The Pitt, Renegades Top Inaugural Easterseals DARCYs Awards — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- The Pitt won Best Scripted Series and Best Achievement in a Casting Ensemble at the inaugural DARCYs ceremony at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica; casting director Cathy Sandrich said the team cast a disabled actor in a role not originally written as disabled and changed a character's gender to land the right performer.
- PBS docuseries Renegades won Best Unscripted Series; series producer Amanda Upson said the project involved more than 50 disabled filmmakers and cited approximately $45 million in federal funding cuts as a threat to disabled creators, calling on studios and foundations to "invest mightily."
- Geri Jewell received the inaugural DARCYs Legacy Award at age 70, recounting how Norman Lear cast her on The Facts of Life two months after meeting her at the 1980 Media Access Awards and telling her she was "way before your time."
- Vincent Rutley received the Christopher Reeve Emerging Talent Award on his 41st birthday, telling actors still waiting for a breakthrough: "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when. Your name will be called."
- Host Tina Friml, a comedian and cerebral palsy advocate, opened with humor calling the gathering a "truly mass disabling event" and delivered an "in memoriam" segment eulogizing disability tropes including "Cripping Up," "The Miracle Cure," and "Teary Eyes."
- Film Independent President Juan Devis, who took over in April following the January 2025 passing of Josh Welsh, framed the ceremony as continuation of a 42-year fight for access and representation and renewed the organization's partnership with Easterseals.
Why it matters: The DARCYs relaunch the Media Access Awards, established in 1979, with explicit industry demands for hiring and funding disabled creators — stakes made urgent by Upson's stated $45 million in federal funding cuts that she said amount to "systematic erasure" of disabled storytelling. Winners used the platform to convert recognition into concrete asks for casting commitments and financial investment.
Ask SkimNews
