NEWPORT BEACH, CA (September 29, 2022) – The 2022 Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) proudly announces its 2022 Festival Honors, to take place on Sunday, October 16 at Balboa Bay Resort in conjunction with Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch. This year’s honorees attending the Festival Honors event include Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ron Howard (Thirteen Lives) who will receive the Variety Legend and Groundbreaker Award for his outstanding creative leadership and impactful artistic achievements that have proved both visionary and enduring. Four honorees – Aubrey Plaza (Emily the Criminal), Jonathan Majors (Devotion), Keke Palmer (Nope) and Patton Oswalt (I Love My Dad) – will receive Artist of Distinction Awards, presented to individuals known for their contribution to the arts, philanthropic endeavors, and an overriding commitment to their craft to tell unique and bold stories. Colson Baker (Taurus) and Anna Diop (Nanny) will receive Spotlight Awards, Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth) will receive the Maverick Award, and Aimee Carrero (The Menu) will receive the Breakout Award.
Eddie Redmayne will attend the NBFF Centerpiece screening of The Good Nurse on Saturday, October 15, where the festival will honor him with the Icon Award, presented to an actor or actress widely admired for their contribution and iconic role(s) in the industry. Filmmaker Paul Feig will receive the Career Achievement Award at a screening for The School of Good and Evil on October 19.
This year’s honorees will also be joined by previously announced, Adam Sandler, who will receive the festival’s inaugural Performance of the Year Award in recognition of his work in Jeremiah Zagar’s Hustle on Saturday, October 15.
The 23rd edition of the festival will be held in person from October 13-20 and will spotlight over 350 films from around the world. Following is brief information on this year’s diverse slate of Newport Beach Film Festival honorees:
Ron Howard (Variety Legend and Groundbreaker Award)
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation’s most popular directors, creating the Oscar-winning dramas A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 and such hit film comedies as Splash and Parenthood. His feature films and documentaries also include Thirteen Lives, We Feed People, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, Rush, Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, The Paper, Backdraft and How The Grinch Stole Christmas, beginning his directing career with classics like American Graffiti and Night Shift. For television, he produced the Emmy-winning series Arrested Development, which he also narrated, the Emmy-winning Genius anthology series, Under the Banner of Heaven, and the docuseries Light & Magic, to name a few. Howard began his career in film as an actor, first appearing in The Journey and The Music Man and later starring on the long-running television series The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013. Howard also co-founded Impact, a content accelerator whose mission is to discover, cultivate, nurture and connect creative storytellers around the world. To date, Impact has built a community of over 75,000 writers across 140+ countries
Paul Feig (Career Achievement Award)
Paul Feig is a DGA-winning and Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, producer, and author, known for his signature style and discerning eye for talent. He is the founder of the production company Feigco Entertainment and content company Powderkeg Media, which aims to champion new voices with a commitment to female, LGBTQIA+ creators, and filmmakers of color. Feig is the director, producer, and co-writer of the film The School for Good and Evil starring Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington. The film will be released in theaters and globally on Netflix on October 19th. Feig is a writer, executive producer, and director of Fox’s Welcome to Flatch and an executive producer on HBO Max’s Minx, both of which are respectively returning for second seasons. Feig is a visionary filmmaker with a proven track record of female-led hits that have grossed over one billion dollars worldwide including Bridesmaids, Last Christmas, The Heat, Ghostbusters, A Simple Favor, and Spy. Feig also has his own brand of gin called Artingstall’s and wrote a cocktail and lifestyle book of original recipes called Cocktail Time! coming out this Fall.
Eddie Redmayne (Icon Award)
Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne will soon be seen in The Good Nurse opposite Jessica Chastain. The movie is based on the true story of the pursuit and capture of Charlie Cullen, a nurse regarded as one of the most prolific serial killers in history, now better known as the “Angel of Death.” Redmayne has earned acclaim across his roles in such films as The Theory of Everything (winning the 2015 Oscar for Best Actor), The Danish Girl, Les Miserables, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and many others. On stage he recently led the electrifying West End revival of Cabaret alongside Academy Award-nominee Jessie Buckley, for which he won the Olivier Award for Actor in a Musical. His theatrical work includes Red, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, Now or Later and Richard II.
