A Bronze Action Figure, Kevin Feige Is Named Pioneer of the Year at the Beverly Hilton
Chris Pratt and Jon Favreau toasted the Marvel Studios chief as the Will Rogers dinner raised $1.9 million.
The ballroom at the Beverly Hilton was packed on Wednesday night, September 30, for Kevin Feige. The president of Marvel Studios received the Pioneer of the Year award from the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, and the dinner raised $1.9 million, which Deadline called the biggest haul for the group since 2004.
The money goes to the foundation’s Pioneers Assistance Fund, which helps people in the film distribution and exhibition business in times of need. Past Pioneers of the Year include Bob Hope, Donna Langley, Alan Horn, Barbara Broccoli and, most recently, Greta Gerwig. Velvet also covered Jane Fonda Hands Over Her Namesake, Salma Hayek Pinault Leads the 2026 WIF Honors.
Chris Pratt, the Star-Lord of Guardians of the Galaxy, took the stage to sing his praises. “He believes in the movies, and even more than that he believes in the people who make the movies,” Pratt told the room. He said Feige had insisted to the director James Gunn that Pratt get a chance to audition, after earlier Marvel tryouts went nowhere. “That belief changed my life. It changed the course of my career,” he said.
Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man, presented the award and went for the personal details. “The man loves movies. He listens to movie soundtracks in his car,” he said, according to Variety. “He’s driving down PCH blasting the ‘Ferngully’ soundtrack.”
Disney Entertainment chairman Alan Bergman supplied the numbers, 38 movies in 17 years and more than $35 billion at the box office. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Bettany, Hailee Steinfeld, Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby appeared in prerecorded reels, and the composer Michael Giacchino introduced, by video, a tiki band that played Marvel themes with a Polynesian lilt. Disney chief Josh D’Amaro and AMC Theatres leader Adam Aron were in the crowd.
Feige admitted his first instinct was to say he was too busy, until the foundation sent a picture of the statue. He confessed to a habit of collecting toys and action figures. “It’s real bronze,” he said of the trophy.
He closed on the audience. He remembered his childhood movie house, the Rialto in New Jersey. “Sitting in the dark, eating Twizzlers. I was hooked,” he said. “When a film connects and the crowd is cheering, laughing and crying together, that shared emotion is the final step in the process.”
