Jane Fonda Hands Over Her Namesake, Salma Hayek Pinault Leads the 2026 WIF Honors
Women in Film will salute Hayek Pinault, Adria Arjona, Gemma Chan, Beth de Araújo and Pamela Abdy at the Beverly Hilton on November 5.
Jane Fonda was the first recipient of the Women in Film humanitarian award that now carries her name. On Thursday, November 5, at the Beverly Hilton, she will hand it to Salma Hayek Pinault.
The organization announced its 2026 WIF Honors slate on October 1. Fonda and WIF chose Hayek Pinault, an Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner, to salute a career across film and television and her advocacy for the rights of women, children and immigrants, Variety reported. The gala funds WIF’s advocacy, research and career programs, and The Hollywood Reporter called it the group’s largest fundraiser of the year.
The rest of the night belongs to four more women. Pamela Abdy will receive the first Vanguard Award, presented by the director Nancy Meyers, whose new comedy with Penélope Cruz, Kieran Culkin, Jude Law, Emma Mackey and Owen Wilson is slated for Christmas Day 2027. Adria Arjona, of Andor and the coming Thomas Crown Affair opposite Michael B. Jordan, will take the WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award from Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti.
The filmmaker Beth de Araújo and the actor Gemma Chan, who will be honored in absentia, share the Crystal Award for Advocacy in Film for Josephine, which won both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance. It opens in limited release on November 20 and widens on December 4. Variety noted the full circle. De Araújo went through WIF’s financing intensive in 2018, and Chan was the Face of the Future honoree in 2020.
“Pamela Abdy, Beth de Araújo, Adria Arjona, Gemma Chan and Salma Hayek bring indelible stories to the screen, while actively building a more inclusive culture,” WIF CEO Kirsten Schaffer said in a statement. The gala co-chairs, Victoria Alonso and Andrea Nelson Meigs, added, “We’re equally proud to honor Adria, Salma, Gemma and Beth, women of color in an industry where they remain underrepresented both on and off screen.”
WIF was founded in 1973 and has honored women every year since 1977, Gold Derby reported. The list runs from Lucille Ball and Audrey Hepburn to Meryl Streep, Viola Davis and Zendaya. Velvet also covered Good Power in Beverly Hills, Jennifer Hudson and Sharon Stone Headline Variety’s Power of Women.
