The Cinema Unbound Awards is an annual event that honors artistic innovators and celebrates multi-faceted folks working at the intersection of art and cinema who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
Proceeds from the Cinema Unbound Awards benefit PAM CUT’s year-round youth programs, artist services, and exhibitions—directly supporting the programs that embrace artistic exploration and contribute to a more vibrant, accessible, and diverse media-arts ecosystem.
Past Awards
Discover past Cinema Unbound honorees
Past honorees include:
2023
- Guillermo del Toro (Academy Award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and author; Pan’s Labyrinth; The Shape of Water; and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio)
- Jacqueline Stewart (Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)
- Gregory Gourdet (celebrated chef, best-selling author, and television personality; Sousòl; Kann; Top Chef)
- Fred Armisen (comedian, writer, producer, and musician; Saturday Night Live, Portlandia, Documentary Now)
- Jon Raymond (award-winning author and screenwriter; The Half-Life, Rain Dragon, Freebird, and Denial; Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, First Cow, Showing Up; Mildred Pierce)
- Tessa Thompson (critically acclaimed actress and producer; Thor, Creed, Selma; Dear White People)
2022
- Carrie Brownstein (writer, director, and musician; Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia)
- Reinaldo Marcus Green (writer, director, and producer; King Richard)
- Arthur Lewis (Partner and Creative Director of Fine Arts and the UTA Artist Space)
- Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Academy Award-winning filmmakers; Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse; The Lego Movie; The Mitchells vs. the Machines;Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.)
- Shirin Neshat (award-winning artist and filmmaker)
- Roger Ross Williams (award-winning director, producer and writer; Life, Animated)
2021
- Steve McQueen (Academy Award-winning artist and filmmaker, 12 Years a Slave)
- Garrett Bradley (narrative, documentary, and experimental filmmaker)
- Gus Van Sant (filmmaker, painter, photographer, and musician; Milk; Good Will Hunting; My Own Private Idaho; Drugstore Cowboy)
- Mollye Asher (Gotham Award and Film Independent Spirit Awards-winning producer; Nomadland; The Rider)
- Alex Bulkley (Academy Award, Emmy, and Annie award-winning producer and co-founder of ShadowMachine)
2020
- Todd Haynes (Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning writer and director; Carol, Far from Heaven, Mildred Pierce)
- John Cameron Mitchell (Tony Award-winning writer, director, and actor; Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Anthem: Homunculus, Shrill)
- Julie Goldman (Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning producer of over 50 feature documentaries, including Life, Animated, Buck, Weiner)
- Michel Reilhac (Filmmaker, Experiential Artist and Head of VR, Venice Biennale)
- Rose Bond (Internationally-recognized, large-scale, site-specific animations)
- Rajendra Roy (The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, MoMA)
- Amanda Needham (Emmy-winning costume designer; Portlandia, Shrill)
Past presenters include:
2023
- Doug Jones
- Ava DuVernay
- Padma Lakshmi
- Lance Bangs & Corin Tucker
- Todd Haynes
- Boots Riley
2022
- Jeff Goldblum
- Will Smith
- Tasha Smith
- Peter Lord
- Isabella Rossellini
- Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
2021
- Charles Burnett
- Rajendra Roy
- Paige Powell, Thomas Lauderdale, Walt Curtis
- Chloe Zhao
- Guillermo del Toro
Acknowledgements
Visionary
Changemaker
Boundary-breaker
Mary and Don Blair
The Ritz Family
Transformer
Lana and Christian Finley
Allie Furlotti
Thomas and Elizabeth Gewecke
Alix Meier Goodman and Linda Andrews
Peter and Kim Gronquis
Lina Garcia Seabold & Deberon Merritt
Marcy Schwartz
Bonnier Serkin and William Emery
Westridge Foundation
Event partners
