Honorees

SVFF honors the industry’s best and brightest 

2024

honorees

The SVFF pays tribute to industry icons whose contributions to the art of cinema have changed the industry for the better.

2024 vision award honoree

Annette Bening

Annette Bening is a venerated actress across stage and screen. Most recently starring as swimmer Diana Nyad in Nyad, which she received a SAG Award Best Actress nomination. Her other prominent film credits include The Report, Death on the Nile, 20th Century Women, The Kids Are Alright, American Beauty, The American President, The Grifters and Bugsy. Bening is a Tony Award and four-time Academy Award nominee, and two-time Golden Globe and SAG Award winner. Onstage, she was recently seen in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s classic All My Sons, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She previously received a Tony nomination for her critically acclaimed role in Coastal Disturbances. She will soon be seen in Poolman alongside Danny DeVito, directed by and co-starring Chris Pine
 

Photo Credit: Jon Rou

2024 VISION Award Honoree

david o. russell

For three decades, David O. Russell has earned a reputation as an original visionary through his work as a film writer, director and producer. Among his best-known features are The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings, Flirting with Disaster and Spanking the Monkey. Russell has been nominated for five Academy Awards and four Golden Globes, along with three WGA Awards and two DGA Awards. He has won dozens of industry awards including four Independent Spirit Awards, two BAFTA Awards and numerous film critics and film festival awards. Russell is the only director to have two consecutive films, Silver Linings Playbook in 2012 and American Hustle in 2013, receive Academy Award nominations in all four acting categories.

 

 
Photo credit: Neilson Barnard:Getty Images

2024 pioneer award honoree

PRESENTED BY VARIETY

ted hope

American independent producer, Ted Hope,  has been a producer on over 70 films, a studio executive on over 60, a CEO of a start-up streamer, a co-head of three production companies, an executive director of a film society and festival, a professor of practice at two universities, and a founder of a post-production facility, two websites, two think tanks, as well as an app. He launched Amazon’s foray into feature film production, leading them to 19 Oscar nominations and five wins. As a producer, his films have received 25 Oscar nominations and six wins. Hope’s memoir and newsletter, “Hope For Film,” are both must reads, as he has helped launch the feature film careers of Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Hal Hartley, Michel Gondry and many others. His most recent films include the first narrative, Cassandro, from Oscar-winning documentary director, Roger Ross Williams, as well as the documentary on Taiwan, Invisible Nation, directed and produced by Vanessa Hope.

 

Photo credit: Locarno Film Festival

2024 high scribe honoree

Julia Cox

Nyad screenwriter, Julia Cox, will receive the Festival’s High Scribe Award as part of the SVFF Screenwriters Lab. Given to an individual with a profound insight, Cox has written films and television shows for Paramount, Sony, TriStar, Fox, Amazon, and Netflix, as well as indie labels such as Sister, Participant, Black Bear, L.D., and River Road. She’s known for her original work – character-driven, tense dramas – as well as her adaptations of novels and true stories. Recently, she adapted “In a Lonely Place,” “Unfollow,” and “The Great Alone,” along with original spec scripts Do No Harm and The Takeaway appearing on the annual Black List. In 2021, she was also named one of Variety’s “Ten Screenwriters to Watch.”  

 

Photo credit: Lauren Kallen

Customers Reviews

What people say?

At the festival I can tell people love filmmaking in every aspect – writing, acting, cinematography, and producing. So I’m really excited to be here and meet people who are just as excited about the process as I am.

Yahya Adbul Mateen II

Sun Valley’s intimate size snuffs egos and allows personalities, connections, and the zeal for filmmaking to flourish everywhere from get-togethers in cozy cafe’s to the lofty lifts of Bald Mountain.

Flaunt magazine

It’s wonderfully intimate and remains very high end in both the quality of films presented and the festival itself. Sun Valley has kept its integrity…the magic dust.

kate bosworth

There is an incredible creative energy at SVFF that I look forward to every year! The films, festivities, and people are amazing. I can’t wait to be there!

