2019-09-04 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 64 SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

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).

O

f all the iconic memorabilia

decorating the hallways of

MGM, home of Gone With the

Wind and The Wizard of Oz,

perhaps none is more prescient

than a framed piece of 100-year-old paper

signed by the stock holders of United Artists

— including actress Mary Pickford, whose real

name, Gladys Louise Smith, appears on the

prized document.

The company, founded in 1919 by Pickford,

Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith and Douglas

Fairbanks (Pickford’s future husband), was

revolutionary in providing a home for creators

to distribute their own films. The document

also points to the incredible power Pickford

wielded as the most popular actress in the

world — she was alternately known as the

Girl With the Curls, America’s Sweetheart and

Queen of the Movies — and her determination

to use her clout offscreen.

On Sept. 9, Pickford’s legacy

is taking the spotlight at the

Toronto Fi lm Festiva l when

French director-actress-writer

Mati Diop accepts the inaugural

Mary Pickford Award, conceived

by TIFF in partnership with MGM, which

bought the remnants of UA in 2015. This

year, MGM and Annapurna Pictures gave

the company Pickford co-founded new life

with the launch of United Artists Releasing,

their joint distribution company. The fes-

tival’s Tribute Gala will take place blocks

away from Pickford’s 1892 birthplace on

University Avenue.

“I like to say that Mary Pickford has been

disrupting Hollywood since 1919,” says docu-

mentarian Cari Beauchamp, resident scholar

at the Mary Pickford Foundation. “Women

were much more prevalent then because the

industry wasn’t taken seriously. It wasn’t until

Wall Street entered the fray in the late ’20s

with talkies that women were pushed out.

And the Honorees Are ...

MARY

PICKFORD’S

LEGACY

LIVES ON

One hundred years after the
founding of United Artists,
TIFF teams with MGM to
honor the trailblazing star’s
push for equality by toasting
French filmmaker Mati Diop
BY PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

↓ Meryl Streep

Tribute Actor

Award

Joaquin Phoenix

Tribute Actor

Award

Taika Waititi

Ebert Director

Award

Participant Media's

Jeff Skoll and

David Linde

Impact Award

Roger Deakins

Artisan Award

Mati Diop, who was photographed April 30 in Paris, says that

being the first black female director to be accepted into Cannes’

competition lineup “was a rather odd experience for me because

I approached it almost as somebody learning this, as an outsider.

What I represent exceeds me and does not belong to me.”

Glickman

TIFF TRIBUTE GALA

Sept. 9, Fairmont Royal York