NEW YORK – Movie director Ava Duverny and US open match director Stacey Alaster accepted the Billy Junking Champions of Ecrit Awards on Thursday, celebrating groundbreaking movies within the movie and sports activities business.
The award was given to pioneers of gender equality and started in 2023 to mark King’s fiftieth anniversary of guaranteeing equal pay for ladies on the US Open.
The occasion additionally acknowledged members from throughout 17 USTA sections for his or her dedication to advancing sport’s inclusiveness.
“It was lovely to consider. It is true that Billy Jean King is an icon past sports activities,” Duverne advised The Related Press earlier than the awards ceremony. “At any time when I’ve the chance to be round her or be concerned together with her, that is an honor.”
Duvernay is a filmmaker who directed movies similar to “Selma” and “Time In Time.” She was the primary black girl to direct an Academy Award-nominated movie and win Greatest Image nominated on the Sundance Movie Competition.
Allaster is the primary girl to turn into match director for the US Open and can go away the place on the finish of this match. She beforehand served as president and CEO of the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation, the place she led a staff that helped to safe equal prizes on the French Open and Wimbledon.
The 2 earlier winners of the award have been tennis legend Venus Williams and tv producer Shonda Rhimes, who joined Duvernay in a panel dialogue on careers and equality on the ceremony.
“While you deny equity, you make your personal world smaller,” Williams stated. “The world is so large. There’s a lot to expertise, know and perceive… It is an unbelievable world.
