WOMEN IN FILM WILL CELEBRATE ITS 35TH ANNIVERSARY AT THE 2008 CRYSTAL+LUCY AWARDS:
SALMA HAYEK, GINNIFER GOODWIN, SHERRY LANSING, DIANE ENGLISH AND THE WOMEN OF THE WOMEN, TO BE HONORED
Tuesday, June 17 Evening in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel
Los Angeles, Ca….This year marks the 35th Anniversary of Women In Film. The organization will celebrate by honoring, at the 2008 Crystal+Lucy Awards, some of the most creative, productive and socially responsible women in our industry, women who lead by example. The gala dinner, in support of Women In Film, Los Angeles and its many educational and philanthropic programs, will be held on Tuesday, June 17 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The 2008 Crystal Award for excellence in film will be presented to Diane English, together with the stellar cast of her female tour de force, “The Women,” on which English was writer, director and producer. The 2008 Lucy Award for excellence in television will be presented to Salma Hayek, the Emmy winning actress/director/producer who is also Executive Producer of the award winning program,“Ugly Betty.” The 2008 MaxMara “Face of the Future” Award will be presented to actress Ginnifer Goodwin, the talented young star of film and television. The Paltrow Mentorship Award will be presented to a woman whose career and life exemplify the very definition of mentorship, Sherry Lansing.
The honorees were announced today by WIF, LA President, Jane Fleming, who said “To celebrate our 35th year, Women In Film is privileged to honor these remarkable women, whose accomplishments and diversity reflect the core values upon which our organization is built. Their determined and hard-won efforts to realize their artistic visions have yielded extraordinary results, in not just one, but multiple arenas in the creative marketplace. These honorees prove that women can excel across artistic and commercial boundaries: as writers and directors, actors and producers, executives and humanitarians, in television and in film. Together, their example shows how far we have come in 35 years, and provides us with hope and encouragement as Women In Film embarks on the next 35 years of supporting women in the entertainment industry.”
Calm Down Productions, Inc.’s Lucy Webb will return as Executive Producer of the 2008 Awards and Past Women In Film president, Iris Grossman, will again Chair the Event.
About the Honorees
Crystal honoree Diane English makes her theatrical film debut with “The Women,” a passion project 13 years in the making. Based on the iconic 1939 George Cukor-directed comedy/drama by Clare Booth Luce, “The Women” presents a rare and welcome modern opportunity for a large ensemble of talented actresses to bond, argue, laugh, cry and entertain together on screen. English is screenwriter, director and producer on the film. She perfected these abilities through an award-winning, prolific career in episodic television. As creator, writer and executive producer of the acclaimed situation comedy “Murphy Brown,” she won three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Peabody and three Writers Guild Awards. The series itself won eighteen Emmy Awards over its ten-year run at the top of the ratings. English began her entertainment career as a story editor for the renowned WNET (New York PBS affiliate) series “Theatre in America.” She wrote a column for Vogue about television and co-wrote an adaptation of Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction classic “The Lathe of Heaven,” PBS’s first full-length television film, receiving her first Writers Guild nomination in 1980. She created her debut half-hour comedy series, “Foley Square,” in 1985, then wrote for and executive produced the series “My Sister Sam” before creating “Murphy Brown.” Under the Shukovsky English Entertainment production partnership she shares with her husband Joel Shukovsky (an executive producer on “The Women”), she has also created the series “Love & War” and “Ink” and co-created “Double Rush” and “Living in Captivity.” Other recent projects include a feature film adaptation of the seminal Erica Jong novel, “Fear of Flying” which English will also direct. “The Women” features a high-wattage cast of distinguished actresses, including Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Cloris Leachman, Bette Midler and Candice Bergen. It is a fast-paced, witty and emotional look at all things female: a film about loyalties, betrayals, careers, families and most of all, friendships. Picturehouse will release “The Women” on October 10, 2008.
