Cate Blanchett : Actress to Receive Women in Film’s Crystal Award

On June 11, five distinct women will be feted at the Crystal + Lucy Awards, held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. The 12th installment of Women in Film’s annual awards ceremony will honor the on- and offscreen achievements of Cate Blanchett, 45; Rose Byrne, 34; Frozen director Jennifer Lee, 43; Kerry Washington, 37; and Eva Longoria, 39.

Cate Blanchett / Crystal Award for Excellence in Film

For the past six years, Cate Blanchett has primarily focused on theater as she is the co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company. “I think my sense of what’s possible in film has been expanded by such an intense period of working in theater,” she says.

Cate Blanchett continues her work onscreen in Terrence Malick’s “Knight of Cups,” is the voice of Valka in “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and is in the last installment of “The Hobbit” trilogy. Next year sees the thesp in the Todd Hayes pic “Carol,” based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, and in Disney’s live-action “Cinderella,” in which she plays the evil stepmother. She says when it comes to getting in character, “you don’t just do it alone.” With the help from costumes, sets and “Cinderella” helmer Kenneth Branagh, whom she calls an “actor’s director,” she was able to get there. “It certainly felt magical on the set,” she says.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was at university,” Blanchett says. “But one thing I said was that I wanted to travel with my work and, hopefully, earn the respect of my peers, and this is certainly that.”

And as a successful female actress, Blanchett wants equal access for women. “Often I find with female-lead films, that the budgets are smaller and the resulting box office is extraordinary,” she says. “But it would be great if there were more films led by women that had that initial investment, because people want to see stories with women at the center.”

Kerry Washington / Lucy Award for Excellence in Television
Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated Kerry Washington is a versatile and fearless actress who continues to shine on both the big screen and small. A native of The Bronx, Washington has received high acclaim for her work on stage, television and film.

Washington currently stars in the hit ABC TV drama Scandal. For this role, Washington broke barriers by becoming the first African American woman to a headline a network TV show since the 1974 short-lived series Get Christie Love. In 2013, Washington earned her first primetime Emmy award nomination, Screen Actors Guild nomination and Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Olivia Pope. She was also awarded an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress and the show won for Best Drama. The NAACP also honored Washington with the President’s Award, recognizing special achievement in furthering the cause of civil rights and public service. Washington and Scandal both earned NAACP Image Award nominations in 2014.

Washington debuted in 2000 in the highly acclaimed independent film Our Song and later in the film Save the Last Dance, for which she received a Teen Choice Award for Best Breakout Performance. Her performance in the 2002 film Lift earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress. In the years following her debut, Kerry starred in several films including Bad Company, The United States of Leland, The Human Stain, Sin, Against the Rope and She Hate Me.

In 2004, Washington starred alongside Jamie Foxx in the Academy Award nominated hit Ray. Her performance earned her the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. Subsequent films include Sexual Life, Mr & Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four, LiTTLEMAN, The Dead Girl, I Think I Love My Wife, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Miracle at St. Anna, Life Is Hot in Cracktown, and Mother and Child. Washington received NAACP Image Award nominations for her performances in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland and the 2010 film Night Catches Us. Her performance in the 2008 film Lakeview Terrace earned her a Best Actress nomination at the BET Awards.

In 2010, Washington starred in Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls alongside Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson and Thandie Newton. That year Washington also made her Broadway debut in David Mamet’s Race, starring James Spader and David Alan Grier. In 2012, Washington was seen in The Details with Tobey Maguire and A Thousand Words with Eddie Murphy. In 2012 Washington was seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained alongside Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz and Samuel Jackson. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Picture. Washington was last seen in the comedy Peeples with Craig Robinson. Her performance earned her an NAACP Image award nomination for Best Actress.

An activist, Washington was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Committee of the Arts and Humanities in 2009. She also is an active member of the V-Counsel, an esteemed group of advisors to V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls. Washington currently serves as both a brand ambassador and creative consultant for Neutrogena. She is also brand ambassador for Movado.

Rose Byrne / The Women In Film Max Mara “Face of the Future”Award
Rose Byrne has established herself as a rising star of the big screen. Byrne recently completed production on Annie, alongside Quvenzhane Wallis, Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. The Broadway musical remake is set in modern times and follows the adventures of little orphan Annie as she tries to find a family to call her own. The film is scheduled to be released on December 19, 2014.

