to an abrupt end when she was injured in a car accident, which led to her lifelong career in location work.
The LMGI Awards honor the outstanding and creative visual contributions by location professionals in film, television and commercials from around the globe. The LMGI Awards also recognize outstanding service by film commissions for their support “above and beyond” during the production process.
This year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 8th Annual LMGI Awards will, once again, be presented on a digital platform, streaming to a worldwide and more inclusive audience.
“Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo named Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year
Cynthia Erivo, who is starring in the hit musical "Wicked," was named Tuesday as the 2025 Woman of the Year by Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
The theater group, which dates to 1844 and claims to be the world's third-oldest still operating, said Erivo will receive her Pudding Pot award at a celebratory roast Feb. 5. Afterward, she will attend a performance of Hasty Pudding Theatricals' 176th production, "101 Damnations." Actor Jon Hamm, who came to fame starring as ad executive Don Draper on the AMC series "Mad Men," is the 2025 Man of the Year. He will receive his Pudding Pot Jan. 31.
"We are holding space for Cynthia Erivo's arrival," Man and Woman of the Year Events Coordinator Hannah Frazer said in a statement. "We're sweeping out our broomstick closets and prepping some wicked smart humor as we eagerly await her in February. Before she flies off with her Pudding Pot, she'll have to work a little magic to earn it."
Along with starirng in the smash hit musical, the British entertainer is a two-time Oscar nominee and an Emmy Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award winner.
Erivo burst onto the scene with her brilliant performance in the Broadway revival of "The Color Purple." winning her the 2016 Tony for best actress in a musical. She performed songs from the play on the "Today" show, earning the Daytime Emmy for outstanding music performance in a daytime program. And the show's soundtrack won best musical theater album at the 2017 Grammys.
Last year, Erivo starred in and produced "Drift," which follows a young Liberian refugee who has escaped her war-torn country to a Greek island. In 2021, Erivo was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in the National Geographic series "Genius:... Read More