Written by Kianna Best on Sep 12, 2024. Posted in Awards and Festivals

Producers Without Borders awards Glenn Gainor, Sep Riahi and Andrea Borella in Venice

Head of physical production at Amazon Glenn Gainor has been honoured by the Producers Without Borders (PWB) network this past weekend alongside producers Sep Riahi and Andrea Borella. Now in its second year, the awards aim to celebrate doers of the industry who are not typically awarded for their contributions. This year’s ceremony took place at a PWB brunch held during the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

“We found that there was a lot of key players and people in our group that deserve the kind of recognition that they don't usually receive from the outside media world,” commented Kayvan Mashayekh, founder of PWB. “These are people that we see are doers and not talkers. We see them as people that are championing causes and doing things that are below the radar, so to speak. What our network does is help these talents plug into other industries that that are plugged into the entertainment business, whether it be finance, technology, law, medicine, architecture or design.”

As the oldest film festival in the world, Venice provided the perfect backdrop for the awards, touching on its uniqueness and appreciation for all roles in the screen sector. The awards ceremony this year was rooted in the key purpose of forging long term relationships within the industry across all facets. For the 2024 ceremony Gainor who took home The Social Impact Producer of the Year honour, Riahi received the Children’s Media Producer of the Year Award, and Borella was honoured with the title of Creative Executive Producer of the Year.

“To me, the concept of sustainability comes down to one thing, authenticity,” adds Mashayekh. “If you're authentic, you will always be sustainable because that's what people are looking for. They're looking for something that's real.”

Images courtesy of PWB