MPSE to honor filmmaker Ron Howard
December 3, 2021

MPSE to honor filmmaker Ron Howard

STUDIO CITY, CA — The Motion Picture Sound Editors (mpse.org) have announced plans to honor Ron Howard with its annual Filmmaker Award. The Academy Award-winning director and producer is responsible for many memorable films of the past four decades, including the Oscar-winning dramas A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13, and the hit comedies Parenthood and Splash. Howard will be presented with the MPSE Filmmaker Award at the 69th MPSE Golden Reel Awards, set for March 13, 2022 as an international virtual event.

“Ron Howard has inspired and delighted movie lovers worldwide with a body of work incredible in its scope, broad appeal and consistent excellence,” notes MPSE president Mark Lanza. “His tireless imagination and generous spirit serve as an example to all of us involved in the art of filmmaking. We are proud to present him with this honor.”

“Of all the vital fragments of the mosaic that each project must locate or create and then place in the exact position to transport an audience, the sound editor and designer’s task is the most varied, meticulous and, I’d argue, underestimated,” notes Howard. “In the hands of a great editor, sounds from the literal to the abstract can be aligned or juxtaposed with images on the screen to inform and impact audiences in ways both overt and subliminal. Sometimes the same sound achieves both! To be recognized by such artists and craftspeople is beyond flattering.”

Howard met his longtime friend and business partner Brian Grazer in the early 1980s and embarked on a long-running Hollywood partnership. Their collaboration began with the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash, and in 1986 the two founded Imagine Entertainment, which they continue to run together as chairmen. In 2002, Howard received Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind. The film also won for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. 

Howard and Grazer recently produced the Lin-Manuel Miranda feature Tick, Tick…Boom! and directed the film adaptation of best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close. He is currently in post production on Thirteen Lives, a film about the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand.