John Williams, Colleen Atwood to Be Honored at Disney Legends Awards
It’s without question that the crew behind Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts did an astounding job of bringing enchantment to the silver screen in both series. This summer, two of those individuals will be recognized for creating a different type of magic: the Disney kind.
The 2024 Disney Legends Awards is coming up, a now 37-year tradition that, according to the Walt Disney Company’s website, aims to honor the “artists and visionaries throughout the company’s history who have pushed the envelope of creativity, challenged conventional wisdom, and broken the restraints of the status quo in search of new possibilities and excellence.” The ceremony will take place on August 11, falling on the last day of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, which celebrates creativity in storytelling and innovation within the Walt Disney Company. Ryan Seacrest will be hosting the Anaheim-based festivities.
This year, the 14 honorees include John Williams, the award-winning composer behind the Potter film score, and Colleen Atwood, whose costume designs brought the world of Fantastic Beasts to life.
Colleen Atwood is being awarded Legend status for a fantastic few decades of costume design. We love her work within the wizarding world, but you might not know that Atwood’s portfolio spans over 50 films and television series, a baker’s dozen of which were for Tim Burton’s creations. The upcoming Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, will be her 13th collaboration with the filmmaker.
John Williams is receiving a Disney Legends Award in music, and his career excellence, frankly, can’t be overstated. His compositions have graced 100-plus films over more than six decades, making his music, as aptly described by the company’s website, “the soundtrack of our lives.” Disney’s description of Williams lauded his work and numerous honors over the years:
John has received five Academy Awards and 54 Oscar nominations—most recently for ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ (2023)—making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most-nominated person in the history of the Oscars, a number second only to Walt Disney.
As Disney Legends honorees, Atwood and Williams will each receive a two-foot-tall bronze sculpture and participate in a handprint ceremony. Their bronzed prints will be on display in the Disney Legends Plaza in Burbank.