Greta Gerwig was beaming Wednesday night as she was honored as this year’s Pioneer Of The Year, and in the process also helped raised $1.4 million for the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation at a sold-out dinner that packed the Beverly Hilton Hotel International Ballroom.
Gerwig seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the attention from the crowd and this organization dedicated to helping those in need from the motion picture distribution and exhibition community. And certainly for people involved in bringing movies to the masses, they were thrilled to stand up for Gerwig, who has been a major force at the boxoffice. Presenters, Co-Chairs and CEOs Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Pamela Abdy and Michael DeLuca noted in their remarks that Gerwig had made more money at the boxoffice than any female filmmaker in history, including $80 million for Ladybird, $230 million for LIttle Women, and $1.4 billion for Barbie, the latter becoming the top grossing movie ever in Warner’s 100-year history. They also noted she is the only woman whose first three solo directorial achievements were all nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (an incredible feat for anyone, man or woman).
“I love the work that you do for caring for this community. It’s just so extraordinary, and it makes me so proud to be part of an industry where people spend their time and money and talents to figure out how to look out for each other and to lift each other up,” Gerwig said in accepting the award. She also singled out the legendary entertainer the organization is named after.
(Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
“So I wanted to speak about Will Rogers the person. And he is exactly the kind of person that I love, the kind of person who made me want to be part of this world, from rodeos to vaudeville to movies to newspaper to radio. He was the ultimate show person. And show people are not only actors or directors or cinematographers,” she said. “They are every single person who participates in this wild and wonderful business of dreaming and storytelling. There are producers, lawyers, theater owners, executives, sound mixers, caterers, agents, columnists, PA’s, and more than any one job or title or project for my whole life, it was to be a show person. The only person I ever wanted to be, I wanted to be one of the people who are a little bit wild, a little bit on the edge and filled with this kind of joyful madness. When I look around in this room, it’s all show people.”
When I caught up with Gerwig earlier in the evening at her center table where she sat with stepson Rohmer, who she noted is her first “test audience” for any movie just to see if he would be bored by it, she was actually looking at a page from the evening’s program book which was filled with congratutory ads. But the page that blew her away was one from her family that had handwritten notes “From the desk of Harold and Isadore and Rohmer and Noah”, all Baumbachs with husband Noah, back in New York basically copying Rohmer’s note and writing, “I love you. I like that you are my wife. Congratulations, I am proud of you. I’m excited for you to get your award. Love, Noah”.
The room was so full of exhibitors and distribution execs I felt like I was back in the middle of Caesars Palace for a CinemaCon convention. There was much talk for anticipated fall movies. Exhibitors in fact had screened Gladiator II on Tuesday night and those I talked to were upbeat about its boxoffice potential. Tonight the theatre owners will be the first to see Universal’s big holiday hope, Wicked. “It pays to be in exhibition,” laughed one attendee about being able to see these movies first.
I also congratulated DeLuca, sitting at one of the two Warner Bros tables, as Abdy sat at Gerwig’s. He just won an Emmy as an Executive Producer of the big multi-Emmy-winning Drama series, Shogun which he had developed in his producer days before running MGM, and now Warners movie divisions. Everyone also seemed thrilled with the Sees Candy boxes at the tables, a touch provided by one of the evening’s sponsors, Sees, so that each person could take home two boxes of those chocolates. No one was more excited about that than Gerwig, even maybe more than the handsome award itself as she said at the top of her speech. “I immediately texted my mother a picture of Sees congratulating me. When I moved to New York City, every year, my parents and my analyst would send me boxes of Sees.” Host Patton Oswalt also noted his excitement over the free candy.
Gerwig told me it is full speed ahead for her next film based on the Narnia books, a very ambitious project she is going to direct for Netflix, who had a table with Dan Lin, Lisa Taback and others right near Gerwig’s. “After that I think I just want to make a movie set in a cafeteria,” she laughed.
It was a fun night as always and Gerwig was the perfect honoree. One nice touch was the orchestra, an all female one as Gerwig told me. They played “Over The Rainbow” merged with scores from Gerwig’s films including the Oscar winning Billie Eilish song from Barbie.
“There are easier ways to make money, less terrifying businesses, but there are none that are more exciting and filled with this much joy and wonder,” Gerwig told the audience. “And I’m willing to bet that everyone in this room had the same experience I did, which is going to a dark theater, watching the lights go down and be transported. Those were my favorite memories growing up, and they’re my favorite experiences now.”