Star-Studded Academy Museum Gala Raises Over $12M

The Academy Museum hosted its star-studded signature gala on Saturday night, honoring Penélope Cruz, Bruce Springsteen, Bowen Yang and Walter Salles while also raising over $12 million to support its exhibitions, education initiatives and public programming.

The fifth annual event, presented in partnership with Rolex, was co-chaired by Jon M. Chu, Common, Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, Jennifer Hudson, and Academy Museum Trustee Alejandro Ramírez Magaña. It kicked off with remarks from the Downeys before handing out this year’s awards.

Wim Wenders presented I’m Still Here director Salles with the Luminary Award, given to an artist whose singular contributions have expanded the creative possibilities of cinema, and Chu honored Yang with the Vantage Award, for an emerging artist or scholar who is helping to contextualize and challenge dominant narratives around cinema. Zoe Saldaña presented the Icon Award — for an artist whose career has had a significant global cultural impact — to Cruz, and Martin Scorsese gave Springsteen the inaugural Legacy Award, for an artist whose body of work has inspired generations of storytellers and deeply influenced our culture.

Springsteen, who has been making the Hollywood rounds in support of his biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, also closed out the night with a special performance — following an intro by George Clooney — of his hits “Streets of Philadelphia,” “Atlantic City” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

The A-list guests included a number of Oscar winners along with those who are on this year’s awards circuit, including Adam Sandler (in a rare suited-up moment), Adrien Brody, Ayo Edebiri, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Jacob Elordi, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Joel Edgerton, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Bigelow, Mikey Madison, Regina Hall, Ryan Coogler, Sydney Sweeney and Will Arnett.

This year’s Academy Museum Gala also welcomed a strong contingent of music stars and internet favorites, including Addison Rae, Charli XCX, Ed Sheeran, Hailey Bieber, Hilary Duff, Kendall Jenner, Jenna Ortega, Olivia Rodrigo, Role Model and Selena Gomez.

The event’s red carpet — which this year went blue — is always a major fashion moment, with this year’s buzziest look likely being Kim Kardashian in a nude face-covering mask, paired with a matching strapless corseted gown from the Maison Margiela Fall 2025 Couture collection. She was the last one to arrive on the carpet and needed help to navigate her way inside. Strong also turned heads with his bright red suit, matching sunglasses and lightened hair, a color palette that he said paid tribute to Springsteen’s Nebraska album.

Newlyweds Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco made their first appearance as a married couple at the event — sneaking off right after taking their carpet photos — while Demi Moore and Lucy Liu shared some laughs on the photo line, and Scorsese and Ben Stiller each brought their daughters as dates.

And in celebration of this year’s films, The Hollywood Reporter asked guests their favorite of 2025 so far, with Sinners, One Battle After Another and Hamnet the most common answers. Stars also offered up what prop or costume from their own past projects they would like to see put in the museum, as Hudson suggested Penny Lane’s Almost Famous jacket, Chu pitched Glinda’s bubble dress or one of Elphaba’s upcoming looks from Wicked: For Good, Eli Roth teased a torture chair from his film Hostel — joking it was a nice fit for the families who visit the museum — and Da’Vine Joy Randolph named her glasses from The Holdovers.