The press release, in part:
The Producers Guild of America (PGA), announced today that Sean Penn will be honored with the 2011 Stanley Kramer Award. The award will be presented to Penn at the 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday, January 22nd at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
The Stanley Kramer Award was established in 2002 to honor a motion picture, producer or other individual, whose achievement or contribution illuminates provocative social issues in an accessible and elevating fashion. Kramer, considered within the film industry to have served as “Hollywood’s Conscience” during his career as a film producer and director, created some of the most respected and successful works in the annals of American motion pictures. He was the master behind such classics as The Caine Mutiny, High Noon, The Defiant Ones, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Previous recipients of the Kramer award include such films as The Great Debaters, An Inconvenient Truth, Hotel Rwanda, Innocent Voices, In America, Antwone Fisher, and the 2010 winner was PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE. Sean Penn is the first individual to receive the Guild’s Stanley Kramer Award, and the first recipient of the award in 2002 was the film I AM SAM, which Penn starred in.
[Photo: 42 West]
Comments
8 responses to “Sean Penn to receive PGA’s Stanley Kramer Award”
Seems weird to give it to an individual when the award has been given to films ever since its inception — it’s almost as if they thought no titles met the brief this year.
“The Kids Are All Right” would have made sense as a winner, though.
Yet, to me, there is a sort of sense and appropriateness to giving it to Penn. It is a fascinating shift in how they seem to want to convey the award to the industry. I wonder if it is because they don’t think there was a movie out there or if they’re trying to refocus the attention and maybe get more exposure.
Sean Penn is a gifted artist, but his Gigantic EGO is absolutely irritating.
His EGO is even worse when he gives acceptance speeches. God Bless the PGA audience.
The man has an other-worldly level of talent (And as a fan of “Into the Wild”, I also mean as a director) and is an extremely charitable and generous person. If anybody’s entitled to an EGO, it’s him.
What’s this fucking bullshit about ego?
Penn’s been living in Haiti for nearly a year now, following the earthquake. He’s in charge of a camp that houses 55,000 displaced Haitians. He’s still there long, long after the tv cameras have left and the telethons have ended. If he was doing it solely for his ego and to get good publicity for himself he would’ve ducked out of there many months ago. You can cynically accuse celebrities of pretending like they care when they appear on telethons within driving distance of their fancy Beverly Hills mansions, but how on earth can you accuse him of having an ego when everything he’s done this past year is the exact opposite?
Shame on you, jt.
Right on, Graysmith.
Graysmith, I am entitled to my opinion- whether you like it or not. An individual can be charitable and still have an enormous ego- it is not mutually exclusive. Have you seen his dreadful acceptance speeches ? I still remember his SAG award acceptance speech for “Milk. ” With that speech , he basically stated he didn’t agree with the nominations and wins that evening ( who cares about his awards opinion ?) . I just wanted him to accept his award , thank the appropriate people, and get off the stage. Also, with the same speech he stated , basically , it was a media conspiracy that was pitting him against his friend, Mickey Rourke for the awards.
Sean called his ex-wife a “ghost” he doesn’t know. What kind of self-respecting man would publicly call his ex-wife and the mother of his children a ” ghost ?” Someone who is incredibly arrogant and mean-spirited.
Penn mentioned he wanted the people who criticized his work in Haiti to ” die screaming of rectal cancer.” Sorry, people, many people have died of cancer, and I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to die of cancer . His comments are just insensitive.
I applaud Mr. Penn’s altruism and his talent, but his EGO grates me. To be fair, he is not the only person in Hollyweird with a big ego.