Women In Film, Los Angeles has announced the honorees for the 2016 Crystal + Lucy Awards, which include actresses Taraji P. Henson (“Empire”) and Natalie Dormer (“Game of Thrones”), as well as director Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland”).
WIF LA annually honors “outstanding women in the entertainment industry — women who lead by example, are creative, groundbreaking, and excel at their chosen fields.”
The Crystal Awards were established in 1977 to celebrate “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 Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney, Viola Davis, Annette Bening, Donna Langley, Halle Berry, Jennifer Aniston, and many others.
The Lucy Awards were founded in 1994 and “named for Lucille Ball, who was not only a legendary actress and comedienne, but 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.”
Golden Globe-winner Henson is taking home the The Lucy Award for Excellence in Television, Dormer is receiving The Women In Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award, and Glatter is being honored with The BMW Dorothy Arzner Directors Award. The Sue Mengers Award is going to Hylda Queally, an agent at CAA who represents Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, and more.
The Crystal Award for Excellence in Film will recognize trailblaizing female producers including Denise Di Novi (“Heathers,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love”) and Lianne Halfon ( “Juno,” “Ghost World”).
The awards will be presented on June 15 at the Beverly Hilton.This year’s award recipients are listed below, with descriptions and bios courtesy of WIF LA:
The Crystal Award for Excellence in Film
This year’s Crystal honorees are amongst the very small group of trailblazing female producers who designed change and paved the way for generations of female producers who will in turn carry the flag for generations after that. These women, operating without a roadmap in an industry that had not even begun to contemplate equality, overcame impossible odds to produce some of the best and most memorable films in cinema history. Each of these women has made upwards of a dozen influential films, achieving commercial and critical success while inspiring cultural change in immeasurable ways. Denise Di Novi, Lianne Halfon, Lynda Obst, Jane Rosenthal, Paula Wagner will be joined on stage by former Crystal winning producers including Lucy Fisher, Lauren Shuler Donner, and Paula Weinstein.
- Denise Di Novi — Produced films including “Heathers,” “Little Women,” “Practical Magic,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”
- Lauren Shuler Donner — Produced films including the “Pretty in Pink,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Any Given Sunday,” and the “X-Men” franchise.
- Lucy Fisher — Produced films including “Stuart Little” franchise, “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “The Great Gatsby,” and “The Divergent” series franchise.
- Lianne Halfon — Produced films including “Demolition,” “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” “Young Adult,” “Juno,” and “Ghost World.”
- Lynda Obst — Produced films including “Sleepless in Seattle,” “The Fisher King” and “Interstellar.”
- Jane Rosenthal — Produced films including “Wag the Dog,” “Meet the Parents” franchise and Katie Holmes’ directorial debut “All We Had.”
- Paula Wagner — Produced films including “Mission: Impossible” trilogy, “The Last Samurai,” and “Vanilla Sky.”
- Paula Weinstein — Produced films including “In The Heart of the Sea,” “Blood Diamond,” and “The Perfect Storm.”
The Lucy Award for Excellence in Television — Taraji P. Henson
Henson received the 2016 Golden Globe for Best Actress in Drama Series for her star turn as Cookie Lyon in the groundbreaking and award winning hit series “Empire.” She won a Critic’s Choice Award for Best Actress in Drama Series for this portrayal. Henson earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress opposite Brad Pitt in David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” She won the 2015 and 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress and she has also been awarded Entertainer of the Year by the NAACP.
The Women In Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award — Natalie Dormer.
Dormer currently stars as Margaery Tyrell, the would-be queen, on HBO’s award-winning series “Game of Thrones,” now in its sixth season. Recently, Dormer led the BBC’s highly successful movie, “The Scandalous Lady Woman,” starring as Lady Seymour Worsley. Dormer is well-known for her starring role as Anne Boleyn on Showtime’s hit period drama, “The Tudors,” and has also appeared as the first female Moriarty on CBS’ Sherlock Holmes rendition “Elementary.”
The BMW Dorothy Arzner Directors Award — Lesli Linka Glatter
Glatter is a director of film, network, cable, and premium cable television drama, with both pilots and episodes to her credit. Glatter’s TV work includes “Homeland,” “The Newsroom,” “The Walking Dead,” “Justified,” “Ray Donovan,” “Masters of Sex,” “Nashville,” “True Blood,” “Mad Men,” “The Good Wife,” “Weeds,” “House,” “Heroes,” “The West Wing,” “NYPD Blue,” “ER,” and “Freaks and Geeks,” to name a few. Glatter was the executive producer/director of “Homeland” Seasons three, four, five and will be returning for season six. Currently, Glatter is directing “Six,” a pilot about Seal Team Six.
The Sue Mengers Award — Hylda Queally
Queally is a Motion Picture Agent at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA), an entertainment and sports agency based in Los Angeles with offices in New York, London, Nashville, and Beijing. Queally works in the Los Angeles office and represents many of the industry’s most talented and successful actors, including Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o Rose Byrne, Daisy Ridley, Evan Rachel Wood, Freida Pinto, Noomi Rapace, Brit Marling, and Elizabeth Debicki.
