MPA chairman Charles Rivkin hosted the event at the headquarters just a couple blocks from the White House. He said he wants the honorees “to annually honor the work of individuals whose vital contributions enable our industry continue to flourish.”<\/p>\n
The event also signaled a return to normal. Although the MPA had unveiled its newly designed theater and reception space in 2019, the pandemic sidelined most events there up until the latter half of last year, and even then it’s been a slow process toward full reopening. Attendees on Tuesday evening were maskless, but were required to show proof of vaccination.<\/p>\n
Also recognized was Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) received a lifetime achievement honor. Murphy recently signed an expansion of the state’s film tax credit, and Tillis and Leahy led the Senate push to make illegal streaming a felony. Tillis also has proposed a reform of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, something that has long been on the wish list for many in the industry.<\/p>\n
Writer-director Nikyatu Jusu, whose feature debut Nanny<\/em> won the Grand Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, received the MPA Creator Award. “I think that cinema and motion pictures can be an empathy machine that guides and audience to center and hone in on a perspective that typically audiences wouldn’t fixate on,” she said.<\/p>\n Before Leahy spoke, the MPA played clips from the current Senate president pro tem’s five appearances in the Batman<\/em> movies, including one in The Dark Knight<\/em> where he tells The Joker (Heath Ledger), “We’re not intimidated by thugs!”<\/p>\n
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