Cinema Unbound Awards 2023

Portland Art Museum’s PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow announces the honorees for the 4th annual Cinema Unbound Awards. Honoring artistic innovators, the annual Cinema Unbound Awards celebrate multi-faceted folks working at the intersection of art and cinema who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Proceeds from the Cinema Unbound Awards benefit PAM CUT’s year-round youth programs, artist services, and exhibitions—directly supporting the programs that embrace artistic exploration and contribute to a more vibrant, accessible, and diverse media-arts ecosystem.

Guillermo del Toro

Creative Polymath

Presenter: Doug Jones

The winner of three Academy Awards, Guillermo del Toro is among the most creative and visionary artists of his generation, whose distinctive style is showcased through his work as a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and author. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro first gained worldwide recognition for the 1993 Mexican-American co-production Cronos, a supernatural horror film, which he directed from his own screenplay after beginning his career working as a special effects makeup artist. Del Toro went on to earn international acclaim with the Academy Award-winning films Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), The Shape of Water (2017), and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022).

In animation, del Toro executive produced the DreamWorks films Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Puss in Boots 1 and 2, and Rise of the Guardians, and produced The Book of Life. His DreamWorks/Netflix animated series Trollhunters has been both a critical and audience success. In addition to his movie projects, del Toro co-authored the New York Times bestselling vampire horror trilogy The Strain, which has also been turned into a hit series on FX Network. His next animated feature will be the stop motion project based on Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Buried Giant.

Jacqueline Stewart

The Groundbreaker

Presenter: Ava DuVernay

Jacqueline Stewartis Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She is a scholar, educator, programmer, author, film archivist, and host of Silent Sunday Nights on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Stewart previously served as Chief Artistic and Programming Officer at the Academy Museum and is a Professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, where she has also served as Director of the Arts + Public Life initiative and the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. She is chair of the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB), where she has led the drafting of reports on diversity, equity, and inclusion on the National Film Registry and in the film archival profession. Stewart was named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018. She has served on the Boards of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). In 2015, she co-curated the five-disc set Pioneers of African American Cinema for Kino Lorber. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Chicago and her BA in English from Stanford University.

Gregory Gourdet

Tastemaking Trailblazer

Presenter: Padma Lakshmi

Gregory Gourdet is a celebrated chef, best-selling author, and television personality.

He is best known for his award-winning cuisine, a bevy of TV appearances, and a trendsetting role in the culinary boom of Portland. He is the chef and founder of Sousòl and Kann, 2023 James Beard Foundation Award Winner for Best New Restaurant, and author of the 2022 James Beard Foundation Award Winner Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health. Gourdet was named “Chef of the Year” by Eater Portland and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and is a two-time Bravo Top Chef finalist.

An avid traveler and lifelong student of food and culture, Gourdet has made a name for himself by infusing methods and ingredients from all over the world, balanced together with his Haitian heritage, and creating signature flavors adored for their seasonality, boldness, complexity, and spice. He sees food as nourishment and is committed to moving the restaurant industry forward sustainably and equitably.

Fred Armisen

Multi-talented Maestro

Presenters: Lance Bangs & Corin Tucker

Fred Armisen is a comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He is the co-writer and co-star of IFC’s Emmy-nominated series Portlandia, which he created alongside previous Cinema Unbound Awards winner Carrie Brownstein. He is currently in the hit Netflix series Wednesday as Uncle Fester, and in the hit Universal Pictures animated feature The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the voice of Cranky Kong. He stars as “Tico” in HBO’s Los Espookys, which he co-wrote and executive produced. Armisen stars in, writes, and produces IFC’s hit show Documentary Now, for which he has received two Emmy nominations. He has also appeared in HBO’s Our Flag Means Death and Judd Apatow’s The Bubble, andAmazon’s series Forever (which he was also an executive producer on), and has appeared as a voice actor in Big Mouth and The Mitchells vs. The Machines.

Armisen’s career began as a musician in the Chicago-based post-punk band Trenchmouth as well as the Blue Man Group. His transition to comedy came with the 1998 underground short film, Fred Armisen’s Guide to Music and South by Southwest. An 11-season veteran of Saturday Night Live, Armisen has engaged audiences with memorable impressions and characters. In 2014, Armisen was named band leader of the 8G Band on Late Night With Seth Meyers. The band, curated by Armisen, includes members of indie rock bands Les Savy Fav and Girls Against Boys. 

Jon Raymond

Spectacular Storyteller

Presenter: Todd Haynes

Jon Raymond is the author of the novels The Half-Life, Rain Dragon, Freebird, and Denial, and the story collection Livability, winner of the Oregon Book Award. He also published a collection of art writing called The Community: Writings About Art In and Around Portland, 1997 – 2016. He’s collaborated on six screenplays, numerous of which were based on his fiction, with the director Kelly Reichardt, including Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Night Moves, First Cow, and Showing Up, and on the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce with Todd Haynes. He was editor of Plazm Magazine, an Associate and Contributing Editor at Tin House Magazine, and served on the Board of Directors of Literary Arts. His writing has appeared in Zoetrope, Tin House, Artforum, Bookforum, and many other places. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his partner, the writer Emily Chenoweth, and their kids, Eliza and Josephine.

Tessa Thompson

Astonishing Artist

Presenter: Boots Riley

Tessa Thompson is a critically acclaimed actress and is making her mark as a producer as well. In 2019, she appeared on the cover of TIME magazine as the Leader of the Next Generation. She has starred and acted as executive producer on numerous films including the four Thor movies, Passing, Sylvie’s Love, Creed III, and Selma. Her TV credits include HBO’s Westworld, the satirical drama Dear White People (which earned her a Gotham Award for “Breakthrough Actor”), Veronica Mars, the BBC’s Copper, and the voice of ‘Lady’ in Disney’s live-action, re-imagining of Lady and the Tramp. In 2020, Thompson starred in and executive produced the mystery-sci-fi podcast series The Left Right Game. She is also the newest face of Armani Beauty.

In 2020 Thompson launched her own production company, Viva Maude, born from her desire to shape culture with work that’s uncategorizable and manifestly entertaining. In 2021, Kishori Rajan (Random Acts of Flyness) joined Thompson as her producing partner to continue to build Viva Maude’s production and development slate. Announced projects include The Secret Lives of Church Ladies at HBO Max, and HBO, adaptations of the books Luster and Who Fears Death.

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