The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has just announced its honorees for the 2026 Art+Film Gala, and it's a fascinating double bill. Come November 7th, the museum will be toasting artist Vija Celmins and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Because apparently, that's where we are now — planning our fancy museum galas two years in advance.
For those keeping score, Leonardo DiCaprio and LACMA trustee Eva Chow will once again be co-chairing the event. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty good gig: show up, look sharp, and help rake in the cash that keeps LACMA's lights on, its exhibitions fresh, and its art collection growing. Specifically, this gala helps fund projects that boldly go where visual art meets cinema.
The Quiet and The Epic
Vija Celmins is the artist who makes you lean in. Her photorealistic paintings and drawings are so meticulously detailed, they practically whisper. She's known for capturing the vast, the endless: oceans, skies, the moon, the desert. A reviewer once perfectly summed up her work, noting it "speaks quietly but insistently to fundamental human desires: to connect, to see, and to understand." No small feat for a canvas.
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Start Your News DetoxThen there's Denis Villeneuve, the filmmaker who makes you sit up straight. This is the visionary behind the Dune trilogy, with the third installment still on its way, and he's also slated to direct the next James Bond flick. So, from the desolate sands of Arrakis to Her Majesty's Secret Service, Villeneuve clearly has a knack for the epic and the intellectually engaging.
LACMA director Michael Govan noted the intriguing connection between Celmins's blend of realism and imagination and Villeneuve's deep, thoughtful films. It's a pairing that promises more than just glamour.
Last year's gala, which honored Ryan Coogler and Mary Corse, managed to pull in a cool $6.5 million. It also featured the kind of guest list that makes paparazzi swoon, with Cindy Crawford and Paris Hilton in attendance, and a performance by Doja Cat. The bar, as they say, has been set.
The 2026 shindig will also be a landmark event, marking the first gala held since the grand opening of the new David Geffen Galleries. This sprawling 110,000-square-foot building, designed by Peter Zumthor, cost a mere $724 million and opened its doors in May. So, the honorees will be celebrated in style, in a space that cost more than some small countries' GDP.
