Kristen Stewart to receive 2021 Performer Tribute Gotham Award

President of Magnolia Pictures, Eamonn Bowles, will receive the Industry Tribute Award

Nominations for the Gotham Awards to be announced on October 21; winners announced at November 29 ceremony

The Gotham Film & Media Institute announced today that actor and filmmaker Kristen Stewart will receive a Performer Tribute and President of Magnolia Pictures, Eamonn Bowles, will receive the Industry Tribute during the 2021 Gotham Awards Ceremony taking place live and in person on Monday, November 29, 2021 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Nominations for the Gotham Awards will be announced live on Thursday, October 21, 2021. 

Stewart’s most recent film, Pablo Larraín’s critically-acclaimed Spencer, had its world premiere in-competition at the Venice International Film Festival on September 3. Topic Studios and Neon partnered to acquire and release Pablo Larraín’s highly anticipated Spencer on November 5. The Studio joined the project as executive producers and as Neon’s distribution partner during the Cannes Virtual Market in 2020. The film has received great acclaim, premiering recently at Venice, Telluride, and TIFF. Topic Studios is the award-winning entertainment studio from First Look Media which develops, finances, and produces provocative and entertaining content for all platforms including theatrical, streaming, television, and podcasts. The Studio is led by President Maria Zuckerman and is also behind such projects as the award-winning The Mauritanian; Doug Tirola’s documentary Bernstein’s Wall; the big wave surfing series, 100 Foot Wave,recently renewed for Season 2 at HBO/HBO Max; Lucy Walker’s wildfire documentary Bring Your Own Brigade, streaming on Paramount+; and St. Vincent meta-comedy The Nowhere Inn, currently in release from IFC Films.  Since the film’s debut and subsequent screenings at Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Stewart’s performance as Princess Diana has been lauded as the best of her career and has garnered growing Oscar buzz. 

Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute, stated: “We are tremendously proud to honor Kristen Stewart, whose superb performance as Princess Diana in Spencer marks yet another artistic peak in a remarkable career which spans some of the most successful studio films and iconic independent films of the past two decades. By consistently taking on bold and challenging roles across genres, Kristen has established herself as one of the most respected and beloved artists in the independent film community that we represent here at The Gotham.”

In 2015, Stewart became the first American actress to be awarded a Cesar Award in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria, in which she starred alongside Juliette Binoche. She received several other accolades for Clouds of Sils Maria including the Best Supporting Actress prize from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics, among numerous others. 

Stewart was introduced to worldwide audiences in 2002 with her gripping performance alongside Jodie Foster in Panic Room and notable roles in films like Sean Penn’s Into The Wild. Her star took a huge rise when she starred as Bella Swan in the hit franchise The Twilight Saga, a five-motion-picture series that has grossed over $3.3 billion. Stewart also starred in Universal’s box office winnerSnow White and The Huntsman and in Walter Salles’ screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Stewart recently wrapped production on David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future opposite Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux. Stewart can be seen as the title character, Jean Seberg, in Amazon Studios Seberg and starred in Hulu’s romantic comedy Happiest Season.

This year’s Industry Tribute will go to Eamonn Bowles, President of Magnolia Pictures, the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies. Bowles, who started Magnolia twenty years ago with partner Bill Banowsky, has since been a pioneer in developing alternative distribution strategies. Some of Magnolia’s more prominent releases include Man on Wire, I Am Not Your Negro, RBG, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, Collective, Bubble, Shoplifters, Jesus Camp, The Host, The Square, John Lewis: Good Trouble, The Wolfpack and Blackfish among others. Filmmaker Alex Gibney, a frequent collaborator of Magnolia, will present the tribute to Bowles.

“In order for incredible independent and international films to reach broad American audiences, you need innovative and relentlessly passionate executives like Eamonn Bowles,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media. “Since founding Magnolia in 2001, he has pioneered unique methods of distributing films that elevate voices and stories desperately needed in this industry. His track record of distributing the highest caliber of films speaks for itself and we are so proud to recognize his leadership and stellar career on the occasion of Magnolia’s twentieth anniversary.”

Prior to his work at Magnolia, Bowles was president of Shooting Gallery Pictures, the distribution arm of Shooting Gallery. Before that he was Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Marketing at Miramax and also served as Chief Operating Officer of Shining Excalibur Pictures, the entity formed by the Weinstein brothers to distribute Larry Clark’s controversial Kids. At the Samuel Goldwyn Company, Bowles served as Head of Distribution, where he was responsible for the release of The Wedding Banquet, Much Ado About Nothing, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Madness of King George, and Go Fish. He has also served as main programmer for the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival and New York’s famed repertory theatre, the Thalia.