Fresh off the success of his faith-based horror thriller The Deliverance, Lee Daniels will receive the Visionary Award at the annual 2025 HEAVEN Gala benefitting the Art of Elysium, a non-profit organization that focuses on healing and inspiring through art.
As the year’s visionary, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker will conceive and curate a one-night-only art installation, creating an idea of “Heaven on Earth” as it relates to The Art of Elysium’s four main disciplines: fashion and design, music and movement, theatre and film, and the visual arts. Daniels has announced that he envisions his “heaven” as eternal peace.
“Being asked to envision heaven could not have come up at a more inopportune time, yet the perfect timing in every way,” he said via a statement.
“I was in the midst of releasing a film and being pulled in every direction imaginable. Even making the time to talk through details seemed impossible. Yet, when the time was made, and I sat down to talk it through, I realized that was truly divine timing. Stopping in the midst of the mad rush and reflecting on what heaven means to me puts everything else in perspective. Exploring the heaven that we each hold in our hearts might be the most important question we can ask ourselves. It certainly puts all of the other noise in paused silence while we think about it.”
The gala will take place on January 4, 2025, in Los Angeles, a day before the Golden Globes awards ceremony.
