Fox’s Jim Gianopulos To Receive PGA’s Milestone Award

20th Century Fox chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos will be honored with the 2016 Milestone Award at the 27th annual PGA Awards ceremony on January 23 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

The Milestone Award is the PGA’s highest honor, recognizing an individual or team who has made historic contributions to the entertainment industry. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ron Meyer, Bob & Harvey Weinstein, Bob Iger, and last year’s honoree Jon Feltheimer, among others.

“Jim Gianopulos has some of the keenest instincts in our business,” said PGA Awards co-chairs Michael DeLuca and Jennifer Todd. “His leadership at 20th Century Fox hasn’t just moved the studio forward, it’s broadened the craft of cinema. Instantly iconic motion pictures like Avatar, Titanic, Sideways, Life Of Pi and The Grand Budapest Hotel have redefined the creative possibilities for movies; those films happened because of Jim’s willingness to take risks on great storytelling. We are overjoyed to celebrate Jim this year by presenting him with the Producers Guild’s Milestone Award.”

Gianopulos has run 20th Century Fox since 2000, making him the dean of studio heads. In 2014 Fox broke the all-time industry global box-office record grossing more than $5.5 billion, and the domestic box office total of $1.8 billion was the studio’s best year ever. The films under his watch are staggering: the Star Wars franchise is in that mix with Avatar and Titanic, the two highest-grossing films of all time. In addition, he oversaw X-Men, Planet Of the Apes, Ice Age and Night At The Museum franchises along with The Fault In Our Stars, Borat, The Simpsons Movie, Walk The Line, Minority Report and Moulin Rouge among many.

Said Gianopulos today about the honor: “One of the great benefits of this job is to work with incredibly talented filmmakers and executives. I am truly thrilled to be honored and to celebrate their achievements with this prestigious award.”