Critics Choice Association to Honor Zoe Saldaña, Joan Chen, Tyler Perry at 2024 Diversity Celebration Events
The Critics Choice Association (CCA) announced today the honorees and dates for their upcoming Diversity Celebrations including the 4th annual Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television, the 3rd annual Celebration of AAPI Cinema & Television, and the 7th annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television.
The 4th annual Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television will honor actress and producer Zoe Saldaña with the Groundbreaker Award at the awards ceremony, taking place on October 22, 2024 at the Egyptian Theatre. Saldaña will be recognized for her starring role in Netflix’s Emilia Pérez, which won the Best Actress Prize for the ensemble cast at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Saldaña’s career spans over 20 years and she is the only actor in history to have starred in four films that grossed over 2 billion dollars across the Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises.
The 3rd Celebration of AAPI Cinema & Television will award actress Joan Chen with the Career Achievement Award at the annual event, set for November 12, 2024, at the Egyptian Theatre. Chen will be celebrated for her storied career, most recently for her performance in Focus Features’ Dìdi (弟弟), which won the Audience Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. She is best known for her roles in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning The Last Emperor, David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” series, Oliver Stone’s Heaven and Earth, and Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, which won her the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion Award, as well as for directing the Chinese-language film Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, for which she received the Golden Horse Award for Best Director, Film, and Adapted Screenplay.
The 7th annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, which is scheduled for December 9, 2024 at the Fairmont Century Plaza, will honor actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry with the Icon Award for his incredible body of work and achievements throughout the years. After directing Netflix’s highly-anticipated The Six Triple Eight, Perry has helmed 24 feature films, 20 stage plays, 17 television shows, and two New York Times bestselling books, in addition to establishing the Tyler Perry Studios home base in Atlanta. In 2021, Perry was also honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“These Celebrations are vitally important to our Organization. Not only do they reflect the diverse membership of the Critics Choice Association, but by focusing on the incredible achievements from our honorees, we shine a light on underrepresented and underappreciated storytellers,” said CCA CEO Joey Berlin.
Additional honorees for each Celebration will be announced closer to each event date.
The Critics Choice Association’s Celebrations will be produced by Madelyn Hammond and Javier Infante of Madelyn Hammond & Associates.
Sponsors of the events include Delta Air Lines, IMDbPro, Milagro Tequila, and STARZ #TakeTheLead. Partners include FIJI Water and NEP Sweetwater.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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