Category Archives: Awards

Chirino Receives Lifetime Achievement Award During the Latin Recording Academy’s Annual Special Awards Presentation

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It’s a memorable moment for Willy Chirino…

The 67-year-old Cuban singer was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the Latin Recording Academy‘s annual special awards presentation on Wednesday (Nov. 19).

Willy Chirino

The ceremony, which took place one day before the Latin Grammys at the MGM Grand‘s Hollywood Theater in Las Vegas, was held to honor iconic performers and executives for their contributions to Latin music and the Latin music industry.

“This is the most important recognition of my career,” said Chirino, who is known as much for his danceable salsa music as for his vocal calls for a free Cuba.

Chirino was honored for making “creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording” during his career. The honor was shared with Portuguese fado singer Carlos Do Carmo, Mexican rocker César Costa, Spain’s Dúo Dinámico, Mexican American band Los Lobos, Argentine diva Valeria Lynch and Brazilian provocateur Ney Matogrosso.

The Trustees Award, which is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording, was given by vote to veteran executive André Midani, former VP of Warner Music International and former President of Warner Music Latin America, and to Venezuelan composer Juan Vicente Torrealba.

The Special Awards presentation has become one of the most poignant events of Latin Grammy week and a place to honor iconic personalities. The event was hosted by Latin Academy President/CEO Gabriel Abaroa and the Academy’s board of trustees, whose vote determines the recipients of the awards.

Ruizpalacios’ “Güeros” Wins the Main Competition Section at the Los Cabos International Film Festival

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Alonso Ruizpalacios continues his winning ways…

The Mexican director and screenwriter’s latest film Güeros won the main competition section at the third edition of the Los Cabos International Film Festival.

Güeros

Güeros, a road movie revolving around a trio of Mexican slackers, has found success on the festival circuit with wins in Berlin, Tribeca and most recently at Mexico’s Morelia festival.

In Los Cabos’ Mexico First section, the jury prize went to Arturo Gonzalez‘s Llevate Mis Amores, a portrait of Mexican women who provide food to U.S.-bound Central American migrants.

Special guests at the festival included Rosario Dawson (The Captive); Mexican directors Diego Luna (Chavez) and Guillermo Arriaga (The Burning Plain); and actors Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater, who were on hand for the closer Boyhood.

Among the deals announced in Los Cabos, director Mark Kassen (Puncture) will be helming Criminal Enterprise for Dummies. As for acquisitions, Cine Tren picked up Latin American distribution for Justin Benson‘s Spring and Germany’s Media Luna grabbed world rights to Internet Junkie.

The five-day event often turned political as actors and filmmakers used the stage to demand justice for the violent disappearance of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero.

Los Cabos ran from Nov. 12-16. The annual event brings together industry people from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Almodovar Receives France’s Prix Lumiere for His Lifetime Filmmaking Achievements

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Pedro Almodóvar is beloved in France… And he has the prize to prove it!

The 65-year-old Spanish filmmaker has received the country’s Prix Lumiere for his lifetime filmmaking career.

Pedro Almodovar

Almodóvar was overcome by emotion during the tribute ceremony over the weekend, which was attended by members of the French film industry, as well as some of the actresses closest to him like Marisa Paredes, Rossy de Palma and Elena Anaya.

The ceremony ended with the 3,000 attendees packed into the Lyon Congress Center showing their devotion to the director, and at one point singing and dancing to “Resistire” by the Duo Dinamico.

Almodóvar closed the night’s moving festivities, which went on for more than two and a half hours, with a speech that, he said, he had prepared as if it were for a Nobel Prize and which he dedicated entirely to his mother.

Almodóvar, known for such films as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother and Talk to Her, said that his use of “explosive and saturated” colors is his act of revenge for the more than 30 years his mother spent in the “imposed” black of mourning.

Among the film icons who came to honor him were Isabella Rossellini, Paolo Sorrentino, Berenice Bejo and Keanu Reeves.

French actress Juliette Binoche presented him with the prize while shouting “Merci!” which recalled Penelope Cruz’s famous cry of “Peeeedro!” when she announced that the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to All About My Mother in 2000.

