Oct 20, 2022
SFFILM
The Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting Will Honor Exemplary Performance in Contemporary Film
San Francisco, CA – October 20, 2022 – Today, SFFILM announced a new partnership with philanthropist and patron of the arts Maria Manetti Shrem. Her support culminates in the Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting (formerly the SFFILM Award for Acting) to be presented at SFFILM Awards Night on Monday, December 5, 2022 at San Francisco’s YBCA Forum.
The newly named Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting has been awarded since 1996 and honors a performer whose work in film exemplifies brilliance, independence, and integrity. Past recipients include Glenn Close, Adam Driver, Amy Adams, Kate Winslet, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Gere, Jeremy Irons, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Judy Davis, Terence Stamp, Robert Duvall, and Robin Williams, among others.
SFFILM Awards Night is an annual fundraiser and awards season celebration honoring achievement in filmmaking, with proceeds from the event supporting the organization’s year-round work to discover, nurture, and showcase the next generation of film artists. Honoring the brightest and most compelling artists in contemporary film, SFFILM Awards Night’s longstanding awards include the Irving M. Levin Award for Film Direction as well as honors for storytelling, breakthrough filmmaking, and more.
“We’re thrilled and honored to partner with Maria Manetti Shrem on one of our biggest events of our year through Awards Night,” said Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFILM. “Her dedication to and passion for the arts not only brings sustained attention and care to established artists, but also provides critical opportunity and support to early seeds of visionary talent which aligns so beautifully with SFFILM’s mission .”
“Films are a window to worlds different from our own and actors open them for us,” said philanthropist and patron of the arts Maria Manetti Shrem. “The Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting will honor the craft of character performance and provide support to a vital cinematic arts organization whose work invests in the storytellers of tomorrow. I am delighted to share my support for film artists in the Bay Area and the world through this award.”
About Maria Manetti Shrem
Born in Florence, Italy, Maria Manetti Shrem moved to San Francisco in 1972. She became instrumental in the internationalization of some of the world’s most iconic fashion brands, such as Gucci, Fendi, and Mark Cross under the umbrella brand of Manetti Farrow, designing a new and successful distribution system in North America and eventually boosting their global market.
In the 1980s, Maria created one of the most elegant estates in Napa Valley—Villa Mille Rose—where she hosted international artists and celebrities including Luciano Pavarotti, Sophia Loren, Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Isabel Allende, Marchese Piero Antinori, and Andrea Bocelli, to name only a few. As a result, she established herself as the quintessential ambassador of “Made in Italy” creations and Italian lifestyle in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She spends time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Florence and enjoys traveling all over the world while continuing to learn about contemporary art, cultural heritage preservation, and the most refined winemaking brands.
Maria and her husband, Jan Shrem, have long contributed philanthropic support within the fields of education (high schools and colleges), fine arts (museums), performing art centers (operatic and symphonic concert halls), medical research (hospitals), and nonprofit cultural organizations in the US, Italy, and the UK. The Manetti Shrems currently support more than 30 charities, with favorites in the US including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (the first time that the General Manager position—Peter Gelb—has been named thanks to Maria Manetti Shrem), the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Symphony, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, KQED, Festival Napa Valley, Cal Performances, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Francisco Park (community garden), SFFILM, ArtSmart, and UCSF (neurology) and CPMC (cardiology) hospitals. In Europe, Maria is one of the principal benefactors of the Royal Drawing School (established by His Royal Highness, Prince Charles), Friends of the Louvre, Friends of Versailles, the Venetian Heritage, the Italian National Trust (FAI), Palazzo Strozzi Museum Foundation, and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, with whom she has supported to the construction of four new schools, including one at Meyer Children’s Hospital.
The Manetti Shrems—beyond their collection of pieces including works by Picasso, Moore, Burri, and Bacon—are co-founders of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis, which opened its doors on November 13, 2016, realizing a goal that was 60 years in the making. The museum’s collection includes works by major California artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, William T. Wiley, Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, Ruth Horsting, Manuel Neri, and Roland Petersen. The museum holds 30% of its space for educational and hands-on projects, providing a dedicated area for workshops, like in the Florentine Renaissance tradition of the “Bottega dell’Arte” where artists can learn by doing. The extraordinary architectural design of the museum—which was praised in ARTnews as “One of The World’s 25 Best Museum Buildings of the Past 100 Years,” curated by New York-based architect Florian Idenburg (SO-IL)—has already won 18 awards (six from international organizations); it has also been listed as one of the nation’s top 10 teaching museums.
Maria has received numerous prestigious awards and recognitions as an outstanding and influential cultural ambassador strengthening the relationships between the US and Italy, California and Tuscany, and the San Francisco Bay Area and Florence. In 2019, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, bestowed upon her the title of “Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy.” On March 16, 2022, the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, awarded her “The Keys of the City of Florence,” as an inspiring role model of patronage following the Renaissance legacy of the Medici family, defining her as “the new Elettrice Palatina”—the latest heiress of the Medici family. On June 22, 2022, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem were the inaugural recipients of “The Angels of the Arts Award,” Festival Napa Valley’s highest honor. On the same occasion, the Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, along with the County and the City, proclaimed June 22, Manetti Shrem Day, dedicated to fostering philanthropy.
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2022 SFFILM Awards Night
SFFILM Awards Night is the organization’s year-end celebration of the year’s best filmmaking, and a vital fundraiser. The funds raised during the event provide critical support for year-round programs in youth education, artist development, and exhibition. SFFILM supports filmmakers at every part of their path, from student, to first film, to master, and bringing audiences to their work. SFFILM honorees throughout the years have included Amy Adams, Adam Driver, Jane Campion, Boots Riley, Robert Altman, Kathryn Bigelow, Chinonye Chukwu, Guillermo del Toro, Harrison Ford, Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marielle Heller, Oscar Isaac, Abbas Kiarostami, Spike Lee, Steve MᶜQueen, Mira Nair, Aaron Sorkin, Lulu Wang, Robin Williams, Kate Winslet, and Chloé Zhao among many others.
SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM inspires and connects audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through film exhibition, youth education, and artist development programs. Annual public film programs include the SFFILM Festival which is the longest running film festival in the Americas, Doc Stories documentary series, special events with the best and brightest in contemporary film, and family programming. SFFILM Education serves more than 15,000 students and educators with learning opportunities designed to cultivate media literacy, global citizenship, and a lifelong love of movies. SFFILM Makers supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.
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This press release is available online at sffilm.org/press/releases
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