Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy has accepted a lifetime achievement award from the organizers of the Oscars.
She said she hoped it would open the door for new voices in the movie industry that “might bring the world back to its senses."
Honored with her producer husband Frank Marshall, Kennedy was the first woman to receive the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Irving. G. Thalberg award.
According to Reuters, in 2012, Kennedy became president of LucasFilm, reviving the sci-fi saga and producing multi-billion dollar movies "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" that have made her one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood.
"I am very proud to be the first woman to accept this award. But I am also not the first to deserve it and I am 100 percent sure I am not the last," Kennedy said to wild applause at a gala dinner attended by studio executives and many of Hollywood’s biggest actors and directors.
Kennedy and Marshall co-founded Amblin Entertainment with director Steven Spielberg in 1981 and produced of blockbusters including "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jurassic Park" and "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial."
Kennedy said recent efforts to improve diversity in Hollywood and give women better roles in front of and behind the camera must be embraced. “It is my hope that with the inclusion of these powerful new voices, we might just bring the world back to its senses and maybe, just maybe, shatter a few glass ceilings along the way,” Kennedy said.
