Kate Winslet, James Cameron show up in style for SFFILM Awards Night

Location: Palace of Fine Arts Exhibition Center Event co-chairs: Sonya Yu and Heidi Fisher Amount raised: Almost $200,000 to support the organization’s year-round initiatives including SFFILM Education

The 2017 SFFILM Awards Night proved everything Noah Cowan hoped it would be: An upbeat celebration of movies and the people who make them. This year, the SFFILM executive director and his dedicated team of cinephiles bestowed tributes upon an A-list roster of talent: Kate Winslet, Kathryn Bigelow and Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, co-writers of the hit summer romantic comedy The Big Sick.

Winslet’s Titanic director, James Cameron, made a rare decision to leave the set of his Avatar sequels to present her with the Peter J. Owens Award for Acting. Cameron called Winslet “one of the most gifted actresses, if not the most gifted actress, of her generation.” When they first met 20 years ago, “she had this disarming British accent,” he recalled. “And then she proceeded to drop F-bomb after F-bomb. I thought, ‘We are going to get along.’” Winslet then thanked Cameron for launching her career, revealing: “You’re the only one who didn’t tell me to lose weight!”