Newport Beach Film Fest: ‘Social Reckoning’ Filmmaker Aaron Sorkin Set for Maverick Award, Live Episode of ‘Awards Chatter’ Podcast

Aaron Sorkin, the revered writer-turned-writer/director whose latest work is The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to 2010’s The Social Network that centers on the harmful effects of Facebook, has been tapped by the Newport Beach Film Festival to receive its Maverick Award.

The celebration of Sorkin will take place on Saturday, Oct. 17, on the Mainstage at Fashion Island. It will kick off at 11 a.m. with a career-retrospective conversation moderated by yours truly, which will be recorded in front of a festival audience for subsequent airing on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. That will be immediately followed by the fest’s presentation of the award.

Tickets for the event are free, but an RSVP is required.

“Aaron Sorkin is one of the defining voices of our time, a writer whose razor-sharp dialogue and fearless storytelling have shaped how we watch film and television,” Gregg Schwenk, the Newport Beach Film Festival’s CEO and executive director, said in a statement. “From A Few Good Men and The West Wing to The Social Network and Molly’s Game, his work has consistently challenged audiences and raised the bar for the craft. We are honored to celebrate his singular career with the Maverick Award, and grateful to partner with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast to bring this conversation to our Newport Beach audiences.”

Sorkin, 65, made his name with the play A Few Good Men, his first produced play (1989) and screenplay (1992), which is now being revived on Broadway. The film version of A Few Good Men, as well as 1993’s Malice and 1995’s The American President — all for Rob Reiner‘s Castle Rock production company, established Sorkin as one of the top writers in the world of film. Then he ventured into TV, first with ABC’s Sports Night (1998-2000), then with The West Wing (1999-2006), the latter of which proved to be one of the most critically acclaimed and popular shows of all time.

Subsequent TV shows included NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-2007) and HBO’s The Newsroom (2012-2014), while additional screenplays included 2007’s Charlie Wilson’s War, the aforementioned The Social Network, 2011’s Moneyball and 2015’s Steve Jobs. He won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for Social Network and was nominated for it again the following year for Moneyball. He won the best screenplay Golden Globe for Social Network and Steve Jobs.

He has since then directed films that he also wrote, including Molly’s Game (2017), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) and Being the Ricardos (2021), garnering additional screenplay Oscar noms for Molly’s Game and The Trial of the Chicago 7, the latter of which was also nominated for the best picture Oscar. Now comes The Social Reckoning, starring Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong, which Sony will release on Friday.

The 27th Newport Beach Film Festival will run Oct. 15-22.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast recently turned 11 years old and is nearing its 700th episode. Past guests have included Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Harrison Ford, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lawrence, Sean Penn, Snoop Dogg, Julia Roberts, Michael B. Jordan, Norman Lear, Sophia Loren, George Clooney, Will Smith, Carol Burnett, Robert De Niro, Dwayne Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Hart, Margot Robbie, Lorne Michaels, Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, David Letterman, Lady Gaga, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Natalie Portman, Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bono, Dolly Parton, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Spike Lee, Audra McDonald, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Kevin Costner, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Olivia Rodrigo, Quincy Jones, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus, Timothée Chalamet, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Ken Burns, Malala Yousafzai, Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Kobe Bryant, Gloria Steinem and Buzz Aldrin.

Adam Sandler, Eddie Redmayne, Ewan McGregor, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Ronson and Jacob Elordi recorded episodes of Awards Chatter at the Newport Beach Film Festival, while Kate Hudson, Mindy Kaling, Adam Brody, Sam Rockwell and Seth MacFarlane did so at the Newport Beach TV Festival.

On Sunday, Oct. 18, the Newport Beach Film Festival will honor Emmy Rossum with its outstanding performance in television (actress) Award, before which she will also record an episode of Awards Chatter in front of a festival audience.