Fresh off a banner 2023, NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley will receive the Women in Motion Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Chairman and CEO of luxury group Kering, François-Henri Pinault, president of the Cannes festival Iris Knobloch and Cannes film festival director Thierry Frémaux will give the award to Langley at a dinner on May 19.
Langley is being recognized for her long career that has moved the film industry forward. One of her most recent triumphs was setting up Christopher Nolan’s box office, critical and Oscar behemoth “Oppenheimer” at Universal. The film grossed $1 billion worldwide and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. And of the four studio execs who negotiated directly with the writers and actors guilds during their months-long strikes, she was the only woman.
In a statement, Langley said, “Receiving the Women In Motion Award is an immense honor, and to be recognized amongst such remarkable recipients is a testament to the work Kering, the Festival de Cannes and our industry peers do to propel women forward, amplify their voices, create opportunities, and push boundaries.”
In addition to her more than two decades of leadership at Universal, Langley has long been a champion of women. She is an ambassador for the women’s advocacy non-profit Vital Voices and has served on its Board of Directors since 2013. In December, TheWrap celebrated Langley on our annual Changemakers list of 25 women who made an impact in 2023.
The Women In Motion award launched at the 2015 Cannes festival to shine a spotlight on the “creativity and unique contribution made by women in culture and the arts whose work helps to transform our vision of the world,” according to a statement from Kering and the Festival de Cannes. Jane Fonda was the first recipient and was followed by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, Isabelle Huppert, Patty Jenkins, Gong Li, Salma Hayek, Viola Davis and Michelle Yeoh in 2023.
“Donna Langley’s brilliant career and commitment to a better representation of women in all their diversity make her a natural choice for this award, which holds very significant meaning for the Festival de Cannes and for Kering. We are delighted to celebrate her and the evolutions she embodies in the seventh art. A change that we will continue to support through Women In Motion,” Knobloch said in a statement.
At NBCUniversal, Langley, the first British-born woman to run a Hollywood studio, oversees the film and television studios, the company’s many creative teams, including Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and Universal Studio Group.
