Marjo Bernay, a veteran entertainment IATSE activist for over four decades, will be honored with a special Service Award from the Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) at its 23rd Annual “Excellence in Production Design Awards. The ADG Service Award is given to exemplary employees or members with a long history of work for the Guild. The black-tie gala, themed “Landscape of the Imagination,” will be held Saturday, February 2, 2019 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. The announcement was made today by ADG president Nelson Coates ADG and awards producer Scott Moses ADG.
Trailblazer, pioneer, groundbreaker, innovator, feminist and labor activist are all labels that could be aptly applied to Bernay, a 40-year veteran from three IATSE Locals. Marjo followed in her father Josef Bernay’s footsteps when she joined IATSE’s Illustrators & Matte Artists (Local 790); Set Designers & Model Makers (Local 847); and later Art Directors Guild (Local 800). She was a leader in the unions as a business agent of Local 790 and Local 847 until they merged with the ADG (Local 800) in 2008. Bernay retired from the Art Directors Guild as manager, awards and events in 2013, and remains active on the ADG Board.
Bernay was a member of numerous organizations promoting the entertainment industry, including the California Film Commission, the Los Angeles Film Development Committee and the L.A. County Film Commission. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans and the first woman from the labor side to chair the Health Plan. In addition, she was VP and a member of the Executive Council of the California State Theatrical Federation and chairman of the Environmental Allocations Committee of the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industry. She was a member of the Executive Committee of IATSE District 2 and first chairperson of the District’s Women’s Caucus.
As previously announced, Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns), the Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning filmmaker, producer, theater director and choreographer whose films have consistently reflected the highest quality of production design, will receive the prestigious ADG Cinematic Imagery Award. British production designer and set decorator Anthony Masters, nominated for an Academy Award® for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Benjamin Carré, best known for his work on The Phantom of the Opera and The Wizard of Oz, will be inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame. Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to Oscar®-nominated production designer Jeannine Oppewall, sr. illustrator and production designer Ed Verreaux, scenic artist Jim Fiorito and set designer and art director William F. Matthews.
Final online balloting for the Excellence in Production Design Awards starts January 8th and ends January 31, 2019 and winners. ADG Awards are open only to productions when made within the U.S. by producer’s signatory to the IATSE agreement. Foreign entries are acceptable without restrictions.
Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.
Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.
"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.
His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.
Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.
"Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More