American Cinematheque Awards Honoring Reese Witherspoon

On Friday night, we had the amazing opportunity to attend the American Cinematheque award gala at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. The American Cinemathque is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of cinema, and each year, award a filmmaker for their contributions to the art. This year, they gave the award to Reese Witherspoon, and gave Jeffrey Katzenberg the first-ever Sid Grauman award.

It was a black tie affair, so we had to get all dressed up. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of my whole outfit and makeup and everything, which was disappointing because I attempted and almost succeeded at doing a smokey eye. Oh well, next time.

There was a cocktail hour first (open bar ftw!), and then we were let into the ballroom and sat down at our assigned tables. They served us dinner (a very delicious salmon which I didn't take a picture of), and then dessert (below, yum). And then the award presentation began.

I didn't take any pictures after that, because I didn't want to seem like a total tourist/n00b. Katzenberg received his award first, and spoke about the movie-going experience, and how you don't clap after you watch a movie on your iPad, but you do clap when you're at a movie theater.

After that, multiple celebrities came on stage to praise Reese's virtues, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Garner, Laura Dern, Kate Hudson, and Matthew McConaughey among them. Chris Pine and Robert Downey Jr. also provided pre-recorded videos, and Kenny Chesney performed 'Wild Child'. 

It was a pretty amazing night and I'm so glad we were able to experience it! Plus, we got a gift bag!! It contained issues of Variety and Hollywood Reporter, a Fiji bottle, Wild on Blu-Ray, Election on DVD, a Hot Wheels car, crispy seaweed strips from Seasnax, salted caramel popcorn from Cosmo Creations, a can of spicy tuna from My Gourmet, a tiny bottle of quinoa vodka, and a few other odds and ends! Oh, plus the bag it all came in was pretty awesome too!