"Made in NY" Awards 2011

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment Commissioner Katherine L. Oliver hosted the sixth annual "Made in NY" Awards on June 6th, 2011 at Gracie Mansion. The awards are given to individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the City's entertainment and new media industries. At this year's event, Mayor Bloomberg presented the first-ever "Made in NY" Mayor's Award for Lifetime Achievement posthumously to director Sidney Lumet, which was accepted on his behalf by his daughter, Jenny Lumet. The other 2011 "Made in NY" honorees were Academy Award winner Matt Damon, location-based mobile platform Foursquare, actor John Leguizamo star of Broadway one man show, Ghetto Klown, founder of the Urbanworld Film Festival & CEO of MoviePass Stacy Spikes, commercial production company Smuggler and Lauren Zalaznick, chairman, NBC Universal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media.

"New York City is the entertainment capital of the world and is poised to be the digital media capital of the world. The annual ‘Made in NY' Awards offer us a chance to honor some of those who have advanced these industries in our City," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Sidney Lumet was one of the great chroniclers of our City and a consummate New Yorker. When I spoke with Sidney in March before his passing, he graciously agreed to be the first recipient of the ‘Made in NY' Mayor's Award for Lifetime Achievement. I will be proud to present it to his daughter on his behalf."

"The ‘Made in NY' Awards are a special time for us each year, and even more so this year," said Commissioner Oliver. "This year's awards include a few firsts for us as we bestow the first Lifetime Achievement Award to Sidney Lumet and honor a digital media company for the first time. We're thrilled to have such esteemed honorees to accept the awards this year. It is a true celebration for the industry."

The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment consists of the Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, NYC Digital and NYC Media, the official TV, radio and online network of the City of New York. The agency's mission is to streamline government communications by making information accessible, leveraging technology to aid in the transparency of government and by supporting relevant media and entertainment industries in New York City.

Matt Damon

He has been honored for his work on both sides of the camera, earning Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, for Best Supporting Actor, for his portrayal of South African rugby hero Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood's true-life drama Invictus. In addition, he garnered dual Golden Globe Award nominations in 2010, for Best Supporting Actor for Invictus and for Best Actor for his performance in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! Earlier in his career, Damon won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, both for his breakthrough feature Good Will Hunting.

In 2011, Damon starred in Cameron Crowe's true-life comedy/drama We Bought a Zoo, opposite Scarlett Johansson and Steven Soderbergh's action thriller Contagion. He also lent his voice to the animated feature Happy Feet 2, directed by George Miller.

Damon also starred in George Nolfi's thriller The Adjustment Bureau. In 2010, he starred in the Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated remake of the classic Western True Grit, Clint Eastwood's drama Hereafter, and the action thriller Green Zone for director Paul Greengrass. He had previously starred under Greengrass's direction in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Damon originated the title role of Jason Bourne in Doug Liman's 2002 action blockbuster The Bourne Identity.

His other recent film credits include Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning Best Picture The Departed, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg; Robert De Niro's dramatic thriller The Good Shepherd, with De Niro and Angelina Jolie; and Stephen Gaghan's geopolitical thriller Syriana, with George Clooney. Damon also teamed with Clooney and Brad Pitt as part of the all-star casts of Soderbergh's heist comedy hit Ocean's Eleven, and its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.

Hailing from Boston, Damon attended Harvard University and gained his first acting experience with the American Repertory Theatre. He made his feature film debut in Mystic Pizza, followed by roles in School Ties, Walter Hill's Geronimo: An American Legend, and the cable projects Rising Son and Tommy Lee Jones' The Good Old Boys. He first gained attention with his portrayal of a guilt-ridden Gulf War veteran in 1996's Courage Under Fire.

Together with his lifelong friend Ben Affleck, Damon co-wrote the acclaimed 1997 drama Good Will Hunting, for which they won an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award, as well as several critics groups awards for Best Original Screenplay. Damon also garnered Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations, in addition to his Oscar nomination, for Best Actor. Additionally in 1997, Damon starred in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker and appeared in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy.

The following year, Damon played the title role in Steven Spielberg's award-winning World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, and also starred in John Dahl's drama Rounders, with Edward Norton. Damon earned his third Golden Globe nomination for his performance in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by Anthony Minghella. Damon's subsequent film credits include Kevin Smith's Dogma, with Affleck; Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance; Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses; the Farrelly brothers' comedy Stuck on You; Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm; and George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Damon and Affleck formed the production company LivePlanet, which produced three Emmy-nominated seasons of "Project Greenlight," chronicling the making of independent films by first-time writers and directors. The "Project Greenlight" films produced include Stolen Summer, The Battle of Shaker Heights and Feast. LivePlanet also produced the documentary Running the Sahara, directed by Oscar winner James Moll.

FourSquare

Foursquare is a location-based mobile service that enables you to share your location with friends by "checking in" via a smartphone app, mobile web of SMS. Foursquare guides real-world experiences by allowing users to bookmark information about venues they want to visit, and providing them with customized recommendations. Merchants and brands leverage the foursquare platform by utilizing self-service tools to obtain, engage, and retain customers and fans.

