Actor and activist Michael J. Fox will pick up a lifetime achievement award at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. (Photo by Mark Siegler)
June 1, 2023 By Bill Parry
The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria will honor Michael J. Fox with its Lifetime Achievement Award during its annual spring Movie Image Awards benefit on Tuesday, June 6.
This year’s event celebrates leaders in comedy and will salute the career of the actor and activist, as well as his upcoming project “STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie” on Apple TV+, which tells his story in his own words. Using documentary, archival and scripted elements, it tells the improbable tale of an undersized kid from a Canadian army base who rose to the heights of stardom in 1980s Hollywood.
“STILL” accounts his public life full of nostalgic thrills and cinematic gloss with his never-before-seen private journey including the years that followed his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29. The film chronicles Fox’s personal and professional triumphs and travails and explores what happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease.
Fox gained fame for his starring roles playing Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom “Family Ties” and Marty McFly in “Back to the Future.” His blockbuster movies include “Back to the Future,” “The Secret of My Success,” “Doc Hollywood,” “Casualties of War” and “The American President.”
He returned to television in his award-winning lead role on “Spin City,” followed by guest appearances in series like “Rescue Me,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Good Wife.”
His many awards include five Emmys, four Golden Globes, one Grammy, two Screen Actors Guild awards, the People’s Choice award and GQ Man of the Year. In 2000, he launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which is now the leading Parkinson’s organization in the world. To date the foundation has raised over $1.5 billion.
Fox will be in attendance at the Museum to accept his award for Lifetime Achievement.
“We are honored to present the MoMI Lifetime Achievement Award to the legendary Michael J. Fox, a great artist and inspiring human being, at our Spring 2023 Moving Image Awards benefit event,” said MoMI’s Co-Chairmen Ivan Lustig and Michael Barker. “His many contributions in film and television for over four decades have been memorable and meaningful and exemplary for so many who come through our Museum’s doors.”
Documentary filmmaker John Wilson, a self-described “anxious New Yorker,” will join Fox and accept his award for Innovative Series. Wilson made his HBO debut as writer, director, cameraman, executive producer and narrator in 2020 with the now critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated “How To with John Wilson,” entering its third season later this year.
Documentary filmmaker John Wilson will also be honored by MoMI for his HBO series. (Photo by Jon Pack)
The series is a uniquely hilarious odyssey of self-discovery and cultural observation, as Wilson covertly and obsessively films the lives of his fellow New Yorkers while attempting to give everyday advice on relatable topics. Building upon Wilson’s previously released “how to” short films, the episodes take wildly unexpected turns, but are grounded in John’s refreshing honesty.
“We are thrilled to honor John Wilson at our Spring 2023 Moving Image Awards benefit event and present him with the award for Innovative Series,” said Lustig and Barker. “His one-of-a-kind docu-comedy style is a breath of fresh air for the television industry and we are honored to celebrate his work here at the Museum.”
His short films “Los Angeles Plays New York” and “The Road to Magnasanti” were official selections of the 2016 and 2017 New York Film Festival.
Funds raised at the Moving Image Awards help support MoMI’s exhibitions, screenings and education and community engagement programs, which serve children and their families, most of whom are residents of the most ethnically diverse region in the world, Queens.
“In the midst of the writers’ strike, our Spring Moving Image Awards event is especially meaningful as we celebrate the work that goes into creating innovative series and movies,” MoMI Curator of Film Eric Hynes said.
The evening includes a cocktail reception in the Hearst Lobby at 6 p.m., followed by the program and awards ceremony in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater at 7 p.m., and a seated dinner afterward in the Hearst Lobby and Kaufman Courtyard.
For more information, visit movingimage.us.
