IndieWire Honors 2024 Reunites Stars Like Carol Burnett, Quinta Brunson, and John Mulaney
Marcus Jones
While television had been a part of each past IndieWire Honors celebration, the medium took center stage on the evening of Thursday, June 6, with an event that celebrated the creators and stars of such well-regarded shows as “Abbott Elementary,” “Expats,” “Fellow Travelers,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” and “True Detective: Night Country.”
Even before the awards ceremony began, as talent started filing into the Citizen News venue in the heart of Hollywood, it was a marvel to see “Palm Royale” star and Vanguard Award recipient Carol Burnett hold court as fellow honorees like “Under the Bridge” producer/star Riley Keough, recipient of the Maverick Award, and “Abbott Elementary” creator/star Quinta Brunson, recipient of the Visionary Award (and whom Burnett presented an Emmy to in January), came to greet the comedy legend.
Serving as host was comedian Alex Edelman, of HBO special “Just For Us,” who teased that among the “13 incredible people who have been committed to entertainment and storytelling” was “one person I smoked marijuana with once in the parking lot behind the Hollywood Improv comedy club.” Also emphasizing the brevity of the awards show, he called up the first honoree Dakota Fanning, who happens to be his former NYU classmate, onto the stage to accept the Performance Award for her turn as Marge Sherwood in Netflix’s “Ripley” before she had to jet off to re-join the tour for her other current project “The Watchers” (in theaters now).
“I’ve dedicated most of my life to being an actor. I am 24 years in, at 30 years old, and I would not change one thing,” said the actress early in her speech, later telling a story of her mother Joy, in particular, being the rock that kept her steady through a busy childhood. “I wonder if anyone can love me as much as she does. It’s so unreal,” she added. The touching moment was enough for other honorees to also give a shoutout to Joy.
Also calling it an early night was 91-year-old Burnett, who revealed in her speech that being at the venue was a full circle moment for her, as she actually interviewed the editor of the Hollywood Citizen News when she was a student journalist at Hollywood High (another detail that would become fodder for later speeches.) In addition to congratulating her fellow honorees, the Apple TV+ star ended her speech by saying, “Journalists are essential to this business, and I wouldn’t be where I am without the gracious reporters and publications who have supported me over the course of my career.” Brunson similarly credited IndieWire as one of the first publications to recognize “Abbott Elementary” as a quality comedy.
As the ceremony took off, the podium became a place for honorees to recognize each other, such as “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” showrunner and Breakthrough Award recipient Francesca Sloane relating to Brunso,: “My mom was a single public school teacher in Philly, so, we’re not supposed to end up here wearing clothes that look like they were made by The Lorax.” And Fanning reconnecting with “Beckham” director and Magnify Award recipient Fisher Stevens, who produced her film “Uptown Girls” co-starring the late Brittany Murphy. Stevens passed it on by thanking his “Before the Flood” colleague Leonardo DiCaprio for recommending him to helm his hit Netflix docuseries.
Though his fellow “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” writer/producer BenDavid Grabinski was unable to accept the Spark Award by his side, Bryan Lee O’Malley had star Ellen Wong, who voices Knives Chau on the Netflix animated series, there to support. “Expats” helmer Lulu Wang also had one of the stars of her Prime Video limited series, Sarayu Blue, and her partner Barry Jenkins present to support her receiving the Crossover Award for bringing her unique cinematic vision to the television space.
Keough also detailed some of the challenges of making her Hulu limited series “Under the Bridge,” which started with her and writers Quinn Shepherd and Samir Mehta asking, “How could we tell a true crime story and feel good about it. How could we not be exploitative, and is that even possible?”
Indeed, some projects recognized may have felt impossible to crack on paper, but “Fellow Travelers” creator and Wavelength Award recipient Ron Nyswaner, teed up by his star and fellow honoree Matt Bomer, whom he called “one of our greatest living actors,” commended Showtime for not only greenlighting the limited series about a secret gay love affair amid the Lavender Scare of the 1950s, but asking them to make it “more provocative” in an age where networks are becoming more conservative. “True Detective: Night Country” writer/director Issa López also joked that there were no Mexicans in Alaska before her project, as she thanked HBO for trusting her creative vision after her humble 2017 horror film “Tigers Are Not Afraid” put her on the network’s radar.
Penultimate on the program, and among the honorees who stayed through to the end of the event, was Innovation Award recipient John Mulaney, who joked that his Netflix talk series “Everybody’s in L.A.,” as new as it felt, was taking inspiration from hosts of decades past like Glenn O’Brien and Dick Cavett. One of the biggest laughs of the night came from the Emmy-winning comedian revealing that he had Googled who was the editor of Hollywood Citizen News, on Burnett’s behalf, and saw that he was labeled a Communist, causing a red scare around Burnett herself.
He also told a story of a memorable visit to another talk show, hosted by Elmo, during a nervous breakdown in 2020 and feeling like he let down his favorite “Sesame Street” muppet Ernie, one of his heroes. “I go up to Ernie, and said, ‘Hey, can I talk to you?’ And I started telling him how much he meant to me, how I think of life as this grand joke, and he embodied that for me,” said Mulaney. “I’m telling Ernie and I go, ‘I’m going through a rough time for myself, and you’re still a North Star to me in terms of humor.’” All the muppet knew to do was look away for help on how to respond. “So to me, when I think of innovation in television,” continued the comedian, “I think I might be the first person to ever make a Muppet go, ‘Someone want to help me out here?’”
If there was ever a room to find even more unconventional ways to make television history, it would be the group of creatives feted at IndieWire Honors 2024.