Lucy honoree Salma Hayek has proven herself many times over as a talented actress, producer and director in both television and film. She is the Executive Producer of the Emmy, Alma, Golden Globe, DGA, GLAAD and SAG (among others) Award winning and hit ABC TV series, “Ugly Betty,” based on the enormously successful Columbian series “Yo Soy Betty, La Fea.” She won an Emmy for her directorial debut, “The Maldonado Miracle,” which she also produced. The film, starring Peter Fonda, Mare Winningham and Ruben Blades, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and aired on Showtime. In 2001, she starred in and coproduced Showtime’s “In the Time of the Butterflies” and received a BFCA nomination.
Hayek received an Academy Award Nomination along with Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA Best Actress nominations for her performance in the title role of Julie Taymor’s “Frida.” She is currently in production on Paul Weitz’s “Cirque du Freak,” slated for a late 2008/early 2009 release by Universal. This fall she can be heard in “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” an animated movie featuring Drew Barrymore, Edward James Olmos and Andy Garcia. Other film credits include Todd Robinson’s “Lonely Hearts,” Robert Towne’s “Ask the Dust,” Luc Besson’s “Bandidas,” Brett Ratner’s “After the Sunset,” Mike Figgis’ “Hotel” and “Timecode”, Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” and three films with Robert Rodriguez: “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” “From Dusk Till Dawn” written by Quentin Tarantino and “Desperado.”
Under her Ventanarosa Productions banner, Hayek produced the Mexican feature, and official 1999 Cannes Film Festival selection, “No One Writes to the Colonel,” based on the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. With her newly-established company Ventanazul, she and producing partner Jose Tamez have been tapped by MGM to develop, produce and acquire mainstream films that draw on Latin themes or feature Latin talent before and behind the camera. As a social activist, Hayek is currently the spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership in the U.S. and Canada, to help stop the spread of life-threatening maternal and neonatal tetanus. She is spokesperson for the Avon Foundation’s Speak out Against Domestic Violence program and has appeared before the U.S. Senate in support of legislation that ultimately ensured a 3.9 billion dollar allocation for crisis and intervention agencies throughout the country. She is part of the One campaign created by Bono and a member of both Global Green and Youth Aids.
MaxMara “Face of the Future” honoree Ginnifer Goodwin shines on film and television screens. She stars as the youngest--and third of three--wives to Bill Paxton alongside Jeanne Tripplehorn and Chloe Sevigny in HBO’s critically acclaimed dramatic series, “Big Love,” soon returning for its third season. She gave a riveting performance as Johnny Cash’s first wife, opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the Oscar nominated “Walk the Line,” and will be seen this October in the ensemble comedy, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” based on the best-selling book by Greg Behrendt.
Goodwin’s breakthrough role was in her very first feature film, Mike Newell’s “Mona Lisa Smile,” garnering industry buzz and critical interest for a standout performance in an ensemble that included Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Marcia Gay Harden. She starred in Robert Luketic’s “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton,” with Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace and Josh Duhamel; in “Day Zero” with Chris Klein and Elijah Woods; and in the indie comedy “Birds of America,” with Matthew Perry and Hillary Swank, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. After college, she made her television debut in a small role on “Law and Order” and became a regular on NBC TV’s “Ed” at the top of its second season. She also starred in Comedy Central’s collaboration with TriBeCa Films, “Porn N Chicken.”
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Goodwin has studied at Stratford-upon-Avon’s Shakespeare Institute, at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and received the Excellence in Acting: Professional Promise Award by The Bette Davis Foundation while at Boston University.
Paltrow Mentorship Award recipient Sherry Lansing was the first woman to head a major film studio. Chairman of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures from November 1992 until March 2005, an almost unprecedented tenure in that position for any studio head, Lansing oversaw more than 200 films, including the Academy Award Best Picture winners “Forrest Gump,” “Braveheart” and the highest grossing movie all time, “Titanic.” A pioneering executive, she was the first-ever woman in the film industry to oversee all aspects of a studio’s motion picture production. Six of the ten highest grossing Paramount films were released during her tenure and 80% of the films released by Lansing were profitable, a track record unmatched by any other long term studio management leader.
