The 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival honored Pamela Anderson with the Marquee Award Saturday, Nov. 2, recognizing her for her starring role in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. Anderson will receive the award before the film’s Southeast premiere and she will join Coppola for a Q&A. The 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival took place Oct. 26–Nov. 2.  

“We are excited to have Pamela Anderson join us for the last day of the festival for a special screening of The Last Showgirl,” said Christina Routhier, executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. “Pamela gives a captivating performance in The Last Showgirl, and we are so honored to celebrate her remarkable achievements and career with the Marquee Award.” 

Anderson, most recently nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance by the Gotham Awards, stars in the role of a lifetime as a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. As a dancer in her fifties, she struggles with what to do next. As a mother, she strives to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, who often took a backseat to her showgirl family. The film will open nationwide January 10, 2025. 

The Last Showgirl premiered to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival and was one of the most talked about films at the festival. Early reviews from Deadline and BBC called Anderson “a revelation,” while The Hollywood Reporter called her transformative performance “undeniably affecting.” The film also screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award, and the Zurich Film Festival, at which Anderson received the Golden Eye Award. 

Anderson will next appear opposite Liam Neeson in the upcoming Naked Gun film revival, which will premiere in July 2025. Among other recent acting work, Anderson made her Broadway debut in 2022 as Roxy Hart in Chicago, for which she received critical acclaim across the board and a Playbill award. In 2023, Anderson released her New York Times-bestselling memoir, Love, Pamela, and her Emmy Award-nominated Netflix documentary Pamela, a Love Story. This month, Anderson released her first cookbook, I Love You: Recipes from the Heart, which also became a New York Times bestseller. 

Anderson is well known for her role on the blockbuster television series Baywatch. Upon her joining the show, Baywatch became the most-watched series in the world, with over 1.1 million viewers weekly.

Anderson joins previous honorees for this year’s festival, including Colleen Atwood (Variety Creative Impact in Costume Design Award), Jerry Bruckheimer (Legend of Entertainment Award), Colman Domingo (Spotlight Award), Karla Sofia Gascón (Distinguished Performance Award), Jharrel Jerome (Lumiere Award), Richard Linklater (Lifetime Achievement in Screenwriting Award), Mikey Madison (Breakthrough Award), Isabela Merced (Rising Star Award), Demi Moore (Icon Award), Steve McQueen (Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award), Lupita Nyong’o (Virtuoso Award), Margaret Qualley (Luminary Award), Daisy Ridley (Lumiere Award), Zoe Saldaña (Vanguard Award), and Sebastian Stan (Maverick Award).

Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 63,000 people attend the eight-day festival. A distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, the annual festival kicks off with a gala opening night screening, while the rest of the week features scheduled competition films, premiere screenings, workshops, lectures, and panels. Other programming highlights at the festival include The Hollywood Reporter’s Docs to Watch, Amazon MGM Studios’ LGBTQIA+ Shorts Competition, and the Behind Her Lens series, which includes panels with influential female directors, producers, and artisans, who will discuss the importance of staying true to their vision and empowering the industry forward with profound stories. These events take place at SCAD’s historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces throughout the historic city of Savannah.  

Festival passes for 2024 are available now. Individual event tickets will go on sale Friday, Oct. 4, online at filmfest.scad.edu, by phone at 912.525.5050, or in person at the SCAD Box Office (scadboxoffice.com) at 216 E. Broughton St. in Savannah.

About the SCAD Savannah Film Festival  

Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 60,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.  

Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @savfilmfest and @scaddotedu and use #SCAD and #SAVFF.  

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers  

SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls more than 18,500 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 110 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university’s renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more.  

Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2024 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more. Visit scad.edu.

About the SCAD School of Film and Acting  

With resources that rival Hollywood studios, award-winning professors, stunning locations, two professionally run casting offices, and stellar film and television festivals, the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the ideal place for students to launch into the multibillion film and television industry. The SCAD acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, and sound design programs prepare students to command roles on stage, screen, and behind the scenes through instruction that includes real-world experience on productions for short films, live performances, TV sitcoms, dramatic series, music videos, commercials, and more.

Additionally, SCAD is making a significant investment in the futures of the university's School of Film and Acting and School of Animation and Motion students with the completion of a Hollywood-style film backlot at Savannah Film Studios. The landmark 11-acre, three-phase expansion includes the backlot, a next-generation LED volume stage for virtual productions — one of two owned and operated by the university, along with a second at SCAD Atlanta's Digital Media Center — and new soundstages, among other features. The expanded Savannah Film Studios is the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in the nation.  

During the 2024 festival, SCAD will unveil a magnificent new 17,500 sq. ft. production and costume design building next to the Savannah Film Studios backlot. This state-of-the-art facility will include space for costume design sewing labs, a fabulous industrial garment conveyor, and massive production design scene shops for building, welding, painting, and much more. This facility further highlights the university’s commitment to collaborations across filmmaking disciplines.  

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