Rita Moreno to Be Honored at 2022 PGA Awards

The Ritassaince continues. Tonight, Rita Moreno will receive the Stanley Kramer award at the 2022 Producer's Guild Awards. Moreno, who executive produced Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, is being recognized for her impact raising awareness for social issues.

"With grace, intelligence, charisma and kindness, Rita Moreno made her mark in history as a brilliant entertainer and leveraged that star power to shepherd stories that tap into the human experience and represent people and communities we rarely see celebrated in film and TV," PGA presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher said in an announcement.

"Beyond her on-screen contributions, she has used her unmistakable voice to hold a mirror to the prejudices and inequities that she so often experienced throughout her career. Her activism, strength and artistic contributions set the precedent for how to be a changemaker in Hollywood, and it is our great honor to present Rita with the Stanley Kramer Award this year."

Moreno's dedication to uplifting Latina voices is a big part of the reason she is being honored tonight. As Eva Longoria told Town & Country about Moreno, "She embodies and represents more than acting. Her activism, her outspokenness, her unapologetic approach to having an accent, her boldness to be who she wanted to be, say what she wanted to say, is a big part of who we are."

Moreno starred as Anita in the first West Side Story film, and went on to win Best Supporting Actress for her performance at the 1962 Oscars. With her win, she became the first Latina woman to win an Oscar. Moreno, born in Puerto Rico in 1931, would go on to join the rare club of creatives who achieved an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). And not only did she executive produce the 2021 West Side Story remake, she also starred in it as Valentina, a new role created specifically for the film and for Moreno.

Moreno believes that those with public platforms must use them. "If they have an opinion, I think it’s important for the rest of America to hear about it," she told Variety. "It’s pretty marvelous when someone whose work you respect speaks out. I don’t know if it’s going to change anything, but what it does do is reinforce a fight for goodness and justice."

The Stanley Kramer award is named for producer and director Stanley Kramer, who is best known for addressing social issues in his films that Hollywood studios typically avoided. Past honorees include films such as Get Out, Loving, Fruitvale Station, An Inconvenient Truth, and Hotel Rwanda.

"The last thing I ever dreamed of in my young life was being honored in any circumstance," Moreno said in a statement. "That the Producers Guild of America has chosen to honor me not only for my work but for the principles I have tried to uphold and live by throughout my life is so gratifying. I am thrilled."

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