The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is honoring the newest Warner Bros. Film Group Co-Chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy with its 2023 Milestone Award. The duo will receive the prize at the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 at The Beverly Hilton.
The annual Milestone Award is given to the executives and creatives known for their countless contributions to the film industry, both as individual producers and as a collaborative executive team.
Last year’s Milestone honorees were George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy, while other dignitaries to receive the award, include Steven Spielberg, Bob Iger, Sherry Lansing, Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, James Cameron, Ted Sarandos, Donna Langley, and more. Hollywood legends, Louis B. Mayer, Walt Disney, and Alfred Hitchcock, were earlier Milestone Award receipients.
Producers Guild of America Presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line shared a joint statement on the choice: “Michael and Pam are an incredible team, excelling as both trusted creative producers and successful studio heads. As individual producers, they’re responsible for some of the most celebrated and memorable films of the 21st century. Together, their instincts and talent for producing mid-budget studio titles has proven these films can still attract a theatrical audience. They are so deserving of this award and we can’t wait to honor them as they start their new roles with Warner Bros.”
De Luca and Abdy responded, “We are so grateful and humbled by this incredible honor. We want to thank Stephanie, Donald and every member of our precious family of Producers at the PGA, an organization we hold in the highest esteem for its tireless work in maintaining the very integrity of what it means to be a producer. We also are especially thankful to all the filmmakers and storytellers over the years who’ve allowed us to be part of their artistic journey. We wouldn’t be here without each and every one of them.”
De Luca and Abdy are in charge of Warners theatrical, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, and the Warner Animation Group.
De Luca joined Warners in June after serving as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.’s Motion Picture Group Chairman including all global film ops, as well as the film slate for MGM, and Orion. He also served on the board of United Artists Releasing, the studio’s theatrical distribution-marketing joint venture with Annapurna Pictures.
As a producer, De Luca has received three Best Picture Oscar nominations for The Social Network, Moneyball, and Captain Phillips, and he’s also been nominated for three Emmys for producing, for the 89th and the 90th Academy Awards, and the Showtime series Escape At Dannemora. Additionally, he has been nominated four times for a Producers Guild of America Award. De Luca also produced the Universal Pictures film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, and its two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, which grossed $1.3 billion cumulatively, worldwide.
De Luca served as the President and COO of New Line Productions, where he steered several blockbuster franchises including Friday, Blade, Austin Powers, and Rush Hour. While at New Line, he championed such groundbreaking sleeper hits as Seven, Wag the Dog, Pleasantville, Magnolia, I Am Sam, and Boogie Nights, helping launch the directing careers of Jay Roach, Gary Ross, Alan and Albert Hughes, F. Gary Gray, the Farrelly Brothers, David Fincher, and Paul Thomas Anderson. After New Line, De Luca went on to serve as DreamWorks’ Head of Production from 2001 to 2004, overseeing the live-action division and the production of such films as Old School and Anchorman, which formed the basis for the successful careers of both Will Ferrell and Todd Phillips.
Prior to joining Warner Bros., Abdy was MGM’s Motion Picture Group President, overseeing development, production and post-production for all MGM and Orion films including studio hits House of Gucci, Licorice Pizza, The Addams Family 2, Thirteen Lives, and the 2021 release, Creed 3.
Other roles Abdy filled, including serving with Brad Weston as Partner and Head of Film at Makeready, where she led the finance and production of Queen & Slim and A Million Little Pieces; President of Production at New Regency where she oversaw the release of Oscar winners The Revenant, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), and The Big Short; President of Scott Stuber’s Bluegrass Films where she produced features for the company’s diverse slate including 47 Ronin, Identity Thief, Kill the Messenger, and Endless Love; and EVP at Paramount Pictures, where she oversaw films including Shutter Island, The Love Guru, Babel, Drillbit Taylor, World Trade Center, Aeon Flux, Freedom Writers, and Mean Girls.
