Event

Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris

Husband-and-wife filmmaking team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the co-directors of the multiple Oscar-winning LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, are being honored tonight with the Spirit of Silver Lake Award in a very special tribute to their career achievements in film and music video.

The couple met at UCLA in the late 1970âs where Jonathan was studying film and television and Valerie dance. During the 1980âs, introducing bands such as R.E.M. and The Red Hot Chili Peppers on their ground breaking MTV show âThe Cutting Edge,â Dayton and Faris continued to work in music television directing music videos and documentaries for bands and performers such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Jane's Addiction, Macy Gray, Janet Jackson, Oasis, Weezer, and The Ramones. Their music productions have earned them two Grammy Awards, nine MTV Music Video Awards and a Billboard Music "Director of the Year" Award.

In 1998, Jonathan and Valerie co-founded Bob Industries, one of the country's leading commercial production companies, directing commercials for VW, Sony Playstation, Gap, Target, Ikea, Apple, and ESPN, among others. Dayton and Faris have won two Clio Awards and continue to push the medium into new vistas.

Aside from their work in music videos and commercials, Dayton and Faris have done extensive work in television and film, including directing episodes of "Mr. Show with Bob and David" for HBO and producing two feature films: THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, PART II: THE METAL YEARS for New Line Cinema and GIFT for Warner Bros.

Their most recent work, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, won an ovation at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and garnered numerous other awards and nominations, including two Oscars and the Cesar Award for Best Foreign Film.

It is with all this in mind that we present the Spirit of Silver Lake Award to Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris as our appreciation of and testament to a directorial team that has defined the X generation and now stands poised to define the next.