“Avengers: Endgame” Star to Receive Nova Award at 2019 Maui Film Festival

Paul Rudd. Photo courtesy: Maui Film Festival.

Actor Paul Rudd, who currently stars in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, will receive the Nova Award at the 2019 Maui Film Festival.

Nova Award honors a film artist for their astonishingly original and seamless performances, and the way they consistently infuse each character that they embody with insight, humanity and wisdom.

The Maui Film Festival celebrates 20 years, with the event taking place June 12 to 16 at the Wailea Resort. The award will be presented on Opening Night, June 12, at the Celestial Cinema, located at the Wailea Gold & Emerald Golf Course.

“With empathy, compassion, grace, kindheartedness and, as we’ve all enjoyed so many times, a perfect sense of comedic timing, Rudd breathes life into characters in blockbusters and picture-perfect indie films that delight us,” said Barry Rivers, Founder and Director of the Festival. “In short, Paul Rudd is a true original. We couldn’t be more pleased to honor him with the 2019 Maui Film Festival Nova Award.”

Previous winners of the festival’s Nova Award include: Jessica Chastain, Claire Danes, Zooey Deschanel, James Marsden and Evan Rachel Wood.

The awards presentation on opening night will be followed by a screening of The Magic Beneath Us. Tickets and passes are available at www.mauifilmfestival.com.

Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame opened to an unprecedented global debut of $1.2 billion, becoming the first film in history to surpass $1 billion during its opening weekend. The film, which was directed by The Russo Brothers, has made almost $1.8 billion in its first week in release.

Rudd also starred in and co-wrote Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, films which grossed over $500 million and $620 million, respectively. He also starred as Ant-Man in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Rudd was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Actor in an Action Movie” and an MTV Movie Award for “Best Hero” for his role in Ant-Man. Rudd co-wrote Ant-Man with Adam McKay, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish. He also starred as Ant-Man in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Rudd will next star in Netflix’s limited comedy series Living With Yourself, from Emmy and Peabody Award-winning creator Timothy Greenberg and Oscar-nominated directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. He stars as a man struggling with his life, who undergoes a novel treatment to become a better person and finds he’s been replaced by a new and improved version—revealing that his own worst enemy is himself. Living With Yourself will premiere in Fall 2019.

Rudd recently starred in Ben Lewin’s WWII dramatic spy-thriller The Catcher Was a Spy, as “Moe Berg,” a professional baseball player and top-secret spy for the OSS who helped the US win the race against Germany to build the atomic bomb. The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and co-starred Paul Giamatti, Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, and Mark Strong. Rudd also starred in Duncan Jones’ Mute, with Alexander Skarsgård and Justin Theroux for Netflix.

In Adam McKay’s Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, Rudd starred opposite Will Ferrell, Steve Carell and David Koechner, with all reprising their roles from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for Paramount. Anchorman 2 grossed over $170 million worldwide and received a People’s Choice Award nomination for “Favorite Year End Movie,” as well as two MTV Movie Award nominations.

Rudd is well known for his roles in Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 and Knocked Up. Knocked Up grossed over $300 million worldwide, received a People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Movie Comedy,” a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for “Best Comedy Movie” and was named one of AFI’s “Top Ten Films of the Year.” Additionally, This Is 40 was nominated for a 2013 Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Comedy Movie” and Rudd was nominated for “Best Actor in a Comedy.”

Rudd’s other film credits include Role Models (also co-writer), Wanderlust (producer), Our Idiot Brother, I Love You, Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Clueless, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Wet Hot American Summer, Cider House Rules, The Object of My Affection, They Came Together, Prince Avalanche, Admission, Dinner for Schmucks, The Fundamentals of Caring, How Do You Know, Monsters Vs. Aliens, The Ten (producer), Night at the Museum, Diggers, and The Chateau, among others.

In 2012, Rudd returned to the Broadway stage in Craig Wright’s Grace, starring opposite Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington, and Edward Asner at the Cort Theatre. Grace was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for “Outstanding New Broadway Play,” and Rudd was nominated by the Drama League for the “Distinguished Performance Award.” His other stage credits include starring opposite Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper in Richard Greenberg’s Broadway production of Three Days of Rain, Neil Labute’s Bash in both New York and Los Angeles, as well as Labute’s The Shape of Things in London and New York. Rudd made his West End debut in the London production of Robin Phillips’ Long Day’s Journey Into Night opposite Jessica Lange. Other Broadway credits include Nicholas Hynter’s Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center Theater, with a special performance that aired on PBS’ Great Performances, and in Alfred Uhry’s Tony Award-winning play The Last Night of Ballyhoo.

On television, Rudd was the co-writer and co-creator of the critically acclaimed series Party Down on Starz. He also garnered wide recognition with a recurring role as Mike Hannigan on the TV sitcom Friends. In 2012, Rudd won a Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Guest Performer in a Comedy” for his guest-starring role on Parks and Recreation. Also, Rudd reprised his role as Andy in David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years later along with the original cast for a limited television series for Netflix based on the cult film.