Although most of the awards at ShoWest will be handed out later in the week, a special luncheon was held on International Day to give out two very special awards for international achievements. Isao Matsuoka, Chairman of Japan's legendary Toho Studios, was presented with the International Lifetime Achievement Award, and filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron was given the International Achievement in Filmmaking Award.
This past weekend was an exciting one for luncheon co-presenter IMAX, because Zack Snyder's 300 had set a new IMAX record with $3.6 million just in IMAX over the past 3 days, an average of $60,000 per screen. IMAX Co-CEO/Chairman Rich Gelfond talked about IMAX's international plans, showing a promo that previewed the upcoming IMAX Experiences for Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Nick King, President for the international division of the luncheon's other co-presenter Nielsen EDI, also said a few words.
After watching the international delegates eat for about 45 minutes, it was time for the awards presentation, and Disney president Mark Zoradi was on hand to present the International Lifetime Achievement award to "Matsuoka-San" the Chairman of Toho Co, the studio/distributor who had led Japan to one of its biggest years, as 2006 became the first year where Japanese films made more money than American films. In his introduction, Zoradi talked about his association with Mr. Matsuoka and showed a video piece documenting Toho's achievements, some of the more noted ones being the production of films by Akira Kurosawa and of Godzilla. He also mentioned that they helped get Disney one of its biggest hits in Japan, Michael Bay's Armageddon. Mr. Matsuoka kept his acceptance speech short, though he was disappointed that despite the success of Japanese films in 2006, attendance was still down.
David Linde, co-Chairman of NBC Universal, came up next to present the International Achievement in Filmmaking Award to director Alfonso Cuaron, talking about Cuaron's many achievements and showing a montage of footage from some of them. In his acceptance speech, Cuaron talked about the fact that his love for movies extended to having a love for specific movie theatres, saying that he loved the personality and story of each theatre. He said that after seeing his first movie, Disney's The Sword and the Stone, he was hooked and made efforts to visit every single movie theatre in Mexico City at least once. He'd tell his parents that he was doing homework with his friends, but instead, he'd go off to the movies by himself to watch double and triple bills. (Considering his profession, it really was like he was doing homework.) Cuaron continued to gush with praise over various movie theatres in his life, including the one in Wisconsin where he saw Jaws every day for two weeks, and the one where he received his first kiss.
