Annette Bening to be Honored at AARP The Magazine's 19th Annual Movies for Grownups Awards

AARP The Magazine announced today that Annette Bening will receive the 2019 Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award. Bening - a recipient of two Golden Globes®, a Screen Actors Guild Award® and four-time Academy Award®-nominee - will be honored at the 19th annual Movies for Grownups® (MFG) Awards ceremony on January 11, 2020, in Beverly Hills.

For nearly two decades, AARP's MFG program has championed movies for grownups, by grownups, by advocating for the 50-plus audience, fighting industry ageism and encouraging films that resonate with older viewers.

"Annette Bening has captured our hearts and entertained us for years with her performances," said Myrna Blyth, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director for AARP Media. "We are thrilled to award Annette with our highest honor and recognize a remarkable career."

Bening will receive Movies for Grownups' highest honor at the awards ceremony, which will also include recognition for 2019's best films and filmmakers, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and more.

Bening said, "I'm really honored that the AARP has selected me. Especially since there are so many people that they could have recognized. These awards acknowledge the kinds of movies we need and don't get enough of. In that way, the awards are advocates for good moviemaking, for meaningful moviemaking. And to be a part of this is very gratifying."

She joins a prestigious list of previous AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement honorees including Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Shirley MacLaine, Helen Mirren, Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon, and Sharon Stone.

Annette Bening began as a leading light of the American stage, stunning her teachers at the American Conservatory Theatre and going on to earn the Drama Desk and Clarence Derwent Awards as well as two Tony Award nominations for Coastal Disturbances in 1987 and for All My Sons in 2019. Bening broke out as a movie star at age 33, earning the first of her four Oscar nominations for Best Actress in landmark films in The Grifters, followed by American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right. Many pundits predict a fifth Oscar nomination for Bening's 2019 movie The Report. Throughout a career that spans several decades, Benning often chose fearlessly artistic, challenging or noncommercial roles. She's also given grownup gravitas to the superhero genre, playing a character called Supreme Intelligence in Captain Marvel. Her films have grossed more than $2 billion and had a resonant impact on our culture. A remarkable number of her honors arrived after age 50: her seventh and eighth Golden Globe® Best Actress nominations (and second win), two nominations each for Critics' Choice, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Gotham Film INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS and three Movies for Grownups® Awards. She brilliantly portrayed cult actress Gloria Grahame in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, one of many outsider characters she's immortalized, and Bening has inspired a cult of her own.

The Awards ceremony will be broadcast for the third consecutive year on Sunday, January 19, 2020, at 6 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video App. The Awards are co-produced by GREAT PERFORMANCES and AARP Studios.

"One of the highlights of the MOVIES FOR GROWNUPS AWARDS each year is the presentation of the Career Achievement Award," said GREAT PERFORMANCES Executive Producer David Horn. "We are thrilled to again be presenting this unique program to PBS audiences and to join in honoring Annette Bening's notable career."

Consumer Cellular is proud to be the presenting sponsor for THE MOVIES for Grownups Awards. Event proceeds benefit AARP Foundation, which works to end senior poverty by helping vulnerable older adults - in Los Angeles and across the country - build economic opportunity and social connectedness.

Great Performances is produced by THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET. Throughout its more than 40-year history on public television,Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America's most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming.

AARP's Movies for Grownups advocates for the 50-plus audience by fighting ageism in the entertainment industry and encouraging films that resonate with older viewers. With weekly news and reviews, nationwide screenings and an annual awards event, AARP champions movies for grownups, by grownups. For more information go to www.aarp.org/moviesforgrownups.

The annual Movies for Grownups® Awards raises funds for AARP Foundation, AARP's affiliated charity, which helps vulnerable older adults around the country transform their lives through programs, services and vigorous legal advocacy. AARP Foundation works to increase economic opportunity and social connections to prevent and reduce senior poverty.

AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin.

WNET is America's flagship PBS station: parent company of New York's THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its new ALL ARTS multi-platform initiative, its broadcast channels, three cable services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each month. WNET produces and presents a wide range of acclaimed PBS series, including Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NEWSHOUR Weekend, and the nightly interview program Amanpour and Company. In addition, WNET produces numerous documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings, as well as multi-platform initiatives addressing poverty and climate. Through THIRTEEN Passport and WLIW Passport, station members can stream new and archival THIRTEEN, WLIW and PBS programming anytime, anywhere.

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