With the latest version of the mobile app, foursquare has moved beyond the check-in to really change the way users experience the world around them. They've done this by highlighting three things: discovery, encouragement, and loyalty.

John Leguizamo

In 2011, John Leguizamo starred on Broadway in Ghetto Klown directed by Fisher Stevens; the show received 2011 Outstanding Solo Performance Awards from both The Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle.

B'way: Freak (Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show and Tony nominations for Best Play and Best Actor), Sexaholic...a Love Story (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance and Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Performance), and American Buffalo. Off-B'way: Mambo Mouth (Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Vanguardia Awards), Spic-O-Rama (Dramatists' Guild Hull-Warriner Award for Best American Play, Lucille Lortel Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Broadway Performance, Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance) Other stage credits: A Midsummer Night's Dream and La Puta Vida at the New York Shakespeare Festival and Parting Gestures at INTAR.

Television: An HBO presentation of "Freak", directed by Spike Lee (Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program and nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Specials), "ER", "House of Buggin'", "Arabian Nights", and "The Kill Point". More than 60 films including: To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture), Ice Age 1, 2, 3 and 4, Love in the Time of Choler, The Happening, Righteous Kill , The Babysitters, Where God Left his Shoes, The Take, Land of the Dead, Assault on Precinct 13, Spun, Moulin Rouge (SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture), Summer of Sam, King of the Jungle, Spawn, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Carlito's Way, Casualties of War, The Lincoln Lawyer, One for the Money, and Fugly!, which Leguizamo also produced and wrote. Follow him on twitter @JohnLeguizamo.

Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet's films have received more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including four as Best Director for 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and The Verdict -- two of them, perhaps not coincidentally, dramas involving a courtroom.

12 Angry Men, earning three Oscar nominations, was Lumet's debut as a movie director -- he had actually been in a movie years earlier as a child actor – and it has been followed by a film career that has included such powerhouse productions as Long Day's Journey Into Night, Fail Safe, The Pawnbroker, The Anderson Tapes, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Equus, Prince of the City, The Verdict, Running on Empty, Q&A;, and Night Falls on Manhattan.

Along with his standing as one of the art's most important directors (and often producer), Lumet has also been a screenwriter; first as co-writer of Prince of the City, later as sole writer of Q&A; and Night Falls on Manhattan.

Besides his substantial accumulation of Academy Award nominations, Lumet's honors also include the Directors Guild's D. W. Griffith Award, given for an unusually distinguished body of work; the New York Film Critics Award for Prince of the City, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Award and a Golden Globe for Network. The Museum of Modern Art in New York has saluted him with a retrospective, as has virtually every major international film academy. In 1997 he was given the Billy Wilder Award for Excellence and Achievement in Film Direction from the National Board of Review, and the Writers Guild of America's Evelyn Burkey Award for his contribution to films that brought dignity and honor to writers.

Most recently, he directed Before The Devil Knows You're Dead with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney released in October 2007. Sidney Lumet passed away on April 9, 2011 at the age of 86.

Smuggler

Founded in 2002 by Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody,Smuggler is home to a unique roster of directing talent alongside an experienced and multifaceted bi-coastal production and management team. Awarded "Production Company of the Year" by several leading industry magazines and award shows in the past few years, Smuggler has also brought home the coveted Cannes Lions Grand Prix, the Palme D'Or, Hugo Award and an Emmy amongst other accolades. Smuggler has appeared at the Sundance Film festival where the branded content short film Force 1, created for eBay, was an official selection, and created several branded content television shows for ABC. In 2009, Smuggler opened its doors in the UK and teamed with film and theatre producer, John Hart, to form Smuggler Films.

Stacy Spikes

At 43, Stacy Spikes is considered one of the leaders of filmed entertainment marketing, currently serving as the Co-Founder and CEO of MoviePass Inc a mobile entertainment subscription company.

Spikes, is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Urbanworld Film Festival. Urbanworld has premiered more #1 films than any other North American Film Festival including Sundance and Tribeca. The Urbanworld Film Festival began, as an impassioned idea that Spikes acted on and made a reality when the festival premiered in August 1997 and is now the largest festival of it's kind in the world.

Lauren Zalaznick

Lauren Zalaznick has spent her entire career in media from her start as an independent feature film producer to her current role as Chairman, NBCUniversal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media. She was named Chairman in January 2011 when Comcast and GE completed their transaction creating a joint venture consisting of NBCUniversal businesses and Comcast's cable networks, regional sports networks, and certain digital properties. In this role, she oversees Bravo Media, Oxygen Media, Style, mun2, Sprout and Telemundo. Additionally, she runs the digital properties iVillage, DailyCandy, Swirl, Fandango, and the Integrated Strategic Marketing group, which includes the company-wide initiatives Green is Universal, Healthy at NBCU, Hispanics at NBCU and Women at NBCU.