During this past year, Byrne completed production alongside Tina Fey, Jason Bateman and Corey Stoll, in the upcoming Warner Brothers picture, This is Where I Leave You, as well as on Neighbors, opposite Seth Rogen and Zac Efron. The latter is scheduled to be released on May 9, 2014, while This is Where I Leave You is scheduled to be released September 12th, 2014.

From 2007 to 2012, Byrne starred as ‘Ellen Parsons’ on the critically acclaimed FX/DirecTV drama, Damages, with Glenn Close. The role garnered her two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.

Additional film credits include: The Internship, I Give it a Year, Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2, Place Beyond the Pines, Bridesmaids, X-Men: First Class, Get Him to the Greek, Adam, Marie Antoinette, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, and Troy.

Byrne’s fame in Australia began with her role in the gritty crime comedy Two Hands in which she starred with Heath Ledger. She went on to star in Clara Law’s The Goddess of 1967 for which she was awarded Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival.

Jennifer Lee / Dorothy Arzner Directors Award
Jennifer Lee grew up in the Seventies and Eighties in Rhode Island, surrounded by hairspray, Irocs, and heavy metal. Her love of storytelling and literature lead her to the University of New Hampshire, where she earned a BA in English in 1992. From there she moved to New York City and built a career in book publishing. Saturdays at Lincoln Center introduced her to the films of Agnes Varda, the Coen brothers, Atom Egoyan, and Hayao Miyazaki. Inspired, she made her first short film and fell in love with visual storytelling. She entered Columbia University’s graduate Film program in 2001, studying directing and screenwriting.

In 2002, she received the William Goldman Award for excellence in screenwriting and the Kathryn Parlan Hearst Scholarship honoring women filmmakers. Her first feature screenplay Hinged On Stars won the Columbia University Film Festival and launched her career. She graduated in 2005 with an MFA in film and in 2006 got her first film option for her script The Way Between. Her film The Roundup has been optioned by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way.

In 2010, she moved her family across the country to begin work on Wreck-It Ralph for Walt Disney Animation Studios with fellow Columbia graduate Phil Johnston. The film went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and the script won the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Screenplay. While finishing Wreck-It Ralph, Lee was tapped to write the screenplay for Disney’s Frozen. She also directed the film with animation veteran Chris Buck. The film has earned over a billion dollars at the box office and won numerous awards including a Golden Globe, a British Academy Film and Television Award, and two Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. Lee currently lives in Los Angeles with her ten-year-old daughter Agatha.

Eva Longoria / Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award
Actress, director, producer and activist, Eva Longoria is founder of “The Eva Longoria Foundation,” dedicated to helping Latinas build better futures for themselves through education and entrepreneurship; co-founder of “Eva’s Heroes,” which enriches the lives of adolescents with developmental disabilities; and is national spokesperson for “Padres Contra el Cancer,” a nonprofit committed to improving the quality of life for children with cancer.

The Golden Globe-nominated, Screen Actors Guild Award-winning, and ALMA Award-winning actress is starring in four upcoming feature films, including Frontera, alongside Michael Pena and Ed Harris, Refugio, Any Day, alongside Sean Bean and Kate Walsh, and Visions. Longoria is also executive producer of Devious Maids, Lifetime’s hit one-hour dramedy that follows the trials and tribulations of five Latina women who work as maids in Beverly Hills, premiering for its second season on April 20th.

Longoria is executive producer for the NCLR ALMA Awards, executive producer of the documentaries Harvest and Food Chains–both of which explore the current and historic exploitation of farm workers–and writer/director and star of the short film, Out of the Blue, a project with Ron Howard and Canon for their Project Imaginat10n. Longoria is also involved with MALDEF, the United Farm Workers and the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Named “Philanthropist of the Year” by The Hollywood Reporter, honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Variety’s annual Power of Women Luncheon, Longoria was selected as commissioner for the National Museum of the American Latino Commission.

A Brand Ambassador for L’Oreal Paris, Longoria owns BESO Hollywood and SHe restaurant, her own production company, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, two fragrances “EVA, by Eva Longoria” and “EVAmour,” and also has a New York Times bestselling cookbook Eva’s Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends.

Agencies/Canadajournal