UPDATED with complete winners list: The Publicists Guild handed out awards today at its 55th annual luncheon gala, bestowing trophies on the publicity teams behind Universal’s Get Out and Netflix’s Stranger Things 2 with top honors, while also giving Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr the Press Award.
Get Out, which has scored four Oscar nominations including Best Picture, has grossed $255 million worldwide since its late February release, keeping its awards momentum going all the way to Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. It won the Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Showmanship Motion Picture Award today.
Unit Publicist Denise Godoy took home the Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Showmanship Television Award for Netflix’s Stranger Things 2.
The guild also bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Betty White.
For Fleming, Deadline’s Co-Editor-In-Chief, the victory came after his sixth nomination in the category.
“I’ve been nominated often enough and lost often enough that they call me Susan Lucci in the newsroom,” he said in his speech (I can confirm the generous ribbing). “This is very valuable to me because at Deadline we cover a lot of ground with not a lot of people and a lot of people in this room are largely responsible for much of that. Thanks to my partner Nellie Andreeva, Deadline’s owner Jay Penske, and the entire Deadline team.”
The event at the Beverly Hilton kicked off with comments from Steven Poster, president of the Cinematographers Guild, of which the Publicists Guild is a part. The issue of sexual harassment took center stage in his speech.
“We are in a new era,” he told the crowd. “We all know that the issues of sexual harassment and discrimination after finally receiving the attention that’s long overdue.
“I feel personally that we can’t stand these actions of insult and injury anywhere, and specifically within our own ranks of colleagues and co-workers.
“And to those who ask, ‘Haven’t we done enough?’ Nothing is enough until it all stops. And history would tell us we have not done enough.”
Here is the complete list of winners:
Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Showmanship Motion Picture Award
Get Out, Universal
Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Showmanship Television Award
Stranger Things 2, Denise Godoy, Unit Publicist
Press Award
Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline
International Media Award
Alex Zane (U.K.).
Excellence in Unit Still Photography for Motion Pictures Award
Scott Garfield
Excellence in Unit Still Photography for Television Award
Jennifer Clasen
Les Mason Award
Jan Craft, Warner Bros
Bob Yeager Award (for community service)
Carri McClure
Lifetime Achievement Award
Betty White
Special Recognition
Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s (HFPA) Golden Globes 75th Anniversary
