Princess Grace Foundation-USA to present Robert Redford and Sibylle Szaggars Redford with Prince Rainier III Award and Cary Fukunaga with Princess Grace Statue Award

NEW YORK, April 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) is proud to announce that Robert Redford and his wife Sibylle Szaggars Redford  will accept the notable Prince Rainier III Award for their outstanding contributions to the Arts and their exemplary give-back.   Mr. and Mrs. Redford will be honored at the Princess Grace Awards Gala in Monaco on September 5, 2015 along with Emmy Award winner Cary Fukunaga, this year's Statue Award winner.

2015 marks a special year in PGF-USA's history as the Gala will be held at the Prince's Palace of Monaco hosted by their Serene Highnesses The Prince and The Princess of Monaco and sponsored by Christian Dior Couture.  The choice of this prestigious venue is the result of a strong wish expressed by HSH Princess Charlene to offer a unique setting to Princess Grace's legacy.   The event will also announce the significant increase in collaboration between the Princess Grace Foundation-USA and the Fondation Princesse Grace de Monaco.

The Prince Rainier III Award recognizes a renowned leader in the arts whose own accomplishments are coupled with demonstrated service to their community.  Past recipients of the Award include Julie Andrews, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Glenn Close, George Lucas, Mandy Patinkin, Twyla Tharp, Denzel and Pauletta Washington, Cicely Tyson and Dick Van Dyke.  The Prince Rainier III Award includes a grant of $25,000 to the philanthropic organization of the recipient's choice and a uniquely designed sculpture by artist Alex Soldier.

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco said, "It is my distinct pleasure to host with Princess Charlene this year's Princess Grace Awards Gala at our home in Monaco, a place that my mother cherished.  I am especially honored to welcome our Prince Rainier III Award winners, Mr. Robert Redford and Mrs. Sibylle Szaggars Redford whose work epitomizes what our organization has strived to achieve over the past 33 years."

Robert Redford is one of the most prolific artists of our time with an Award winning career in Acting, Directing and Producing that has spanned six decades and has achieved great success on the big and small screens and the stage.  He created iconic characters in classic films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby, Three Days of the Condor, The Great Waldo Pepper, Brubaker, A Bridge Too Far, The Natural, Out of Africa, Legal Eagles, Sneakers, Indecent Proposal, Spy Game, Up Close and Personal, All the President's Men among so many others.  Redford's directorial accomplishments include Ordinary People (DGA Award, Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award), A River Runs Through It (Best Director Golden Globe nomination), and Quiz Show (dual Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director and Golden Globe nomination for Best Director), The Horse Whisperer (Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture and Best Director) and many others. 

Redford received a 1997 National Medal for the Arts from President Clinton and the 2001 Freedom in Film Award as well as a 2002 Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts.  In 2010 he received the Legion D'Honneur medal, France's highest recognition from President Nicolas Sarkozy.  Mr. Redford has testified on Capitol Hill with Americans for the Arts with whom he fights for arts funding and brings high level decision makers and thought leaders from the public, private and civil sectors together.  Some of the many accolades for his environmental advocacy include the 1989 Audubon Medal Award, the 1987 UN Global 500 Award and the 1993 Earth Day International Award. 

One of Redford's proudest accomplishments is the Sundance Institute which he founded in 1981 and named for the outlaw he played in the treasured Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  The Sundance Institute is dedicated to the support and development of emerging screenwriters and directors, directly aligned to the mission of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA.  The Sundance Film Festival supports 350 new talents each year and is internationally recognized as the single most important showcase of independent cinema.  Highlighting the special relationship between Mr. Redford and the Princess Grace Foundation-USA are the more than 50 Princess Grace Awards winners who have had their films shown at the Sundance Film Festival and have worked with the Sundance theater and film labs to develop their work.

