The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation honors programming made by and for women
This week the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation held the 47th Annual Gracie Awards, which honored some big names in media, including Ava DuVernay and Tamron Hall.
Each year, the Gracie Awards recognize “exemplary programming created by women, for women, and about women in all facets of media and entertainment.” This year, the star-studded ceremony held in California at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel was hosted by actress Holly Robinson Peete.
One of the night’s biggest awards went to DuVernay, who took home the Gracie Award for Best Family Series for Home Sweet Home.
“It’s so important to tell these [types of] stories because the stories that we tell each other matter,” DuVernay shared during her acceptance speech at the ceremony which was held just hours after the tragic school shooting in Texas.
“If we can tell stories that allow us to see each other in ways that we truly are our most intimate spaces, maybe we would safeguard so that there were not shootings, mass shootings. If we could just see each other, understand each other, have empathy for each other…. See each other, and let’s be kind and better to each other. Storytelling can do that.”
Hall received a Gracie Award for On-Air Talent in National Entertainment TV. She shared on the red carpet, “It’s an incredible honor to be recognized by other women in our industry. They know the highs, they know the lows, they know the roadblocks, they know the joys, so to be here and be honored for the work that I do for the talk show …I am eternally grateful.”
During her speech, Hall took the time to shout out some of the trailblazing women in media that came before her, including Carole Simpson, Robin Roberts, and Diane Sawyer.
She also spoke about the elementary school shooting in Texas, stating, “You don’t have to be a parent to understand pain, you don’t have to be a mom to understand loss, but you have to be a human to open your eyes and to see that none of us should rest easy tonight because too many tonight won’t be able to say goodnight.”
Other honorees include Jillian Mercado, who won Actress in a Breakthrough Role for her performance in The L Word: Generation Q, groundbreaking LGBTQ+ series Pose, which took home the Grand Award for Drama, and Saturday Night Live alum Nasim Pedrad for Best Actress in a Breakthrough Role in Comedy for CHAD, which she also created, executive produces and show runs.
For more on The Gracie Awards, the full list of winners and more, head to the official site.
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