The prize offered by the Lumiere Institute has paid tribute every year since 2009 to an international film personality. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, Ken Loach and Quentin Tarantino.

The next day, on Saturday, Almodovar announced that he has begun pre-production for his next film and that on Monday he will begin finding locations for the shoot, but specified it will take place “in various points around Spain’s geography, as well as in Madrid.”

“About the rest, the actors and other details, we’ll have time to talk about that in the coming months,” Almodovar said, after confessing that his visit to the Lumiere Festival has been a “delightful pause” in his new moviemaking project.

del Toro Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival

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Benicio del Toro is a film don(ostia)…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor accepted the Donostia Award for lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Friday.

Benicio del Toro

In his acceptance speech, del Toro paid homage to his native Puerto Rico.

“I want to dedicate this award to the piece of land where I come from, where I was born, where I learned to throw rocks and had them first thrown at me,” del Toro said at the award ceremony. “Where I learned to take risks and where I learned not to do things just to do them.”

Cuban actor-director Jorge Perugorria introduced the Oscar-winning actor as a “rebel of the profession [of acting],” just before del Toro thanked the festival.

Del Toro received the award before the screening of his latest project, Andrea DiStefano‘s Escobar: Paradise Lost in the festival’s Pearls Selection.

Earlier in the day, he spoke to journalists about how he respected the actors and actresses who came before him, how Steven Soderbergh‘s Che was his most “complicated” role and how not to be thin-skinned in Hollywood.

“An actor has to have a short memory. There’s a lot of rejection, and you can’t wallow in it. You have to have a short memory,” del Toro said.

But del Toro proved to have a long memory when he told an anecdote about seeing a picture of a haggard fisherman and upon asking what had happened to him was told, “the effort.”

“I look at this prize and I answer the same to myself — the effort,” he said.

del Solar’s “Magallanes” Wins Films in Progress Award at San Sebastian Film Festival

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The first time’s the charm for Salvador del Solar…

The 44-year-old Peruvian actor’s directorial debut Magallanes picked up the Films in Progress award on Wednesday night at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Salvador del Solar

del Solar’s film portrays a man who’s humdrum life suddenly changes when a woman he met while serving in Peru’s military leaps into his taxi.

Magallanes, a Peru-Argentina-Columbia co-production, beat out five other promising, yet unfinished film contenders, including Jayro Bustamante‘s Ixcanul, which received an honorable mention from the competition jury.

The Films in Progress sidebar gives international buyers of Spanish-speaking films a sneak peek at strong projects aimed at the world market.

del Solar just starred in Javier Fuentes-León‘s The Vanished Elephant, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.

Also in San Sebastian, the Europe-Latin America co-production forum award for the best 2014 project went to Armando Capo’s Agosto, a Costa Rica-Cuba co-production. The jury gave an honorable mention to Walls, directed by Spain’s Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina.

The San Sebastian festival runs in Spain’s Basque region until Saturday.

Serrat Named the 2014 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year

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Joan Manuel Serrat is preparing to receive an honor befitting a music legend…

The 70-year-old Spanish singer/songwriter has been declared the 2014 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.

Joan Manuel Serrat

He’ll be feted during a special gala event on November 19 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The Barcelona-born star started playing music as a teenager as he learned the craft both as a songwriter and performer. In 1965, he landed a record deal after singing on the Spanish radio show Radioscope.

Serrat then released two EPs and a full-length debut album and went on to perform live on stage at the Palau de la Música Catalana. That showcase propelled him to become one of the pioneers of the Nova Cançó movement in Spain’s Catalonian region.

Known as a politically outspoken performer, Serrat once refused to follow dictator Francisco Franco‘s orders to perform a song in Spanish instead of Catalan during the Eurovision song contest in the late ’60s. He was banned from performing in Spanish media for five years. In the ’70s, he went into a self-imposed exile in Mexico after speaking out against the Franco dictatorship. He did not return to Spain until after Franco’s death in 1975.

