Celebrating Actors and Filmmakers in their 50s, 60s, 70s and Beyond

With the Oscars just days away, most people have definite opinions about who the winners should and should not be. My colleagues and I, however, look at the Oscars and other award shows through a different lens. We anxiously await the award announcements, and we celebrate (or not) the recognition of talent who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.

More than two decades ago, AARP launched Movies for Grownups® to recognize 50-plus talent in an industry obsessed with youth. The idea was to call attention to the large and valuable audience demanding movies that are geared towards and featuring people over 50. Over the years, the entertainment industry has learned that movies that tell complex stories with strong character development were magnets for the burgeoning audience of older movie goers. Authentically telling these stories by employing 50-plus talent in turn drives box office ticket sales and creates repeat movie consumers who are a crucial source of revenue for studios.

Fast-forward to today, our annual Movies for Grownups Awards® has far surpassed the days of being a new addition to the awards season and is now a leading indicator of awards to come at subsequent shows like the Oscars.

When we launched MFG in 2002, it was a way to challenge the entertainment industry’s conventional wisdom that the path to box office success was to focus only on the 18- to 34-year-old (mostly male) demo.

At that time very few people - critics, awards juries, entertainment media – saw or challenged the ageism implicit in the industry.

Today, not only are actors, directors, and writers over 50 celebrated and honored, but the stories they are telling, which resonate with audiences closer to their ages, are being elevated and recognized by the Hollywood mainstream like never before.

For example, this year a pair of 80-year-olds, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro, are among the reigning kings of Hollywood and both were nominated for Movies for Grownups Awards for Killers of the Flower Moon. De Niro was a winner in the Best Supporting Actor category. Each is also a nominee in their respective categories for the Oscars.

The same is true of two over-60 stars: Jodie Foster and Annette Bening were both MFG winners, and both are Oscar nominees for their performances in the film Nyad.

At AARP we also recognize talent in TV where some of today’s most popular shows are led by acting talent over 50. In addition to her role in Nyad, Jodie Foster is also one of TV’s biggest stars this year, leading the cast of the latest season of True Detective. Jennifer Coolidge, 62, took home MFG honors for White Lotus, and Brian Cox, the 77-year-old patriarch in Succession is another MFG winner and one of the biggest small-screen phenomena of the past few years.

Let’s look at the progress in Hollywood’s move toward age inclusion. Nearly 30 years ago, before we launched Movies for Grownups, only two Oscar nominees were over 50. In 2002 when MFG launched, the Best Actress and Supporting Actress Oscar winners were 25 and 24 years old. In 2023, those same awards went to actresses who were 60 and 64. Fast forward to 2024 and when the Oscars air this Sunday, viewers will see that 18 of the 35 (51%) top nominees are 50 or older.

I believe the work we have done at AARP, and the voices we have helped raise among the 50-plus population, have played a role in helping diminish ageism in Hollywood. And I’m looking forward to Sunday’s awardees building on this movement.