Congratulations to Sundance Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore for receiving the inaugural Sydney Pollack Award at tonight’s tribute to Samuel L. Jackson presented by the American Cinematheque in L.A. Anne Thompson has the story at Variety.

From Thompson’s piece:

Cinematheque said the award honors “someone who has been of critical importance and continuing influence in nonprofit film exhibition, film preservation and/or independent film promotion and distribution –people whose work Sydney supported and found to be so valuable, who are not often recognized for their efforts.”

Cinematheque director Barbara Smith wanted to honor the memory of the late producer-director, who as a member of the board of directors for 24 years (1984 to 2008) and board chairman from 1985 to 1993, kept the wolf from the door on several occasions. Pollack was also a founding board member of the Sundance Institute and the Film Foundation.

The Sydney Pollack Award was “a long-term way of honoring him,” Smith said, “to honor someone not in the star firmament, but someone who works as hard behind the scenes as we do. Geoff Gilmore is that sort of person, who is making sure that people get to see movies.”

The award, which the piece says came “out of the blue” for Gilmore, is presented just days before the fest director and his team release the list of this year’s Sundance selections.