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Gallery

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Honorees

Best Narrative Film

winner

Linoleum, Directed by Colin West

Best documentary feature Film

winner

Mama Bears, Directed by Daresha Kyi

Audience Award

winner

We Feed People, Directed by Ron Howard

The gem state award

The best short film made in Idaho. The films in the Idaho Shorts program are eligible for this award.

winner

Meridian, Directed by  Aidan Brezonick

one in a million - narrative award

winner

Karmalink, Directed by Jake Wachtel

one in a million - documentary award

winner

Sirens, Directed by Rita Baghdadi

The svshorty award

The best short film across all categories. All shorts are eligible for this award.

winner

Meridian, Directed by  Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck & Robert Machoian

hot shot award

The Future Filmmakers Forum (FFF) showcases student-made films and encourages students in their craft, storytelling, and self-expression. The Future Filmmakers Forum is made possible by the Nordstrom Brothers and an annual generous gift from the Steen Family Foundation.

winner

The First 280 Words of My Life, Directed by Ella JAnes

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Annette Bening

Annette Bening is a Tony Award and four-time Academy Award nominee, and two-time Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award winner. Most recently, she starred in NYAD, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and JERRY AND MARGE GO LARGE on Paramount+, opposite Bryan Cranston. Upcoming, she will be seen in POOLMAN, alongside Danny DeVito and directed by/co-starring Chris Pine. 

 

Additional film credits include DEATH ON THE NILE, HOPE GAP, THE REPORT, GEORGETOWN, LIFE ITSELF, THE SEAGULL, CAPTAIN MARVEL, FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL,  20TH CENTURY WOMEN, RULES DON’T APPLY, DANNY COLLINS, THE SEARCH, THE FACE OF LOVE, RUBY SPARKS, GIRL MOST LIKELY, GINGER & ROSA, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, MOTHER AND CHILD, BEING JULIA, AMERICAN BEAUTY, IN DREAMS, THE SIEGE, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, MARS ATTACKS!, RICHARD III, LOVE AFFAIR, BUGSY, REGARDING HENRY,  THE GRIFTERS,  GUILTY BY SUSPICION, VALMONT, POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, and THE GREAT OUTDOORS. 

 

On stage, Bening was last seen in Jack O’Brian’s Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s classic ALL MY SONS alongside Tracy Letts, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. Previous stage credits include: Public Theater’s 2014 Shakespeare in the Park production of KING LEAR; RUTH DRAPER MONOLOGUES at Geffen Playhouse; Anton Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD at Mark Taper Forum; Alan Bennett’s TALKING HEADS at Tiffany Theater; Henrik Ibsen’s HEDDA GABLER at Geffen Playhouse; and MEDEA at UCLA. 

 

Bening also received a Tony Award nomination and won the Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Debut Performance of the Season for her role in COASTAL DISTURBANCES.  

 

Bening graduated from San Francisco State University and trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco until she joined the acting company.

DAvid O. Russell

David O. Russell is an American film writer, director, and producer, known for movies of comedic, dramatic, sometimes tragic characters whose love of life can surpass dark circumstances in very specific worlds. Often, the films deal with complicated families and emotions, beauty found in many different worlds from the ordinary to the unusual, including sociopolitical tales, and the worlds of mental illness.

 

Some of his most notable films include The Fighter (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and American Hustle (2013). Other films include I Heart Huckabees (2004), Three Kings (1999), Flirting with Disaster (1996), and Spanking the Monkey, which won the Sundance Audience Award in 1994.

 

Jennifer Lawrence won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook (2012); Bale and Leo won best supporting actor and actress in The Fighter (2010). Russell is the only director to have two consecutively-released films (Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013)) garner Academy Award nominations in all four acting categories. Jennifer Lawrence earned an Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe win for Best Actress for her work in Joy (2015).

 

Russell has been nominated for five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globes, and has won four Independent Spirit Awards and two BAFTA Awards. He has been nominated for three WGA awards and two DGA awards. 

 

He has collaborated with actors Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, and Mark Wahlberg on three films each, Robert De Niro on four films; and Amy Adams on two.

 

Richard Brody of the New Yorker called 2022’s “Amsterdam,” “among the most emotionally committed and aesthetically distinctive films of the time… an exemplary piece of resistance cinema.” Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington headline the ensemble cast including Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldana, Michael Shannon, Andrea Riseborough, and Taylor Swift.