Lansing’s first studio job was with MGM as head script reader and while there she worked on both “The China Syndrome” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.” After a stint at Columbia Pictures, she was appointed as the first female president of 20th Century Fox. She also partnered with Stanley Jaffe in a production company that yielded, among other hits, “Fatal Attraction.”
She currently heads up the Sherry Lansing Foundation, which encompasses many aspects of her philanthropic work, including raising awareness of, and funds for, cancer research. She is a Regent of the University of California and has been appointed to California’s Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which governs stem-cell research in the state. She sits on the boards of The Carter Center, DonorsChoose, Qualcomm, Teach for America, The American Association for Cancer Research and Friends for Cancer Research.
Lansing has received many honors in recognition of her unflagging charitable work and her peerless guidance, including: the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s highest honor, the Exemplary Leadership in Management (ELM) Award; the Simon Wiesenthal Center Distinguished Service Award for the Performing Arts; the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship and the 2007 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work in cancer research, presented at the 79th Annual Academy Awards.
About Women In Film and the Awards
Women In Film is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women achieve their highest potential within the global entertainment, communication and media industries and to preserving the legacy of women within those industries. Founded in 1973, Women In Film and its Women In Film Foundation provide for members an extensive network of contacts, educational programs, scholarships, film finishing funds and grants, access to employment opportunities, mentorships and numerous practical services in support of this mission. For more information about Women In Film and programs, visit www.wif.org.
The Crystal Awards were established in 1977 to honor outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. Past recipients include: Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Lopez, Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, Diane Lane, Halle Berry, Laura Ziskin, Jessica Lange, Mimi Leder, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Alfre Woodard, Polly Platt, Lauren Shuler Donner, Diane Warren, Amy Heckerling, Paula Weinstein, Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones, Gale Anne Hurd, Nancy Malone, Maya Angelou, Lily Tomlin, Ruby Dee, Penny Marshall, Jessica Tandy, Barbara Boyle, Nikki Rocco, Jean Firstenberg, Lee Remick, Lina Wertmuller, Bette Davis, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Sherry Lansing, Nora Ephron, Dawn Steel, Fay Kanin, Lillian Gish, Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close and Amy Pascal.
The Lucy Awards were founded in 1994 by Joanna Kerns, Bonny Dore and Loreen Arbus and are presented in association with the Lucille Ball Estate. They were named for Lucille Ball, who was not only a legendary actress and comedienne, she was also a producer, studio owner, creator and director. They are given to recognize women and men and their creative works that exemplify the extraordinary accomplishments she embodied; whose excellence and innovation have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.
Past recipients include: Shonda Rhimes and the women of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Geena Davis, Debra Messing and Megan Mullally, Blythe Danner, Lily Tomlin, Rosie O’Donnell, Amy Brenneman, Tyne Daley, Phyllis Diller, Marcy Carsey, Carol Burnett, Barbara Walters, Shari Lewis, Garry Marshall, Angela Lansbury, Marlo Thomas, Gary David Goldberg, Diahann Carroll, Tracey Ullman, Fred Silverman, Imogene Coca, Camryn Manheim, Norman Lear, Bud Yorkin and the casts of "Sex and the City," "If These Walls Could Talk," and "If These Walls Could Talk 2." The MaxMara “Face of the Future” Award, inaugurated at the 2006 Crystal+Lucy Awards, is given to an actress who is experiencing a turning point in her career through her work in the film and television industries and through her contributions to the community at large. The past recipients were Emily Blunt and Maria Bello.
Last year marked the inauguration of the The Paltrow Mentorship Award, presented to industry leader Kathleen Kennedy for her notable mentorship within her field, by actress Blythe Danner on behalf of her late husband, the esteemed writer/director/producer Bruce Paltrow, and the Paltrow family.
About the Sponsor
MaxMara was founded in 1951 by Achille Maramotti and is now run by the next generation: Luigi, Ignazio and Maria Ludovica. The company is one of the largest women’s prêt-à-porter companies in the world: with 2254 stores and 23 different brands sold in more than 90 different countries. MaxMara, the signature collection, represents timeless style and impeccable quality.
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