amfAR Honorees

amfAR Honorees

2023 Honorees

TWO x TWO

María Berrío

Venezia

Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay

“HIV is a social justice issue. How are people supposed to lead full and joyful lives if access to healthcare that many take for granted is a daily struggle? That is what a cure for HIV accomplishes.”

Palm Beach

Jane

Jane Lynch

Unable to attend due to COVID, Jane Lynch sent a video message accepting her Award of Courage: “I dearly wanted to be there tonight to support amfAR and the excellent work that they’ve been doing for so many years. It’s extremely important that we all keep going, we keep supporting amfAR until HIV, that most cunning of viruses, is vanquished, once and for all. And I’d like to thank everyone at amfAR for choosing to recognize me tonight…It’s a great honor. I care deeply about a number of causes, but especially the fight against AIDS, and against its stigma, homophobia, and discrimination of all kinds.”

2022 Honorees

Los Angeles

Paramount

Paramount

Kelly Rowland

Kelly Rowland

“I am grateful that amfAR continues … to do the incredible work that they do, as this illness continues to affect the Black community, in particular, Black women. Black women are disproportionately affected by the AIDS crisis. I was also personally touched by the efforts of amfAR’s dedicated research that affected me, with one of my staffers, who after years of [living] with the illness is now undetectable.”

TWO x TWO

Rashid Johnson

Rashid Johnson

Venezia

Palm Beach

Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger

2021 Honorees

Los Angeles

Jeremy Scott

Jeremy Scott

“I think [my brand is] kind of a waste of a platform if I’m not going to use it for important causes like amfAR.

TWO x TWO

Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara

A Gala for Our Time

2020 Honorees

New York

Iman

Iman

Marc Glimcher

Marc Glimcher

“[In the early days] it was impossible not to be aware of the impact that AIDS had on our creative community and be profoundly shaken by it.”

2019 Honorees

TWO x TWO

Alex Katz

Alex Katz

Los Angeles

Milan

Federico Marchetti

Federico Marchetti

On amfAR’s goal to end AIDS: It “once seemed impossible, but every day seems more and more achievable.”

Hong Kong

New York

Milla Jovovich

Milla Jovovich

“Like many of you, I’ve lost friends to AIDS and have friends living with HIV today, so amfAR’s work is very important to me….I am deeply grateful for this award. I’d like to dedicate it to my two heroes, Dr. Mathilde Krim and Dame Elizabeth Taylor.”

2018 Honorees

TWO x TWO

Dana Schutz

Dana Schutz

Los Angeles

Katy Perry

Katy Perry

“Today I understand that a courageous life is the only one worth living. I come from a Bible-thumping background that wasn’t particularly open or accepting of curiosity….I may not have known it then, but daring to ask questions and redefine right and wrong when everybody around me spoke in absolutes was my first attempt at a courageous life.”

Milan

Edward-Enninful

Edward Enninful

“In a world that is increasingly divided we must remember: We’re more alike than we are different. This is not the disease of others. We all share the responsibility to promote tolerance and compassion for each other within our communities.”

São Paulo

Hong Kong

New York

2017 Honorees

TWO x TWO

Jonas Wood

Los Angeles

Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts

“More people are receiving lifesaving treatments than becoming infected with the disease. It’s incredible….If we don’t take our foot off the gas, then by 2020 we could ensure that no children will be born with HIV anymore, becoming the first HIV-free generation.”

Milan

Angela Missoni

“We have to fight together. Even if we come from privileged backgrounds, we have to give back; I think that’s my duty, and our duty as women is to fight for human rights with all our strength and to leave a positive legacy to our children.”

São Paulo

Hong Kong

New York

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson

“I’d like to acknowledge the more than 37 million people around the world today that are still living and struggling with HIV/AIDS and to dedicate this award to all those that have lost their lives and the lives of their loved ones to this disease.”

2016 Honorees

Los Angeles

Jeffrey Katzenberg

Jeffery Katzenberg

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron

Thank you, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, for your relentless work towards a cure. The fight to end HIV/AIDS is far from over, and I am more motivated than ever to continue fighting through my work with Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project–CTAOP.

TWO x TWO

Milan

Inspiration New York

Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell

“There’s a long way to go, but let’s remember, this is not the end. This isn’t even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

São Paulo

Hong Kong

2015 Honorees

Los Angeles

Ryan Murphy

Ryan Murphy

“I’m very honored to be here tonight as amfAR’s big gay of the year. I have to tell you this right up front if I could go back in time and tell my 18-year-old self that I would be alive in 2015 receiving this award, that young man could not have believed it. I have lost over 10 friends to HIV/AIDS and honestly, I consider me standing here to be some kind of miracle in the world and I think many of us in this room feel the same way.”

TWO x TWO

Milan

Inspiration New York

São Paulo

Cher

Cher

“AIDS has taken too many of the people that we love—gay, straight, black, white. We have lost so many people, so many beautiful people. So many talented people. This epidemic has just got to come to an end. That’s why I support amfAR and I believe that they will find a cure. They have to find a cure.”

Hong Kong

“I’m so touched, because when you work for an incredible organization you don’t think there’s a return—that you’ll be honored and given an award for things that you should do and have the responsibility to do. But what I’m most delighted about is amfAR is finally here in Hong Kong. Thirty years ago I started my career here, and this is where I learned that charity can be fun and good for the soul.”

New York

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

“We have a new and enlightened global community; we are now on the threshold of breakthroughs that never existed before we stepped into the fray.”

2014 Honorees

Los Angeles

Tom Ford

Tom Ford

TWO x TWO

Milan

Australia

Inspiration New York

Michael Lombardo

HBO (Michael Lombardo)

“It’s easy to forget the moral judgment and indifference that HIV-infected men and women experienced thirty years ago, and felt that the entire straight world turned its back and heaved a collective shrug of indifference…AIDS was a disease that demanded a medical, not a moral, response.”

São Paulo

New York

Peter Lindbergh

Peter Lindbergh

“There’s a beautiful word out there, which transcends all languages and cultures. This word stands for something so compelling and powerful that it might be the only thing strong enough to save our world from greed and destruction….This word, ladies and gentlemen, is compassion.”