“As a profound and brilliant songwriter, a true poet in Spanish and Catalan and a sensational performer, Joan Manuel Serrat’s lyrical style and magnificent talent make him a treasured and timeless musical figure,” said Gabriel Abaroa Jr., president/CEO of the Latin Recording Academy. “Through his talent, artistry, passion, and dedication to his craft, his work has spoken to music fans all over. It is a privilege to recognize a man with such an illustrious and socially conscious career, and we look forward to celebrating his creativity and legacy.”

Serrat released Dedicado A Antonio Machado, Poeta in 1969 in honor of the Spanish poet, and the album received critical acclaim throughout Spain and Latin America. For the last two decades, the singer has had a prolific songwriting, recording and touring career.

In 2006 he released Mô, his first album recorded completely in Catalan after nearly a decade. In 2008 he collaborated with Spanish singer/songwriter Joaquín Sabina and released Dos Pájaros De Un Tiro, followed by 2012’s La Orquesta Del Titanic. The 2013 documentary El Símbolo Y El Cuate chronicled their tour.

“Joan Manuel has become a true symbol for freedom, coherence, quality, and perfect use of our language, and a reference that we all have in reaching our goals,” said Latin Grammy and Grammy winner Shakira, who was the Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year in 2011.

In addition to Shakira, Serrat joins an impressive group of artists who have received the Person of the Year honor that includes Miguel Bosé, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Gilberto Gil, Juan Luis Guerra, Carlos Santana, and Caetano Veloso.

The Latin Grammys will be held a day after the Person of the Year festivities on November 20 and will broadcast live on the Univision at 8:00 pm ET.

Mota Earns Her First-Ever Streamy Award for Fashion Program of the Year

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Bethany Mota is a stream sensation…

The 18-year-old half-Mexican YouTube vlogger and fashionista and soon-to-be contestant on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars has won her first-ever Streamy Award.

Bethany Mota

During Sunday’s show at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom, Mota was named the winner in the Fashion Program category at the 4th annual Streamy Awards, which recognize and honor excellence in online video.

The beauty guru’s YouTube channel — macbarbie07 — has seven million subscribers and features Mota’s hair, makeup, fashion and DIY tutorials. It earned her a fashion line at Aéropostale, and she was featured as part of a YouTube ad campaign.

Meanwhile, Enchufe.tv received the Audience Award for Show of the Year. The Ecuadorian web series consists of comedic sketches viewed primarily on its YouTube channels, as well as on Ecuadorian television channel Ecuavisa. Ecuadorian filmmakers Leonardo Robalino, Christian Moya, Martín Domínguez and Jorge Ulloa created the channel.

In all, 14 awards were doled out Sunday night. Some awards were previously announced during a reception at YouTube Space LA on Thursday night, including Kirstie Maldonado and her fellow Pentatonix group mates for Best Cover Song.

Meanwhile, Four YouTubers were also presented with the first ever Streamy ICON Awards, which were handed out Friday night at a private dinner at Santa Monica’s 41 Ocean. The award recipients included vlogger Tyler Oakley for his LGBT activism, musician Pitbull for embracing digital, entrepreneur Shay Carl for building an online media empire and beauty blogger Michelle Phan This year’s awards show was

Here’s a complete look at Sunday’s Streamy Award winners:

Audience Choice — Entertainer of the Year
Tyler Oakley

Audience Choice — Show of the Year
EnchufeTV

Viner of the Year
Brittany Furlan

Gaming
Smosh Games

Beauty Program
Missglamorazzi

Ensemble Cast
Video Game High School

Kids and Family Series
Kids React

Comedy
My Drunk Kitchen

Fashion Program
Bethany Mota

Drama Series
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

News and Current Events Show
SourceFed

Action/Sci-Fi Series
Video Game High School

First Person Channel
Jenna Marbles

Original Song
Whistle While I Work It, Chester See

Maldonado & Her Pentatonix Mates Win Streamy Award for Best Cover Song in Pre-Live Stream

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Life is but a stream(y) for Kirstie Maldonado…

The half-Mexican American/part-Spanish artist and her fellow Pentatonix group mates have been recognized as winners in one of the 33 Streamy Awards categories announced during a pre-live stream, ahead of Sunday night’s big Beverly Hilton event where the remaining 14 winners will be announced.

