Academy Award winner Geena Davis will receive this year’s Viola Davis Trailblazer Award, Mitch Neuhauser, managing director of CinemaCon has announced. CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, is being held April 8-11 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Davis will be presented with this special honor at the Big Screen Achievement Awards ceremony taking place on the evening of Thursday, April 11, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace and hosted by official presenting sponsor The Coca-Cola Company.
“Geena Davis exemplifies the true essence of a trailblazer in Hollywood for not only her remarkable film career, but also in her tireless advocacy championing underrepresented voices in film and other forms of media,” noted Neuhauser. “We could not be more honored to present her with the second ever Viola Davis Trailblazer Award.”
Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival has partnered with The Coca-Cola Refreshing Films program in their shared mission of supporting the next generation of creative talent. Davis, together with the film festival, will participate in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Films Red Ribbon Panel to select this year’s Grand Prize-winning film. The winning film, along with the three other entrants, will be showcased at this year’s CinemaCon.
Davis earned her first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role with her portrayal of Muriel Pritchett in The Accidental Tourist. She continued to captivate audiences, earning both an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe nomination for her role alongside Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise, along with a Golden Globe nomination for her depiction of baseball star Dottie Hinson in A League of Their Own.
Additional film credits include such films as Tootsie, The Fly, Beetlejuice, Angie, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Stuart Little. In 2006, she earned a Golden Globe® Award for her groundbreaking portrayal of the first female President of the United States in ABC’s Commander in Chief. Most recently, Davis was honored with her second Oscar® upon receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Davis is the founder and chair of the non-profit the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which works to reinvent, transform and inspire how global content creators and media tell stories through authentic portrayals of the population in entertainment. In 2022, the Institute received the prestigious Governor’s Award Emmy from the Television Academy for its profound, transformational, and long-lasting contribution to the arts and science of television.
Additionally, she served as executive producer for impactful projects like the Gracie Award-winning documentary This Changes Everything and the Emmy-nominated TV show Mission Unstoppable now in its fifth season.
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