(animated photo by Michael Dequina)
CinemaCon 2025 came to its traditional close with the Big Screen Achievement Awards and Closing Night Party, honoring notable acting and filmmaking talent, nearly all of whom are not only involved in upcoming releases featured throughout the week at the various studio presentations, but had actually appeared on the Colosseum stage earlier at said presentations. As with every "full" convention since the pandemic, some awards, namely Director of the Year and the Cinema Vérité Award, were given at earlier studio presentations to, respectively, Christopher McQuarrie and James L. Brooks. This year's complete list of honorees for the awards night, in the order in which they were given:
- Vanguard Award: Lindsay Lohan
- Star of Tomorrow: Ben Wang
- Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film: Channing Tatum
- Action Star of the Year: Ana de Armas
- Cinema Icon Award: Mark Hamill
- Star of the Year: Glen Powell
- Next Generation Award: David Jonsson
- Rising Star of 2025: Madeleine McGraw
- Career Achievement in Comedy: Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong
For the fourth consecutive year, what were the usual pre-awards show press conferences did not take place this year, and at this rate, I'm not counting on them ever returning. The CinemaCon and Cinema United PR team did, however, provide full video of all of the evening's speeches to the media, as seen below:
Opening remarks by
Bob Bagby, Chairman, Cinema United & CEO, B&B Theatres;
Josh Nations, Global VP of Strategic Partnerships, The Coca-Cola Company;
and host Kevin Frazier
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Lindsay Lohan, Vanguard Award honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Ben Wang, Star of Tomorrow honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Channing Tatum, Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Ana de Armas, Action Star of the Year honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Mark Hamill, Cinema Icon Award honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Glen Powell, Star of the Year honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
David Jonsson, Next Generation Award honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Madeleine McGraw, Rising Star of 2025 honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong, Career Achievement in Comedy honorees
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Also, video of James L. Brooks's acceptance of the Cinema Vérité Award from his Ella McCay stars Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman at this afternoon's Walt Disney Studios presentation was also provided:
James L. Brooks, Cinema Vérité Award honoree
(video courtesy Getty Video for CinemaCon)
Following that final event at the Colosseum, the Octavius Ballroom was once again the scene for the absolutely final event of the week, the Big Screen Achievement Awards afterparty, sponsored by the convention's longtime presenting sponsor, Coca-Cola.
(photo by Michael Dequina)
And so ends another full week at CinemaCon. Hopefully I will be returning on April 13 - 16, 2026 for CinemaCon 2026!
(Very special thanks to Heather Lewandoski and the CinemaCon PR team for all their helpful and generous assistance at the convention, as well as Mitch Neuhauser and the CinemaCon crew and Harry Medved and the Cinema United team)
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