Kirstie Maldonado and Pentatonix

Maldonado and her a cappella group, who earned three nominations for this year’s Streamy Awards, won in the Cover Song category for their popular “Daft Punk Mashup,” which has garnered more than 87 million views on YouTube.

The winners of NBC‘s singing competition The Sing-Off in 2011 beat out former American Idol contestant Andrew Garcia, Andy Lange, Chester See and Josh Golden’s rendition of Katy Perry’s Roar, among other nominees.

Pentatonix lost to Lindsey Stirling in the Best Musical Artist category, but the group is still in the running in the Original Song category for their single “Love Again.”

On Friday night, the Streamys, which honor the best in online video, will honor Pitbull with one of its first-ever ICON Awards. On Sunday night, the rest of the competitive Streamys will be announced, and streamed live online at http://www.streamys.org.

Pre-live stream winners of the 4th Annual Streamy Awards include:

Channel, Show or Series – Overall

  • Best Companion (Channel, Show or Series) – Vandaveon and Mike (Key & Peele)
  • Best Non-Fiction or Reality (Channel, Show or Series) – Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Channel, Show or Series – Subject

  • Best Dance (Channel, Show or Series) – Jabbawockeez
  • Best Food and Cuisine (Channel, Show or Series) – Epic Meal Time
  • Best Health and Wellness (Channel, Show or Series) – Blogilates
  • Best Pranks (Channel, Show or Series) – Jack Vale
  • Best Science and Education (Channel, Show or Series) – Vsauce
  • Best Sports (Channel, Show or Series) – Red Bull

Special

  • Best Animated (Channel, Show or Series) – RWBY
  • Best Indie (Channel, Show or Series) – Little Horribles
  • Best International (Channel, Show or Series) – Noob (France)

Performance

  • Best Actress in a Comedy – Mamrie Hart, You Deserve A Drink
  • Best Actress in a Drama – Ashley Clements, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
  • Best Actor in a Comedy – David Milchard, Convos with My 2-Year-Old
  • Best Actor in a Drama – Joey Graceffa, Storytellers
  • Best Collaboration – Zach Galifianakis and President Barack Obama, Between Two Ferns

Music

  • Best Cover Song – Pentatonix, Daft Punk Mashup (Daft Punk)
  • Best Music Video – Goku vs Superman, Epic Rap Battles of History
  • Best Musical Artist, Lindsey Stirling

Craft

  • Best Choreography – Mortal Kombat: Legacy II, Garrett Warren and Larnell Stovall
  • Best Cinematography – Devinsupertramp, Devin Graham
  • Best Costume Design – Epic Rap Battles of History, Sulai Lopez
  • Best Directing – Video Game High School, Matt Arnold and Freddie Wong
  • Best Editing – Kids React, Dan Seibert, Justin Reager, Benny Fine, Rafi Fine, and Jordan Towles
  • Best Original Score – RWBY, Jeff Williams
  • Best Visual and Special Effects – Action Movie Kid, Daniel Hashimoto
  • Best Writing – Epic Rap Battles of History, Nice Peter, EpicLLOYD, Zach Sherwin, Dante Cimadamore, and Mike Betette

Vine

  • Best Vine Comedian – DeStorm Power
  • Best Vine Creativity – Zach King

Campaign or Event

  • Best Brand Campaign – Need For Speed: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Six (Need For Speed)
  • Best Live Event – #Tubeathon 2013
  • Best Public Service – YouTube Stars Talk Health Care at the White House

Television

  • Best Television Show – Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

del Toro to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at San Sebastian International Film Festival

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Benicio del Toro is about to add another award to his collection…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and film producer and Oscar-winner will receive the Donostia Award for Lifetime Achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro III

del Toro’s latest film Escobar: Paradise Lostwill close the Pearls Selection at the festival, which runs September 19-27.

