“This Is Who I Am”: MPA Creator Award Recipient Jon M. Chu on Authentic Storytelling and the Power of Cultural Specificity – Part 2

With Wicked: For Good set to complete the story that began with 2024’s blockbuster, director Jon M. Chu, the Motion Picture Association’s Creator Award recipient for 2025, continues our conversation about his evolution as a filmmaker and the power of culturally specific storytelling to reach universal audiences.

Chu also opens up about his own fears, what he learned on the set of Now You See Me 2, and the thrill of being so close to sharing the entire two-part vision for his Wicked adaptation with the world.

MPA Creator Award Winner Jon M. Chu on the Mad, Joyous Rush of Finishing “Wicked: For Good” – Part 1

As director Jon M. Chu puts the finishing touches on Wicked: For Good, he’ll be swinging through Washington, D.C. to receive the Motion Picture Association’s Creator Award on Monday, September 8.  It’s a heady time for Chu, who, when we spoke, was en route to LAX to fly to New York (for one night) while shepherding his highly anticipated sequel through a final flurry of crucial post-production.

Best of 2024: MPA Creator Award Recipient Writer/Director JA Bayona’s Epic Journey

J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, a reimagining of the real-life 1972 Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes Mountains that caught the world’s attention, is a viscerally astonishing feat of empathetic filmmaking. It was nominated for two Oscars: Best International Feature for Spain and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé), a sweet coda for a filmmaker who returned to his home country of Spain for the majority of the film’s production.

MPA Creator Award Recipient Writer/Director JA Bayona’s Epic Journey

J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, a reimagining of the real-life 1972 Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes Mountains that caught the world’s attention, is a viscerally astonishing feat of empathetic filmmaking. It was nominated for two Oscars: Best International Feature for Spain and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé), a sweet coda for a filmmaker who returned to his home country of Spain for the majority of the film’s production.

Best of 2023: Gina Prince-Bythewood, MPA Creator Award Recipient, Tells Her Story

*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year. 

An elite force of female soldiers, the Agojie, is all that stands between the African Kingdom of Dahomey and the combined forces of the Oyo Empire and Mahi people. The Oyo and Mahi plan to raid Dahomey villages and sell their captives to European slavers. We open on a Mahi village where raiders heat their machetes over a fire at night.

Best of Summer 2023: Gina Prince-Bythewood, MPA Creator Award Recipient, Tells Her Story

*It’s our annual “Best of Summer” look back at some (not all) of our favorite interviews from the past few months. This non-comprehensive look back includes the Barbenheimer phenomenon and the wonderful interviews that followed those two history-making films, chats with the talented folks behind Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, our profile of MPA Creator Award Recipient and filmmaker extraordinaire Gina Prince-Bythewood and more.

An elite force of female soldiers,

Gina Prince-Bythewood, MPA Creator Award Recipient, Tells Her Story

An elite force of female soldiers, the Agojie, is all that stands between the African Kingdom of Dahomey and the combined forces of the Oyo Empire and Mahi people. The Oyo and Mahi plan to raid Dahomey villages and sell their captives to European slavers. We open on a Mahi village where raiders heat their machetes over a fire at night. Their leader hears something in the tall grass surrounding them and quiets his men,