Los Angeles, CA – The American Film Institute (AFI) will confer a Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees honoris causa upon Rita Moreno and Quentin Tarantino. Both Moreno and Tarantino will be recognized for their contributions to the art of the moving image during the AFI Conservatory’s commencement ceremony on June 15, 2016 at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre.
Rita Moreno is one of only a handful of performers to have won all four major entertainment awards: An Emmy®, Grammy®, Oscar® and Tony®, collectively known as the coveted EGOT. Ms. Moreno made her mark when she won a Tony playing Anita in the Broadway hit play West Side Story in 1957. Since then she has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s most prolific talents as actress, singer, dancer and most recently an author. Her most notable film work has included Carnal Knowledge, The King and I and Singing in the Rain. On television she has wowed audiences in HBO’s OZ, The Muppet Show, The Rockford Files, and more recently George Lopez and Jane the Virgin. She is currently working on Netflix’s One Day at a Time. In 2004 Ms. Moreno was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the National Medal of Arts in 2010; and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2015.
Receiving a Doctorate of Fine Arts From the AFI Conservatory will mark another first for Ms. Moreno as she becomes the first and only Latina to be so honored.
Since director, screenwriter, producer and actor, Quentin Tarantino boldly came on the scene when he first commanded attention with his 1992’s film, Reservoir Dogs and earned a Best Screenplay Oscar® for Pulp Fiction, he has not looked back. Pulp Fiction ranks among AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies list of the greatest American movies of all time — and for which Tarantino was also nominated for Best Director. He has continued to gain a loyal following with his master classics like Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and the Kill Bill franchise.
Moreno and Tarantino join an esteemed group of distinguished past Honorary Degree recipients, including Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Kathryn Bigelow, Mel Brooks, Anne V. Coates, Clint Eastwood, Roger Ebert, Nora Ephron, James Earl Jones, Lawrence Kasdan, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Helen Mirren, Robert Towne, Cicely Tyson, Haskell Wexler and John Williams.
The AFI Conservatory is a private not-for-profit film graduate film school in Los Angeles, CA. The Conservatory is a program of the American Film Institute and considered one of the most prestigious film school in the business. The Conservatory offers a Master of Fine Arts degree in six filmmaking disciplines: Cinematography, Directing, Editing, Producing, Production Design and Screenwriting. Production Design and Screenwriting.
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