Sibylle Szaggars Redford has been internationally recognized for her contributions to visual arts, with her work reflecting some of the most crucial global issues of our time.  Szaggars was born in Hamburg, Germany. As a teenager, she traveled extensively with her family throughout Europe, Morocco and Malaysia. She already then started to admire the depth and mystery of older cultures and traditions and would record her experiences through painting and sketching.

In 2013, Sibylle Szaggars Redford and David Thor Jonsson created a concept for performance art titled "THE WAY OF THE RAIN," which pays homage to our planet earth and its universal elements. In this piece, Szaggars Redford and Jonsson created a mystical journey combining music, dance, words, light, art and film. This performance piece was brought on to the black box stage of the Hiland Theatre in Albuquerque, New Mexico during the Film and Media Festival in July of 2013.

In 2014 Sibylle Szaggars Redford formed a new collaboration with the musicians Will Calhoun, Dave Eggar, Chuck Palmer, the choreographer Desmond Richardson, the lighting designer Steve Cohen and video editor and projection artist F. Thomas McBee III. Together they created The Way of the Rain - Miami, a new take of the performance which was site specific to the "in the round" venue. The world premiere performance was introduced by the National Young Arts Foundation in Miami, FL. This past January, Szaggars Redford showcased her latest version of "Way of the Rain," over two nights at the Sundance Film Festival, as one of its official programs, in downtown Salt Lake City.  Most recently, Sibylle Szaggars Redford showcased exclusive pieces in an exhibit titled "The Shape of Color & The way of the Rain," at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA.

Sibylle Szaggars Redford has exhibited her work throughout Europe, Monaco, Peru, Singapore, Japan and the United States.

Past winners of the Awards for theater, dance and film who distinguish themselves in their artistic disciplines since receiving their initial Princess Grace Awards are eligible to win the Princess Grace Statue Award.  This year, Cary Fukunaga, Emmy Award winning director and writer will be receiving this honor.  A Princess Grace Awards recipient in 2005, Fukunaga wrote and directed his first film, Sin Nombre, with the support of both the Foundation and the Sundance Lab.  The film garnered multiple awards including the esteemed Sundance Directing Award.  He went on to direct the classic hit film Jane Eyre in 2011 and the first season of HBO's True Detective for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2014.  Fukunaga's next film, Beasts of No Nation, which he wrote and directed, will be released on Netflix in 2015.  This year Cary was selected to sit on the Sundance Film Festival jury for dramatic features.  In addition to a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift, Fukunaga will be presented with a bronze statue of Princess Grace created by the Dutch artist Kees Verkade.

PGF-USA Executive Director Toby Boshak said, "Cary Fukunaga has inspired us from the day we received his submission for a Princess Grace Award ten years ago.  His immense talent has only grown over the course of his impressive career and we are thrilled to honor him with our Statue Award this year. "   

ABOUT THE PRINCESS GRACE FOUNDATION – USA

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is a non-profit, publicly-supported foundation, headquartered in New York City and founded 33 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco to honor his wife, Princess Grace's [Kelly] legacy.  The Foundation's mission is dedicated to identifying and assisting emerging talent in theater, dance, and film by awarding grants in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships.  Since the Foundation's inception, more than 700 recipients have been awarded, totaling nearly $12 million. Some notable Princess Grace Awards recipients in Film include: Fukunaga, Jon M. Chu director of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, G.I. Joe and upcoming Jem and The Holograms; Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants. Theater recipients include: Tony Award winner for Best Direction of a Play, Anna D. Shapiro; Pulitzer and Tony Award winning playwright Tony Kushner; and Academy Award winner Eric Simonson.  Dance/Choreography recipients include: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle; American Ballet Theatre's Gillian Murphy and Isabella Boylston and New York City Ballet's Tiler Peck; as well as choreographers Kyle Abraham and Camille A. Brown. 

For more information about the Princess Grace Awards program, please visit www.pgfusa.org

SOURCE Princess Grace Foundation-USA

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http://www.pgfusa.org