Jonathan Majors (Artist of Distinction Award)
Emmy, Critics’ Choice, Independent Spirit and Gotham Award nominee Jonathan Majors will soon star as Jesse Brown, the first black man in U.S. Naval history to become a fighter pilot in the Thanksgiving feature action drama Devotion from Sony Pictures and Black Label Media. Other upcoming film projects include Creed III, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantmania, Magazine Dreams and The Man in My Basement. Since his breakout role in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise, Majors has starred in The Harder They Fall, Da 5 Bloods, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, White Boy Rick, and Hostiles, as well as HBO’s Lovecraft Country where he received an Emmy nomination for his performance. His extensive stage credits include productions of Henry V, A Raisin in the Sun, The Tempest, Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Patton Oswalt (Artist of Distinction Award)
Patton Oswalt is an Emmy and Grammy-winning actor, writer, comedian and best-selling author. He co-stars as Principal Durbin on the NBC comedy A.P. Bio and co-created the Hulu animated series M.O.D.O.K., in the wake of series regular and guest roles on such episodic shows as Veep, Parks and Recreation (TV Critics Choice Award winner), Justified, Two and a Half Men, Will & Grace, The Conners, and The King of Queens. In addition to his comedy specials, Oswalt has lent his voice to The Goldbergs (as narrator), Family Guy, Rick and Morty and The Simpsons. His film roles include those in Young Adult, Big Fan, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander, Magnolia and animated projects including The Secret Life of Pets 2 and the Oscar-winning Ratatouille.
Keke Palmer (Artist of Distinction Award)
Keke Palmer is an Emmy-winning actress, producer, host, singer and songwriter. She recently starred in Jordan Peele’s summer blockbuster Nope, voiced the character of Izzy in Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear and hosted NBC’s popular reboot of Password with Jimmy Fallon. In 2021 she won an Emmy for portraying the five Taylor family members in her own series, Turnt Up With the Taylors, which she produced. Known for her breakout role in Akeelah and the Bee, previously at age ten she became the youngest actress to receive a SAG Award nomination in a lead actor category (The Wool Cap), became the first Black Cinderella (Cinderella on Broadway) and the first Black woman to star as Marty in the Emmy-nominated TV movie version of Grease Live!
Aubrey Plaza (Artist of Distinction Award)
Aubrey Plaza received rave reviews for her starring role in Emily the Criminal which she produced under her Evil Hag Productions Company. Next, she will star in Mike White’s White Lotus 2 on HBO and Guy Ritchie’s feature Operation Fortune opposite Jason Statham and Hugh Grant. Plaza received critical acclaim for starring in Happiest Season, Black Bear (producer) and Ingrid Goes West (producer). On television, Plaza starred in Noah Hawley’s Legion on FX and is well known for the Emmy-nominated Parks and Recreation. Plaza will soon begin production on Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis opposite Adam Driver.
Colson Baker (Spotlight Award)
Making his acting debut in Cameron Crowe’s Roadies for Showtime, Colson Baker has appeared in several blockbuster hits including Netflix’s BirdBox and Project Power, as well as the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt in the role of Tommy Lee. Other credits include Big Time Adolescence, The King of Staten Island, Nerve and Beyond the Lights. Earlier this year he earned kudos for his starring role in the musical bio-drama Taurus, which debuted at the Berlin Film Festival, and the release of his co-writing/directorial debut feature, Good Mourning, in the wake of last year’s short film directing of Downfalls High, based on his #1 album Tickets to My Downfall. In other realms, Colson Baker is known to the world as multi-platinum recording artist Machine Gun Kelly. RLJE Films will release his upcoming film Taurus in theaters this fall.
