SAG-AFTRA FOUNDATION TO HONOR
JUDD APATOW,
KATHRYN BIGELOW, &
TED SARANDOS WITH ITS “PATRON OF THE ARTISTS AWARDS”
Event Takes
Place Thursday, November 9 in Beverly Hills
LOS ANGELES - The SAG-AFTRA
Foundation announced today it will bestow its Patron
of the Artists Awards to celebrated
director/writer/producer Judd Apatow, Academy
Award®-winning director/producer Kathryn Bigelow, and
visionary Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.
The award honors industry leaders who are champions of
the arts and whose history of fostering creativity and
creating opportunities for actors has made a positive
impact on the acting profession and the performing arts.
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s celebration takes place
Thursday, November 9 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for
the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
“We are excited to pay tribute to three extraordinary
people whose creative impact on the performing arts has
produced ground-breaking opportunities for a world-wide
community of artists,” said SAG-AFTRA Foundation
President JoBeth Williams. “As a director, writer and
producer, Judd Apatow is known for discovering and
nurturing some of the most beloved comedic actors and
actresses on television and in film. Kathryn Bigelow is
a trailblazing director and producer whose risk-taking
gambles on unknown talent have expanded the careers of
many artists both in front of and behind the camera. Ted
Sarandos is an innovator whose executive leadership has
created and supported tens of thousands of industry
jobs. Judd, Kathryn, and Ted are the epitome of what it
means to be patrons of artists and we are proud to honor
them.”
Previous recipients of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Patron
of the Artists Awards are director/writer/producer
Lee Daniels, producer Megan Ellison, and
director/producer Rob Marshall. The Patron of the
Artists Awards event includes musical performances
with ticket sales benefitting the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.
In the coming weeks, the honorees for the non-profit’s Actors
Inspiration Award, event performers and presenters
will be announced. Sponsors include United
Airlines and Variety.
To purchase tickets and for more information, please
visit www.sagaftra.foundation/patronawards.
About the SAG-AFTRA Foundation
Since 1985, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation has granted more
than $18.5 million in financial and medical assistance
including $7.5 million in scholarships to SAG-AFTRA
artists and their dependents. In addition, the
Foundation has offered 7,200 free educational workshops,
panels and screenings to union performers nationwide and
its children’s literacy programs have brought the love
of reading to more than 300 million children worldwide.
In 2017, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation celebrates 32 years of
giving back to the professionals of SAG-AFTRA, their
families and communities. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
non-profit organization that provides vital assistance
and free educational programming to the professionals of
SAG-AFTRA while serving the public at large through its
signature children’s literacy programs. The Foundation
relies solely on support from gifts, grants and
sponsorships to maintain its free programs. Visit sagaftra.foundation.
Connect with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation
Snapchat: sagaftraFOUND
Twitter: @sagaftraFOUND
Instagram: @sagaftraFOUND
Facebook: facebook.com/sagaftrafoundation
YouTube: youtube.com/sagaftrafoundation
Hashtag: #PatronoftheArtists
About Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow has been a mentor and influencer in the
entertainment industry for over 25 years, renowned for
nurturing talent and creating supportive atmospheres and
professional opportunities for performers while
entertaining audiences worldwide. He is considered one
of the most sought-after comedy minds in the business
and has been closely associated with many of the biggest
comedy films and hit TV shows of our generation. Apatow
returns to his standup roots with his upcoming Netflix
stand-up special, which he is filming at Montreal’s Just
For Laughs Comedy Festival this weekend. It marks his
first solo special and will premiere in December.
Apatow recently received an Emmy Award nomination for
the ESPN FILMS: 30 for 30: “Doc & Darryl,”
which he co-directed and produced with Michael Bonfiglio
who have teamed up again on the upcoming HBO documentary
about folk rock icons the Avett Brothers, May It
Last, which will premiere later this year. Apatow
co-created and is executive producer of Netflix’s Love which
was recently renewed for its 3rd season. He
is the co-executive producer of HBO’s Crashing as
well as co-executive producer of HBO’s Girls which
ended its multi-Emmy Award run earlier this year. On the
film side, Apatow produced The Big Sick starring
Kumail Nanjiani and Ray Romano, recently released to
rave reviews on July 13 by Amazon Studios and Lionsgate,
and earning a 97% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Apatow’s other credits as a director, producer or writer
include hit comedies The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Bridesmaids,
Knocked Up, Superbad, Trainwreck, Pineapple
Express, The Cable Guy, Anchorman and
Anchorman 2, and numerous others.
About Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow is a two-time Academy Award®-winner
and an artist of singular talent, known for acclaimed
films including The Hurt Locker and Zero
Dark Thirty. As a director and producer, she has
crafted a body of work that challenges genre norms and
offers viscerally stunning portraits of characters and
conflicts. Bigelow’s upcoming film, Detroit, is
a crime drama which explores systemic racism in urban
Detroit, and is set against the backdrop of the city’s
devastating riots that took place over five tumultuous
summer days in 1967. Bigelow directs and produces the
ensemble film, which will be released by Annapurna
Pictures on August 4, 2017.
Bigelow supports many environmental and animal welfare
charities. She continues to shed light on the dangers of
the ivory trade in both Last Days — a short
film portraying the wildlife trafficking industry,
profits for terrorist groups, and the threat of elephant
extinction in only 11 years; and The Protectors —
a virtual reality short film exposing the dangerous
reality faced by rangers protecting African elephants,
which she co-created with Imraan Ismail for National
Geographic. In 2015, Bigelow participated in a powerful
panel discussion on Capitol Hill, which resulted in
Obama signing into law H.R. 2494— The Eliminate,
Neutralize, and Disrupt Wildlife Trafficking Act of
2016— protecting elephants, rhinos and other endangered
species from an international poaching and trafficking
trade that is decimating animal populations worldwide
and funding armed militias. Furthermore, China embraced
the action and announced plans to end its domestic ivory
trade by the end of 2017.
About Ted Sarandos
Ted Sarandos is Netflix’s Chief Content Officer whose
leadership has transformed the digital company into an
original content powerhouse that is changing the rules
of how serialized television is produced, released, and
distributed globally. Through his work as an executive,
he’s supported tens of thousands of industry jobs, and
provided countless opportunities for up-and-coming and
veteran actors, producers, writers, and directors. In
its first two years of releasing original series,
documentary films, children's shows, and comedy
specials, Netflix has been recognized with 45 Emmy
nominations, 15 Daytime Emmy nominations, two Oscar
nominations, and 10 Golden Globe nominations by the film
and television industries. Sarandos was named one of
Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2013,
and has led content acquisition for Netflix since 2000.
From its roots as a U.S. DVD subscription rental
company, Netflix is now the world’s leading Internet
television network with over 65 million members in more
than 50 countries, and producing more than 320 hours of
original content in 2015. Sarandos is a Henry Crown
Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and serves on the board
of Exploring The Arts, a non-profit focused on arts in
schools. He also serves on the Film Advisory Board for
Tribeca and Los Angeles Film Festival, is an American
Cinematheque board member, an American Film Institute
trustee, and is an Executive Committee Member of the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.