The annual benefit, and star-studded cocktail party preceding it, celebrated past and present honorees and advocates
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Photography by GETTY IMAGES
Women in Film Honors celebrated its 20th anniversary, alongside a two-decade partnership with Max Mara, with a host of creatives on Thursday, November 6, at the Beverly Hilton. Jane Fonda was on hand to award Jamie Lee Curtis the humanitarian award named in Fonda’s honor. Tessa Thompson, Dede Gardner, and Gabrielle Nadig of Hedda took home the Crystal award for advocacy in film. Mara Brock Akil and Regina King of Judy Blume’s Forever won for advocacy in television. Kaia Gerber presented Kristen Wiig, her Palm Royale costar, with the inaugural Icon award. Maude Apatow was honored as the organization’s Face of the Future, an honor celebrated the previous evening by Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, granddaughter of the founder and Max Mara Fashion Group board member, who welcomed guests to a cocktail celebration held at the Chateau Marmont for Apatow, the prize’s 20th recipient.
“She’s always been our face of the future,” said Judd Apatow at the November 5 reception. As he and his wife, actor Leslie Mann, discussed their daughter’s career choice, they joked that she didn’t have much of one. “It makes sense, right?” Mann said. “I mean, what else was she going to do?” Judd Apatow added, “We didn’t talk about anything but this her whole life, so there was no dentistry talk, no political talk, so she was entrapped.” Maude Apatow herself noted that beyond her work on stage and on screen, she also writes, and her directorial debut, Poetic License, recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. “I love directing and I love writing and being able to have more control over what I’m doing, and I definitely can do that when I’m behind the camera,” she said.
Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, Amanda Peet, Ashley Benson, Larsen Thompson, Emma Brooks, Jurnee Smollett, and many others joined Maramotti, Apatow, and her parents to celebrate over cocktails at Chateau Marmont. Kate Hudson welcomed the chance to discuss women’s contributions and access to movie and television projects. “There are still so many things that need to get done, so when we get to celebrate each other it’s always great. We get to talk and meet new people and get more things done,” she said. “When women truly come together, we become incredibly powerful. We’ve spent so long with this programming of having to be at war with one another, and the reality is that is by design, because when we’re together, we’re exponentially more powerful and have so much influence and so when we can reprogram that’s going to be a much better thing for everybody,” Hudson added.
At the gala, Maude Apatow joined fellow recipients of Women in Film’s Face of the Future prize to celebrate 20 years of the award honoring two decades of women in movies and on television at the Beverly Hilton. Former awardees Maria Bello, Elizabeth Debicki, Zoey Deutch, and Lili Reinhart were all on hand, as was Maramotti and industry luminaries including Fonda, Curtis, King, and Maggie Kang. Those in attendance toasted the progress that’s been made since the award’s inception, and detailed their hopes for the future of women working behind and in front of the camera.
November 18, 2025
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