First Franca Sozzani Award Goes To Julianne Moore Sept 1 At Venice Film Festival

The first Franca Sozzani Award will be presented to Julianne Moore on Sept. 1 during the Venice Film Festival. The prize will be delivered by Colin Firth, Moore's co-star in 'A Single Man'. 

Created in honor of the late editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, the Franca Sozzani Award will be first bestowed on Moore because "with the same strength and determination of France, {she} combined the excellence in art with a strong civil and social commitment." 

Sozzani was an exceptional light in the fashion industry, supporting design and creativity in every form, while also communicating the importance of channeling civic awareness and energy into humanitarian projects worldwide. 

Julianne Moore is chair of the Everytown Creative Council, a campaign dedicated to ending America's epidemic gun violence after the 2012 shootings of 20 children at Connecticut's Sandy Hook elementary school. Moore is also an active campaigner for gay rights -- perhaps on the chopping block in the Trump administration -- and she sits on the board of advocated for Planned Parenthood. 

Franca Sozzani Activist

A forest fire in La Croix-Valmer, near Saint-Tropez, France, on Tuesday. CreditValery Hache/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Franca came to mind yesterday, reading in the New York Times about the fires in southern France. The sight of beach lovers vacating the areas around St. Tropez caused us to recollect on Sozzani's infamous environmental-degradation editorial after America's gulf coast oil spill. 

Partnering with model Kristen McMenamy and photographer Steven Meisel, the editorial was illuminating in another way, showing the furor of politically-correct Americans who accused Franca of being flip in turning the disaster into a fashion editorial, compared to the Europeans, who have done a far better job of weaving environmentalism into their daily lives. 

If Sozzani was alive, there is no doubt that she would find a way to make this ravaging disruption of our lives in a fashion editorial about environmental degradation -- just as she did in the weeks after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill. 

Revisiting 'Water & Oil': One of Franca Sozzani & Steven Meisel's Most Provocative Collaborations