Women in Film Fetes 40 at Annual Awards

“They say that 40 is the new fabulous,” said Jenna Elfman, who hosted Women in Film’s Crystal + Lucy Awards, sponsored by Max Mara and Swarovski, Wednesday night at the Beverly Hilton, where the organization feted its 40th anniversary.

The evening kicked off by honoring the youthful Hailee Steinfeld, who drew laughs when she began her speech with, “Back when I was a little girl…”

The 16-year-old wisely kept it short and sweet to make room for others on the program, including cinematographer Rachel Morrison, the Kodak Vision Award honoree, and the evening’s lone male honoree, George Lucas, who received the Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award for championing children, veterans and, of course, women.

“I actually prefer being surrounded by women,” he said. “I think they’ll run more than 50 percent of the world before I’m gone.” The usually less-than-verbose Sofia Coppola topped all of her previous speech times by speaking for a full minute.

“I’m proud to have a body of work now that reflects my point of view, and I hope this award will encourage other women to express themselves,” she said, also poking fun at Lucas for being in the minority that evening. Laura Linney, who received this year’s Crystal Award for Excellence in Film, called herself a late bloomer, by Hollywood standards anyway, having grown up in the New York theater world.