Princess Grace Foundation-USA Announces 2014 Awards Winners In Theater, Dance & Film

NEW YORK, Aug. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) has announced the winners of the 2014 Princess Grace Awards.  In total, the Foundation is awarding nearly $1 million to artists in theater, dance performance, choreography and film. The Awards continue the legacy of Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco, who helped emerging artists pursue their artistic goals during Her lifetime. This year's Princess Grace Award's winners and Statue Awards winners will be presented their Awards in Los Angeles at the 32nd annual Princess Grace Awards Gala held in the presence of Their Serene Highnesses The Prince and The Princess of Monaco on October 8, 2014.  The Gala, returning to LA for the first time in almost 30 years, will be sponsored by Dior with co-chairs Dick Wolf and his wife Noelle, Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay and Sidney Toledano and his wife Katia.

Major Gala sponsors and partners include: Christian Dior Couture, as presenting sponsor; Dick & Noelle Wolf and The Walt Disney Company as platinum sponsors; and Mrs. Lily Safra and James H. Coleman & Cynthia Ott as crown sponsors.  The Foundation is also delighted to welcome back American Airlines as the Official Airline of the Princess Grace Awards Gala.

Gala co-chair and Honorary Consul of Monaco, Dick Wolf shared, "The Princess Grace Awards honor and reward the future of the arts.  Young, aspiring artists need all the support we can give."

For the sixth year in a row, celebrated artist Alex Soldier, known for his mastery of precious miniatures, has created an objet d'art to symbolize the Princess Grace Awards.  The Award symbolically combines the three art forms lauded by the Foundation: theater, dance, and film by using precious metals and Swarovski crystal accents.  The sculpture is made for each recipient to wear as a pin, a special reminder of their Award for the world to see.

Past winners of the Awards for theater, dance and film who distinguish themselves in their artistic disciplines since receiving their initial Princess Grace Awards are eligible to win the Foundation's Princess Grace Statue Award. This year, David Hallberg, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and the first American to join the Bolshoi Ballet as a principal dancer and actor Oscar Isaac, who was nominated for a Golden Globe^® as the star of Inside Llewyn Davis and will be featured in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII will be receiving this honor.  In addition to a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift, these Awards winners are presented with a bronze statue of Princess Grace created by the Dutch artist Kees Verkade. To date, sixty artists have received this Award.

This year's Princess Grace Awards winners are:  For Theater and Playwriting: Emma Duncan/ New York University, Tisch School of the Arts (Theater Scholarship, Grace Le Vine Theater Award), Daniel T. Mathews/Carnegie Mellon University (Theater Scholarship, Pierre Cardin Award), Kaitlen Osburn/Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theater (Theater Scholarship, Gant Gaither Theater Award), Kelly O'Sullivan/American Theater Company (Theater Fellowship, Robert and Gloria Hausman Theater Award), Ryan Purcell/ Magic Theatre, Inc. (Theater Fellowship, Fabergé Theater Award), Kate Cortesi/New Dramatists (Playwriting Fellowship).

For Dance and Choreography:  Gemma Freitas/ The Julliard School (Dance Scholarship, Alexander Moore Bayer Dance Award), Elena Heiss/National Institute of Flamenco (Dance Scholarship),  Jenelle Figgins/Dance Theatre of Harlem (Dance Fellowship), Jacqueline Green/ Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Dance Fellowship), Jamie Scott/Trisha Brown Dance Company (Dance Fellowship), Viktor Usov/Northwest Dance Project (Dance Fellowship, Chris Hellman Dance Award), Marjani A. Forte/Contra-Tiempo (Choreography Fellowship), Gabrielle Lamb/Ballet Memphis (Choreography Fellowship).

For Film: Laurel Cohen/ Northwestern University (Undergraduate Film Scholarship, Cary Grant Film Award),  John Summerson/Pacific Northwest College of Art (Undergraduate Film Scholarship), Allison Waite/Hampshire College (Undergraduate Film Scholarship), Amanda Gotera/University of Texas at Austin (Graduate Film Scholarship, John H. Johnson Film Award), Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich/Temple University (Graduate Film Scholarship) and Lucretia Stinnette/UCLA (Graduate Film Scholarship, Charles Evans Film Award).

Honoraria: Christopher Murrah/Columbia University (Theater), Kendra Rai/Constellation Theatre Company (Theater), Elise Drew León/Limón Dance Company (Dance), Aron Bothman/California Institute of the Arts (Film), Annalisa D.  Quagliata/Massachusetts College of Art (Film), Reinaldo M. Green/New York University (Film), Meredith Lackey/ University of Illinois, Chicago (Film), Pam Minty/Portland State University (Film) and Alexander Ramirez-Mallis/Hunter College, CUNY (Film).

Special Project, Works in Progress Residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Choreography Mentorship Co-Commission (CMCC) Awards are grants available to past Princess Grace Awards winners and Honoraria recipients for uniquely significant projects that advance their artistic development.  This year's winners are: Special Project Awards: Andrea Assaf, Terese Capucilli, Cary Fukunaga, Kerry Laitala, David Riker, Dustin Wills and Pavel Zuštiak.  Works in Progress Residencies:  Robyn Mineko Williams, Zoe Scofield, and Nejla Yatkin. The Choreography Mentorship Co Commission (CMCC) Award goes to Jimmy Orrante in partnership with Ballet Austin.

About the Princess Grace Foundation-USA

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is a non-profit, publicly-supported charity, headquartered in New York City and established 32 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco to honor his wife, Princess Grace [Kelly]. The Foundation's mission is to identify and assist emerging talent in theater, dance, and film by awarding grants in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships. Since the Foundation's inception, nearly 700 recipients have been recognized with Award, totaling over $10 million. Some notable Princess Grace Awards winners in Film include: Jon M. Chu, director of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, G.I. Joe and the upcoming Jem and The Holograms; and Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants. Theater recipients include: Tony^® Award winner for Best Direction of a Play, Anna D. Shapiro; Pulitzer and Tony^® Award winning playwright, Tony Kushner; and Academy Award^® winner Eric Simonson. Dance/Choreography recipients include: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director, Robert Battle; American Ballet Theatre's Gillian Murphy and Isabella Boylston; New York City Ballet's Tiler Peck; and choreographers Kyle Abraham and Camille A. Brown.

For more information about the Princess Grace Awards program, please visit www.pgfusa.org

SOURCE Princess Grace Foundation-USA