Crystal+Lucy Awards Toast ‘Mad Men’s’ Women … and George Lucas

This story first appeared in the June 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

WOMEN OF MAD MEN

“Thanks to this quintet of fabulous actresses,” says WIF president Cathy Schulman, “it’s a show about women who won’t take no for an answer. There’s nothing they won’t do individually, with each other or against each other to get what they want.” Their spirit reminds Schulman of feminist forebears Marlo Thomas and Mary Tyler Moore. “It’s the epitome of representations of women we like to celebrate — where the characters are full of spunk and have voices and aren’t just there to be pretty girls in the background.” And so, all five actresses have been awarded the Lucy Award for Excellence in Television.

GEORGE LUCAS

“Obviously, we could wax lyrical about all the Lucas films we all grew up on,” says Schulman. “But we’re honoring his philanthropy.” Lucas will be the first man to receive the Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award since Jeffrey Katzenberg received the honor in 2008. Lucas is being recognized for creating such enterprises as the George Lucas Education Foundation, benefiting men and women alike. Notes Schulman, “He pledged to donate 50 percent of his wealth to charitable causes.”

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SOFIA COPPOLA

Coppola isn’t being given the Dorothy Arzner Directors Award because she has directed four films that have grossed more than $200 million worldwide and has won a writing Oscar. “We gave her the award because she tells stories that capture the female spirit,” says Schulman. “And lots of people don’t remember she was the first American female nominated for the best director Oscar.”

RACHEL MORRISON

Kodak Vision Award recipient Morrison was the director of photography on Fruitvale Station, which won the grand jury prize at Sundance. “I first noticed how great she was when she shot Lady Gaga’s Inside the Outside in 2011,” says Schulman. “What makes her unique is her ability to put you inside the action, as if her camera was never there.” Morrison told Cinematography.com, “It baffles me how women remain such a minority in an industry whose primary currency is visualizing human emotion.”

LAURA LINNEY

Perhaps because Linney is a triple Oscar nominee (for The Savages, Kinsey and You Can Count on Me), a sextuple Golden Globe nominee (with two wins), a triple Emmy winner (with four noms), a quadruple Screen Actors Guild Award nominee (with one win) and the winner of the top acting prizes from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle, she is such an obvious choice for the Crystal Award for Excellence in Film that when her name came up at a WIF board meeting, the board members at first assumed she’d already won the honor. Says Schulman, “In discussing Laura as a recipient, we were shocked to find that we hadn’t already given it to her three times.”