Annette Bening and David Rockwell Will Be Honored at New York Stage and Film's Winter Gala

New York Stage and Film has announced that its annual Winter Gala will honor two titans of the entertainment industry: four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening and famed architect and Tony- and Emmy-winning scenic designer David Rockwell.

The Winter Gala, a fundraising event to support New York Stage and Film's year-round theater and film development initiatives, will be held on Sunday, December 4, 2016 at The Plaza Hotel (770 Fifth Avenue, New York City). For more information on New York Stage and Film, visit www.newyorkstageandfilm.org.

"To say we are thrilled by this year's gala honorees is an absolute understatement," said Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer. "Annette has over the last several decades become one of American cinema's most revered screen actors and, for fans of the theater like us, an equally indomitable stage performer. We are so excited to honor her alongside David, a multi-hyphenate of almost immeasurable creativity fresh off his first, wonderfully-deserved scenic design Tony Award."

The evening includes cocktails, an auction, dinner, and entertainment from special guests in honor of Annette Bening and David Rockwell.

Winter Gala Co-Chairs include Michael Douglas, Tom Hulce, Michael Mayer, George C. Wolfe, Lauren Cramer, Carol Friscia, and Barbara Manocherian. Gala Vice Chairs include Ida and Charles Cardona, Dasha Epstein, Norman Learand Kate Lear, Max and Rebecca Carpenter Mayer, Fred Nelson, Daryl Roth, Jordan Roth, Thomas Schumacher, and Denise and Dean Vanech. The Gala Committee is comprised of Scott Ellis, Santino Fontana, Paula Harwood and Peter Gallagher, Thomas Kail, Stephen Karam, Jane Musky and Tony Goldwyn, Bill Pullman, Josh Radnor, John Patrick Shanley, Jon Tenney, Jennifer Westfeldt, Amy Aquino and Drew McCoy, Kelly Ashton and Carlo Barel di Sant Albano, Anne Carey, Ed Cheetham, Susan DeKrey, Kimberly Germ Cramer, Ruth and Stephen Hendel, Lisa Huestisand David Van Zandt, Sheryl Kaller and Scott Zaretsky, Rick Miramontez, Gabrielle and Michael Palitz, and Anne and William Tatlock.

Annette Bening's decades-long career in Hollywood includes her Oscar-nominated turns in American Beauty, Being Julia, The Grifters and The Kids Are All Right, plus her Golden Globe nominated work in The American President, Bugsy, and the television movie Mrs. Harris, for which she also received an Emmy Award nomination. Her formidable stage appearances in Los Angeles and New York City include her Tony-nominated Broadway debut in Coastal Disturbances and most recently opposite John Lithgow's King Lear at The Public's Shakespeare in the Park in 2014.

David Rockwell, the famed architect and designer, is the 2016 Tony Award and Drama Desk winner for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for She Loves Me and a 6-time Tony Award nominee. His work as a set designer includes over 20 Broadway productions and scenic designs for television including an Emmy Award for his art direction of "The 82nd Annual Academy Award" in 2010. He is the founder and President of Rockwell Group, the award-winning, cross-disciplinary architecture and design practice based in New York City with a satellite office in Madrid.

Past gala honorees include Bill Pullman, Michael Mayer, Rick Miramontez, Stanley Tucci, Laura Linney, Christopher Plummer, Julianna Margulies, Steve Martin, Jordan Roth, John Patrick Shanley, Jon Robin Baitz, Aaron Sorkin,David Strathairn, Dana Delany, Tony Shalhoub, Marc Platt, Donald Holder, and Peter Gallagher.

New York Stage and Film is a non-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of theater and film. Since 1985, New York Stage and Film has been a vital incubator for artists and their work, a catalyst for stories that start with them and continue across the country and around the world.

Dozens of notable works trace their developmental roots to New York Stage and Film, including the 2016 Tony Award winners for Best Musical (Hamilton) and Best Play (The Humans), as well as the Tony Award-winning plays Side Man andDoubt, the Broadway musicals American Idiot and Bright Star, and this fall's The Wolves, The Babylon Line, and Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.

New York Stage and Film recently completed the 32nd Powerhouse Summer season, its annual collaboration with Vassar College. The Powerhouse program consists of an eight-week residence on the Vassar campus during which more than 300 professional artists and dozens of students in the Powerhouse Training Program live and work together to create new theater works.

Other signature programs of New York Stage and Film are comprised of New York City programming, including the NYC Reading Series at Barnard College, and other workshops, readings, fellowships and residences for artists at all stages of their careers; and the Filmmakers' Workshop, which provides early-career filmmakers with professional mentorship, artistic development, and industry skills and relationships..

All proceeds from the evening will benefit New York Stage and Film's support of artists from around the country in the development and production of original work for theater and film.