Anna Diop (Spotlight Award)
Anna Diop is a Senegalese-American actress who can next be seen in Prime Video’s highly-anticipated and award-winning film Nanny. The debut feature from writer/director Nikyatu Jusu is a genre-bending film that blends psychological horror with culturally relevant issues of social identity, including race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Anna stars as Aisha, an undocumented nanny working for a privileged couple in New York City. As she prepares for the arrival of the son she left behind in West Africa, a violent presence invades her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize this year at Sundance and is the first horror film to do so, premieres theatrically on November 23rd and on Prime Video on December 16th. On the TV front, Diop is the female lead ‘Starfire’ in the DC Universe live-action series Titans on HBO Max. She also was a series regular on FOX’s reboot of 24: Legacy playing opposite Corey Hawkins.
Cooper Raiff (Maverick Award)
Cooper Raiff wrote, directed, and produced his second original feature, Cha Cha Real Smooth, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2022, receiving the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. The film was released this summer globally via Apple Original Films to widespread critical and audience acclaim. His debut feature Shithouse, which he also starred in, wrote, directed, edited, and produced, premiered in competition at SXSW in 2020 where it won the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature. It was released by IFC Films and was named one of the 10 best movies of 2020 by Vanity Fair. He is currently in development on several projects including: The Trashers, an independent TV series he will write, direct, star in and produce; an ABC Studios TV series with Jonah Hill, Susannah Grant, and Sarah Timberman producing; and an adaptation of Naoise Dolan’s acclaimed novel Exciting Times. Raiff recently launched the production company “Small Ideas” with former Black Bear executive Clementine Quittner.
Aimee Carrero (Breakout Award)
Since her breakout role on The Americans in 2016, Aimee Carrero has been working non-stop. She will next be seen on the big screen starring opposite Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell in the Apple TV+ film Spirited, a musical version of A Christmas Carol to be released November 18, and Fox Searchlight’s ensemble drama The Menu opposite Ralph Fiennes, out November 22. On TV she recently earned kudos for the Netflix limited series Maid and recently completed production on Amazon’s original series The Consultant, to premiere next spring. As a voice actor, Carrero starred as the first Latin princess in the Disney Channel animated series Elena of Avalor and as the lead in Netflix’s She-Ra and The Princesses of Power.
The 2022 Newport Beach Film Festival will host world premieres, awards contenders, nightly special events and compelling conversations with filmmakers. This year’s highlights include the Opening Night film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and the Closing Night film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Centerpiece films will also include All Quiet on the Western Front, Argentina 1985, Armageddon Time, Bardo, The Banshees of Inisherin, Broker, Corsage, Devotion, Empire of Light, The Good Nurse, Joyride, The Lost King, My Policeman, Mothering Sunday, She Said, Taurus, White Noise and Women Talking.
The Festival Honors event will also recognize Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch: Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin), Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Ximena Lamadrid (Bardo), Christina Jackson (Devotion), Thuso Mbedu (The Woman King), Zen McGrath (The Son), Amber Midthunder (Prey), Sam Nivola (White Noise), Jeremy Pope (The Inspection), and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things).
Tickets to Opening Night Film and Gala are $225. Tickets to the Closing Night Film and Gala are $145. Gala events are open to attendees 21 & older. For Festival passes and tickets visit www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com.
About the Newport Beach Film Festival
Recognized as one of the largest luxury lifestyle film festivals in the United States, the Newport Beach Film Festival brings an international curated collection of films and vibrant cultural gatherings to the beautiful Southern California coast. Committed to championing the work of original storytellers from around the globe, the festival celebrates contemporary screen culture, cinematic excellence and engages the community in compelling conversations with filmmakers and artists. The Newport Beach Film Festival is sponsored in part by UCI Health, Los Angeles Times, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Fashion Island, Aston Martin and the City of Newport Beach. For Festival passes and tickets visit www.
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