Escobar, written by Andrea di Stefano, tells the story of young surfer Nick who thinks he has landed in paradise when he falls in love with a Colombian girl on a visit to see his brother who is living in the South American country only to have it change when he meets her uncle, Pablo Escobar.

del Toro has confirmed that he’ll come to San Sebastian to present the film and receive the Donostia at the closing ceremony. Di Stefano, Josh Hutcherson and Carlos Bardem will also be present for the film’s Spanish premiere.

del Toro is a favorite at San Sebastian where he has accompanied films from his career.

del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic as well as an Oscar nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 Grams.

del Toro re-teamed with Soderbergh to star in the biography of Che Guevera Che. The performance won him the Best Actor award at the Palme D’Or Closing Ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and again the following year at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain.

He starred opposite Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins in Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman and as Lado in Oliver Stone’s Savages.

del Toro was starred as Jimmy, the lead in Jimmy P. The film was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He was last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy a sci-fi action film for Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Enterprises, which was released in the beginning of August 2014.

Next year he’ll play Mambru in Fernando Leon’s A Perfect Day and Sauncho Smilax in Inherent Vice, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The actor is currently in production on Denis Villeneuve’s Sicaro.

Louis C.K. Picks Up Third Consecutive Writing Emmy at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards

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Louis C.K. has the write stuff… And, the Emmy to prove it.

The 46-year-old Mexican American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer picked up his third consecutive writing Emmy at Monday night’s 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Louis C.K.

Louis C.K., who was nominated for five Emmy awards this year, took home the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for penning FX’s critically acclaimed comedy series Louie, a show that he created, stars in, writes for, directs and edited until February 2012.

It’s the second Emmy for Louis C.K., the creator, star, writer, director,and one-time editor of Louie, after his win in the same category in 2012. He also took home an Emmy in 2013 in the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for penning his HBO special Louis C.K.: Oh My God.

In all, Louis C.K. has won five Emmys during his illustrious career, with his first in 1999 for serving as a writer on HBO’s The Chris Rock Show.

Here’s a complete look at the winners at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards:

Drama series
:
Breaking Bad, AMC

Comedy series
:
Modern Family, ABC

Actor, drama series
:
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)

Actress, drama series
:
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife (CBS)

Actor, comedy series
:
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)

Actress, comedy series
:
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (HBO)

Supporting actor, drama series
:
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad (AMC)

Supporting actress, drama series
:
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad (AMC)

Supporting actor, comedy series
:
Ty Burrell, Modern Family (ABC)

Supporting actress, comedy series
:
Allison Janney, Mom (CBS)

Guest actor, drama series
:
Joe Morton, Scandal (ABC)

Guest actress, drama series:

Allison Janney, Masters of Sex (Showtime)

Writing, drama series:
Moira Walley-Beckett, Breaking Bad, AMC

Directing, drama series
:
Cary Joji Funkunaga, True Detective, HBO

Guest actor, comedy series:
Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Guest actress, comedy series
:
Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black (Netflix)

Writing, comedy series
Louis C.K., Louie, FX

Directing, comedy series
Gail Mancuso, Modern Family

Reality

Competition reality program
:
The Amazing Race (CBS)

Reality host
:
Jane Lynch, Hollywood Game Night (NBC)

Structured reality program
:
Shark Tank, ABC


Unstructured reality program
:
Deadliest Catch 10, Discovery


Variety

Variety series
:
The Colbert Report, Comedy

Writing, variety series
:
The Colbert Report, Comedy

Directing, variety series
:
Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live (Jimmy Fallon), NBC

Variety special
AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: A Tribute to Mel Brooks (TNT)

Writing, variety special
Sarah Silverman: We Are All Miracles, HBO

Directing, variety special
Glenn Weiss, 67th Annual Tony Awards, CBS

Miniseries/movie
:

Movie
:
The Normal Heart, HBO

Actor, miniseries or movie
:
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: His Last Vow (Masterpiece/PBS)

Actress, miniseries or movie
:
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven (FX)

Supporting actor, miniseries or movie
:
Martin Freeman, Sherlock: His Last Vow (Masterpiece/PBS)

Supporting actress, miniseries or movie
:
Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Coven (FX)

Writing, miniseries or movie

Steven Moffat, Sherlock: His Last Vow, Masterpiece/PBS

Directing, miniseries or movie
Colin Bucksey, Fargo (FX)