San Francisco, CA – The SFFILM announced their honorees for the annual 2023 SFFILM Awards Night: Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig presented by Academy Award-nominated actor Ryan Gosling, Academy Award, Emmy, and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams presented by actor Raúl Castillo, Emmy award-winning filmmaker Cord Jefferson presented by prolific stage and screen actor John Ortiz, and Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage.
“Greta [Gerwig], Roger [Ross Williams], Cord [Jefferson], and Nicolas [Cage] all wear many creative hats, develop bold new ideas, and are distinguished in more than one field,” said SFFILM Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks. “We selected these four individuals because each person brings a fearlessness to the craft of cinema, pushing the art form and offering incisive commentary on the world. We need their voices now more than ever.”
Greta Gerwig will receive the The Irving M. Levin Award for Film Direction is presented each year to one of the masters of world cinema and is given in memory the founder of the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1957. Past recipients include Ryan Coogler , Jane Campion , and Chloé Zhao. Gerwig is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker with distinctive humor, an authentic voice, and singular, personal cinematic vision. Her wholly original, critically acclaimed BARBIE, penned with Noah Baumbach and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has become both a worldwide cultural phenomenon and a record-breaking box office success as well as one of the most unique film going experiences in years.
Roger Ross Williams will receive the newly named Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman Award for Storytelling acknowledges the critical importance that storytelling plays in the creation of outstanding films and is presented annually to a filmmaker whose work exemplifies brilliance, ambition, independence, and integrity. Past recipients include Sarah Polley, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Sorkin, Lulu Wang, Boots Riley, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani. Williams is an Oscar, Emmy, Webby, Peabody, and NAACP Image Award award-winning director, producer, and writer–and the first African American director to win an Academy Award®, with his film Music By Prudence. Williams directed Life, Animated, which won him the Sundance directing award and was nominated for an Academy Award, and won three Emmys.
Cage will receive The Maria Manetti Shrem Lifetime Achievement Award for Acting has been awarded since 1996 and honors a performer whose work in film exemplifies brilliance, independence, and integrity. Past recipients include Margot Robbie, Glenn Close, Adam Driver, Amy Adams, Kate Winslet, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Gere, Jeremy Irons, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Judy Davis, Terence Stamp, Robert Duvall, and the late Robin Williams, among others. an actor, director, and producer whose remarkable versatility has led to great success across all genres for over four decades. Cage can currently be seen in theaters in A24’s critically acclaimed Dream Scenario from director Kristoffer Borgli.
Cord Jefferson will receives the George Gund III Award is presented each year to one of world cinema’s outstanding visionaries, regardless of their craft. As a result of activist, arts advocate, and philanthropist Agnes Gund’s generous support, this honor calls attention to an artist who exemplifies excellence, integrity, and promise—all qualities exemplified by the award’s titular figure. He is an Emmy award-winning writer who has worked on some of the most complex and popular series of the past decade. With a diverse list of projects under his belt, Jefferson has earned praise for being a multifaceted and versatile storyteller. Recent credits include the groundbreaking limited series Watchmen, for which he won an Emmy award for Outstanding Writing For A Limited Series alongside Damon Lindelof, for their episode This Extraordinary Being; HBO Max series Station Eleven; and Netflix’s Master of None to name a few.
“SFFILM has been part of San Francisco’s cultural landscape for over six decades. It is an organization that has led the way in showcasing singular voices in film like our honorees Greta Gerwig, Roger Ross Williams, Cord Jefferson, and Nicolas Cage,” said SFFILM’s Executive Director, Anne Lai. “SFFILM Awards Night celebrates filmmakers who have honed their storytelling skills and built their careers with time and investment from organizations like ours and we are grateful to our guests whose generous support sustains us, and helps us grow.”
The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco.
