Megan Ellison has been selected by the Producers Guild of America as the 2017 recipient of the Visionary Award, Variety reports. The producer, whose credits include “20th Century Women,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and “Her,” will accept the honor at the 28th annual Producers Guild Awards, to be held January 28 in Beverly Hills. Ellison is the founder of Annapurna Pictures, the company behind last year’s “Joy” and Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming untitled Detroit Riots project.
The Visionary Award celebrates film, TV, or new media producers for their “unique or uplifting contributions to our culture through inspiring storytelling or performance.” Previous honorees include Dede Gardner (“Selma”) and Laura Ziskin (“Spider-Man” franchise).
“Ellison is being recognized with the Visionary Award for her work as a fierce supporter of distinctive and creative voices in contemporary filmmaking, bringing to life a collection of stories that have broadened audience perspectives on our world and challenged our industry’s assumptions about the kinds of stories motion pictures can tell,” the guild said.
Producers Guild Awards chairs Donald De Line and Amy Pascal added, “Megan Ellison joined our industry when she founded Annapurna Pictures just over six years ago, and she got here just in time. Megan and her team’s passion for great stories and uncompromising storytellers has been an inspiration to independent filmmakers and their audiences alike. We’re proud to call Megan our colleague, and just as proud to honor her with the PGA’s Visionary Award.”
Ellison commented, “I am thankful and humbled to receive the PGA Visionary Award from my peers at the PGA, particularly from Amy and Donald, who I admire greatly. I share this honor with my team at Annapurna, who has never failed to inspire me with their creativity and love for the arts. I am incredibly proud of them and the work we have done together. We are truly grateful for this recognition.”
Both Ellison and actress Jane Fonda received the inaugural Women in Motion award from Kering at Cannes in 2015. The notoriously private and enigmatic producer, who has yet to give a formal interview with the press, identified the film community as “the primary source of inspiration” in her life in her acceptance speech. Ellison explained, “I don’t believe in very many things, but art is definitely one of them, on the top of that list. Films and arts influence our culture in a way that many of us don’t understand or fully respect.”
She continued, “Art doesn’t belong to the few but to the many, and I believe that the perspective we’re putting out in the world should not come from such a small subset of people. It’s a disservice to us all.” The “small subset of people” Ellison is referring to are, of course, predominantly white and male. Women accounted for just 22 percent of producers working on the top 100 highest-grossing films of 2015.
“20th Century Women” hits theaters December 25 and is expected to receive Oscar nominations, including recognition for its star, Annette Bening.
