LOS ANGELES—Hosted by Tony Award-winning actor and comedian Martin Short, Great Performances – Movies for Grownups® Awards with AARP The Magazine premieres nationwide Friday, February 15 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and will be available to stream beginning February 16 on pbs.org/moviesforgrownups and PBS apps. This is the second consecutive year the awards will be broadcast on PBS in a co-production with Great Performances. The AARP Movies for Grownups multimedia franchise was established in 2002 to celebrate and encourage filmmaking with unique appeal to movie lovers with a grownup state of mind — and recognize the inspiring artists who make them.

“Great Performances has had the privilege of capturing live arts experiences for decades,” said Great Performances Executive Producer David Horn. “With Movies for Grownups Awards, we have the chance to capture artists as they pay tribute to fellow artists and to those who make these noteworthy films possible.”

The star-studded awards ceremony includes a touching tribute to Career Achievement Award honoree Shirley MacLaine. Other highlights of the evening include a special appearance by Michael Douglas, who presents his “Fatal Attraction” co-star Glenn Close with Best Actress honors for her role in “The Wife;” Mahershala Ali, who hands his co-star Viggo Mortensen the Best Actor award for “Green Book;” and Spike Lee receives a standing ovation when awarded Best Director by actor Topher Grace, one of the stars of his film “BlacKkKlansman.” The awards were filmed on Monday, February 4 at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills.

The broadcast also features the awards for Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenwriter, Best Ensemble, Best Grownup Love Story, Best Intergenerational Film, Best Foreign Film, Best Documentary and Best Time Capsule. 

“AARP is delighted to work with PBS’s Great Performances on this show that uniquely salutes actors, directors and producers who have such great experience and masterful creativity to make award-winning movies that speak directly to a valuable audience — the 50-plus,” said Myrna Blyth, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director for AARP Media.

Major corporate funding for Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP The Magazine is provided by Consumer Cellular, with additional funding from RR Donnelley. Major funding for Great Performances is provided by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Irene Diamond Fund, Rosalind P. Walter, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, and The Abra Prentice Foundation.

For Great Performances, Mitch Owgang is producer and Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Great Performances is produced by THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET. Throughout its more than 40-year history on public television, Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America’s most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming.

With weekly news and reviews, nationwide screenings, and an annual awards event, AARP’s Movies for Grownups multimedia franchise continues to champion movies for grownups, by grownups. For more information about AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards, go online to www.aarp.org/moviesforgrownups.

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About WNET

WNET is America’s flagship PBS station: parent company of New York’s THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its new ALL ARTS multi-platform initiative, its broadcast channels, three cable services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each month. WNET produces and presents a wide range of acclaimed PBS series, including Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, and the nightly interview program Amanpour and Company. In addition, WNET produces numerous documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings, as well as multi-platform initiatives addressing poverty and climate. Through THIRTEEN Passport and WLIW Passport, station members can stream new and archival THIRTEEN, WLIW and PBS programming anytime, anywhere.