Saturday night’s AARP Awards Ceremony was a night of laughter and merrymaking, but it was also a night of reflection on collective and personal grief.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – A sense of collective and individual grief was palpable at the AARP Adult Film Awards on Sunday night, as actresses Sharon Stone, Laura Dern, Kathy Bates and others emotionally remembered their late mothers on stage.
It was a mostly lighthearted and funny evening, with actors George Clooney and Adam Sandler poking fun at aging, but there were also moments that addressed the elephant in the room.
Introducing “Hamnet” as the winner of Best Adult Picture and Best Adult Film on January 10, the 67-year-old director said of the Chloé Zhao-directed film, “In a room where we’re all so old that we’ve all loved, lost, and are losing each other, this film has an impact beyond words.”
Stone, who lost her mother in March 2025, tearfully added: “These losses don’t just go away, they become part of us. They become part of us. They become part of us.”
Ahead of the nearly three-hour ceremony, which airs on Sunday, February 22, Stone stopped Hamnet star Jesse Buckley on the red carpet and chatted with her for a few minutes. She hugged Buckley and at one point the two burst into tears.
It wasn’t clear at the moment what Stone and Buckley were discussing, but it became clearer when Stone took the stage and introduced Chao, Buckley, and co-star Paul Mescal.
Laura Dern remembers late mother Diane Ladd
During Ms. Stone’s remarks, she also addressed Mr. Dern in the audience, who announced that her mother, the great Diane Ladd, passed away in November. Dern, who won Best Actress for her role in Is This Sing On?, said in her acceptance speech: As well as her own personal grief, she spoke about how we live in “a time of total heartbreak and breakups.”
The 58-year-old actress also recalled at AARP, “You guys were honoring my mom the last time I was here,” adding, “My mom loved you all.”
Chloe Zhao talks about grief and making ‘Hamnet’
In his acceptance speech for the AARP Adult Film Award, director Zhao said that making Hamnet reminded him that “grief is an inevitable art of life, but the more we can allow ourselves the depth of our grief, the greater our capacity to love and care.”
“As many of you know, this is a really beautiful paradox and an incredibly difficult one,” she said next to Buckley and Mezcal on stage. “So when it’s really hard to feel sad, that’s when we reach out to poetry, that’s when we reach out to parts of ourselves, and that’s when we reach out to tell stories for each other and for our communities.”
Kathy Bates weeps on stage, says mother is ‘the driving force behind my Mattie’
The Matlock star, who at 77 was the oldest recipient of the night’s awards ceremony, also shed tears during her speech as she talked about her late mother Bertie Kathleen Bates.
Bates, who plays Madeline “Mattie” Matlock on the CBS drama series, said her mother is “the driving force behind my Mattie.”
“She wanted to be a lawyer, and I think she would have been a great lawyer,” she said. “It may not have been her choice, but without her strength to lead a life devoted to raising three daughters who she loved deeply, I would not have felt as confident as I did to stand before you tonight and accept this incredible award.”
The annual awards ceremony, held at the Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Wilshire, recognized the best television shows and movies made by or for people over 50 in 2025. Honorees that night included George Clooney, Guillermo del Toro, Regina Hall, Noah Wyle, and more.
The Film Awards for Adults will be broadcast by Great Performances on Sunday, February 22nd at 7pm on PBS.
