The Points of Light Institute Tribute Producers - The Stevens Company

George Stevens, Jr. is a writer, producer and director of film and television.

He has created three Emmy Award-winning programs on commercial television: THE KENNEDY CENTER HONORS (CBS), in its 33rd year, CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON (NBC/TNT), in its 29th year, and THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE SALUTES... (ABC), which he produced for its first 26 years. He is also the producer-screenwriter-director of two Emmy Award winning miniseries, SEPARATE BUT EQUAL (ABC), a dramatization of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, which starred Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster; and THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGAN (NBC), a dramatization of the 1914 Leo Frank case, which starred Jack Lemmon.

He has earned 14 Emmys for outstanding program achievement, two Peabody Awards and an NAACP Life Achievement Award. Recently, he created and executive produced the WE ARE ONE concert at the Lincoln Memorial (HBO) and the adaptation of his play, THURGOOD, starring Laurence Fishburne, for broadcast in February 2011 on HBO.

In feature film, his 1998 presentation of THE THIN RED LINE, directed by Terrence Malick, was nominated for 7 Academy Awards. In 1984 he wrote, produced and directed the award-winning film on his father, the director George Stevens, who created such classics as SHANE, A PLACE IN THE SUN, GIANT, and GUNGA DIN.

Mr. Stevens came to Washington from Hollywood in 1961 to head up the film division of the United States Information Agency under the leadership of Edward R. Murrow. In 1967, he founded the American Film Institute. Mr. Stevens splits his time between his offices at the Kennedy Center in Washington and Los Angeles.

Michael Stevens has produced CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON for the past 17 years, and produced THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE SALUTES. . . from 1993-’98. He currently co-produces the KENNEDY CENTER HONORS (CBS), which recently received its second consecutive Emmy Award for Outstanding Special (fourth consecutive nomination), and produced and wrote WE ARE ONE for HBO, for which he also was awarded an Emmy.

He just concluded directing and producing the adaptation of THURGOOD for HBO.

In 1997 he worked as the Associate Producer on THE THIN RED LINE in Australia and in 1998 produced and directed his first feature, BAD CITY BLUES, which premiered at the 1999 AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival. He also produced the Steven Spielberg documentary, THE UNFINISHED JOURNEY. It had its premiere on the CBS broadcast of AMERICA’S MILLENNIUM, the three-hour live television special that Mr. Stevens also produced.

Mr. Stevens lives in Los Angeles, where he recently completed his first effort as an album producer, Bettye LaVette’s Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook, which was nominated for a Grammy.