After a year away because of the pandemic, the Oscar Wilde Awards is set to return in March with director, producer and Oscar-winning writer Adam McKay unveiled Wednesday as the event’s first honoree.
J.J. Abrams will be back to emcee on March 24 — the Thursday before the Academy Awards — at his Bad Robot production headquarters in Santa Monica.
The fun-loving Oscar Wilde bash celebrates the work of those from Ireland — and some who are not — who contribute to film, television and music. McKay, 53, was born in Denver and raised in Philadelphia.
“Of course he’s Irish,” Trina Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance, organizer of the event that began in 2006, said in a statement. “On the maternal side of his family, Adam has roots in Cork, and his paternal side is from Tyrone, Northern Ireland and Scotland. He even has a home in Ireland.”
McKay, an executive producer on the critically acclaimed HBO drama Succession, has written directed and produced Don’t Look Up, which bows Dec. 10 in theaters and Dec. 24 on Netflix. The comedy stars Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as astronomers who go on a media tour to warn of a deadly comet heading toward Earth.
His other upcoming film projects include The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes; Fresh, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan; and Bad Blood, with Lawrence portraying Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
For HBO, McKay is working on an untitled Los Angeles Lakers drama, a limited series based on Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown’s book about Jeffrey Epstein and, with Bong Joon Ho, a limited series inspired by the South Korean filmmaker’s Parasite.
McKay won his Oscar for his adapted screenplay, co-written with Charles Randolph, for The Big Short (2015). His recent credits also include the films Vice (2018), Booksmart (2019) and Hustlers (2019) and the Netflix series Dead to Me.
A founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade, McKay made his name in the comedy world as a Saturday Night Live writer, then teamed with Will Ferrell on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) and Step Brothers (2008).
Among the sponsors of the Oscar Wilde Awards is Screen Ireland, the national development agency that supports Irish content. Honorees over the years have included Norman Lear, Jim Sheridan, Catherine O’Hara, Hylda Queally, Glenn Close, Ruth Negga, Saoirse Ronan, Martin Short, Carrie Fisher, Brendan Gleeson, Colm Meaney, Van Morrison, Terry George, Michelle Williams, Neil Jordan and late THR writer-editor Steve Brennan.
Source: HollyWood
