AllYourScreens.com founder Rick Ellis has been awarded the First Annual David Robb Civil Justice Award for Best Investigative Civil Justice Story or Series at the 17th Annual National A&E Journalism Awards on Sunday evening.
The event took place at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and it honored the best print, digital and broadcast arts and entertainment journalism in the country.
The winning article highlighted the story of Michael Feeney, a Minnesota casting agent, who pled guilty to sexually abusing several clients. Here is a link to that piece.
"I am honored to win an award named for David, a journalist whose work was an inspiration for me," said Ellis in a statement. "I am also pleased to see independent journalism highlighted at time when the industry is undergoing so many job layoffs and turmoil."
This is the first year for the award honoring David Robb and this is how it was described by the LA Press Club:
The accolades for David Robb have continued since the Deadline labor reporter died in December of 2023 at the age of 74. Now the Los Angeles Press Club is honoring him in a new way: with the $5,000 David Robb Civil Justice Award. It is funded by Anita Busch, prominent journalist and former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and will be given annually to the best investigative reporter focused on the entertainment industry.
“He shined a light on the rights of those living with disabilities, protecting the rights of the unpaid interns who were horribly taken advantage of, all union workers, stuntwomen, Native Americans and other minorities,” Busch told attendees at a Motion Picture & Television Fund event on June 8, 2024.
Another good friend, Alex Ben Block, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, told the Press Club, “Dave Robb is especially worthy of being honored as the inspiration for the Civil Justice Award not only because he was unusually hardworking, but because he spoke truth to power—often at his own peril — reporting on those who were not rich, famous or powerful; who were minorities, the handicapped, immigrants, blacklisted or simply victims of injustice. Dave stood up for them all.”
As Deadline writer Mike Fleming Jr. wrote in his Dec. 9, 2023, story about Robb’s death, his subjects “ranged from rooting out convicted pedophiles who resided in a home that was commonly used to house child actors in town on productions, to his final bylined piece about an NRA-funded government program that teaches children to shoot guns, even as bodies pile up each year from mass shootings often perpetrated by young people with emotional problems. Those pieces had a common theme: rooting out wrongdoing. Dave kept our lawyers busy, but I believe we published every one of those that he investigated and filed.”
Whether he was rocking the boat over long hours imposed on child actors, interns forced to work without pay, ageism against women, or failures in protecting stuntwomen, his work was impactful, quotable and impossible to forget.
Here are the judges comments about their decision:
Rick Ellis takes a deep dive into records as he investigates the troubled past of a Minnesota casting agent for child actors who pled guilty to sexually abusing some of his clients. Ellis also warns that anyone In Minnesota can be a talent or casting agent without background checks or licensing in his compelling story that earns him the Robb Award.
