Producers Guild Awards History
In 1990, when it seemed the world least needed another awards show, President Leonard Stern created the Golden Laurel Awards to honor the visionaries who produce and execute motion picture and television product.
In ten short years, the Golden Laurel Awards has become one of the most prestigious ceremonies in the industry and is now being credited with influencing both the Academy and Emmy Awards. The attention and visibility for the Producers Guild and all that participate in the ceremony is unmatched.
The ceremony has been hosted each year by celebrity host/presenters, including Ronald Reagan, Ted Turner, Jack Lemmon, James Earl Jones, Grant Tinker, Michael Douglas, Walter Matthau, Garry Marshall and Robert Guillaume, Nick Clooney, Shirley MacLaine, and Marlo Thomas, among others.
Many honors are given during the ceremony, including the Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Producer of the Year Awards, and special awards to the most promising neophyte producers, title the Nova Awards. There are also Vision Awards in collaboration with Eastman Kodak, and each year a number of outstanding motion pictures and television programs are inducted into the PGA Hall of Fame. Every year the awards ceremony has been reported extensively in national and international media.
In 1998 the PGA, under the Chairmanship of Charles W. Fries, enhanced the Golden Laurel Awards and established the ceremony as a Black-tie dinner and reinstated the famous Milestone Award. The event resulted in establishing a new financial base for the Guild.
The Producers Guild of America Board presents its celebrated "Milestone Award" to a unique individual who has made "an historic contribution to the entertainment industry." Previous recipients of this award, among others, are Walt Disney, Bob Hope, Louis B. Mayer, Jack L. Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck, David Sarnoff, Adolph Zukor, Alfred Hitchcock, Irving Berlin and Bob Daly and Terry Semel.
Some of the past recipients who have been honored are Hal Roach, David Wolper, Richard Zanuck/David Brown, Don Hewitt, Stanley Kramer, Steven Spielberg, Kevin Costner, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Bochco, Saul Zaentz, Howard Koch, Leonard Goldenson, Walter Minsch, Brian Grazer, Ted Turner, Billy Wilder, Edgar Scherick, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner and Martha Williamson.
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