Location scout Beth Tate (Twilight, Beverly Hills 90210) will receive this year’s Trailblazer Award from the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) at the 10th Annual LMGI Awards on Saturday, August 26, 2023, at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Tate is being honored for her trailblazing work in the inception, formation, and continued support of the LMGI as it celebrates its 20th anniversary and the 10th Anniversary of the LMGI Awards, as well as her stellar location scouting career.
“The LMGI is extremely honored to recognize Beth Tate as one of its founding forces. She has been supporting location professionals over the past two decades and is most deserving to be recoginized with this year’s LMGI Trailblazer Award,” shared LMGI president John Rakich and supervising location manager Robin Citrin in a joint statement.
The concept of the LMGI evolved out of the photography exhibit, “In the Zone: Los Angeles through the Eyes of Location Scouts,” that Tate co-produced to educate the Hollywood community about what location professionals do and their significant role in production. The successful exhibit became the launching pad for what would later become the LMGI, and the Guild was incorporated in 2003. Tate spent the next 10 years building the membership, creating the Guild’s website, and producing one of the production industry’s first cell phone apps, a resource guide of location vendors.
Tate also worked as a line producer, production manager and location manager in a time when few women held those positions. She studied film at the University of Texas and was hired by the local PBS affiliate in electrical, sound and set decoration. She later worked as an electrician on the Norman Lear show All in the Family.
During these years Tate began to make her own films including China Lake, which garnered major attention, thrusting her into the studio system. She has worked on numerous films for filmmakers David Giler, Sam Peckinpah, William Friedkin, Michael Tolkin, Danny DeVito, Danny Boyle and Stuart Cornfeld, among many others.
The LMGI Trailblazer Award recognizes an individual whose efforts and innovations elevate the status of location professionals. The LMGI Awards honor the creative visual contributions by location professionals in film, television, and commercials from around the globe. Outstanding Location Awards are presented in the following categories: Contemporary Film, Period Film, Contemporary TV, Period TV, TV Serial Program/ Anthology/Limited Series, Commercials, and Film Commissions. In addition to the Trailblazer Award, honorary Awards include the Humanitarian, Lifetime Achievement, and Eva Monley Award.
