​When Max Mara feted its latest Face of the Future winner Joey King in Los Angeles this week, it also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the award, and one of fashion’s most successful collabs with cinema.

The Max Mara Face of the Future award is part of an annual Women in Film Honors (WIF), which celebrates empowering actresses, directors, writers and show runners in the entertainment industry. This year’s honorees include Annette Benning for the Jane Fonda Humanitarian Award; Kate Winslet and Ellen Kuras, the Crystal Award for Advocacy and Kerry Washington for Entrepreneur in Entertainment Award.

The Italian luxury marque has been the key sponsor of WIF for two decades, and its Face of the Future category has been highly prescient in picking out actresses on the cusp of gaining global recognition. 
 
The Max Mara Face of the Future Award recognizes an actress for her work in the film and television industries, as well as her contributions to the community at large, and her embodiment of style and grace.

Born in LA, the 25-year-old King has had an impressive career, taking the lead role action films ‘Bullet Train’ and ‘The Princess’; performing as the voice of super-villainess Poppy Prescott in ‘Despicable Me 4’ and starring in the acclaimed TV series ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’, about a family’s struggles to survive the Holocaust. 
 
Past recipients of the Face of the Future include Lili Reinhart, Zazie Beetz, Gemma Chan, Elizabeth Debicki, Alexandra Shipp, Zoey Deutch, Natalie Dormer, Kate Mara, Rose Byrne, Hailee Steinfeld, Chloë Grace Moretz, Katie Holmes, Zoë Saldana, Elizabeth Banks, Ginnifer Goodwin, Emily Blunt, and Maria Bello. 
 
The award is a salutary example on how a luxury label can leverage its name and financial strength into a successful global campaign. Continuing the link, each February Max Mara fetes the Face of the Future with a supper in Milan during the Italian catwalk season – one of the most coveted invitations that week in the fashion capital.
 
On Wednesday, Max Mara lionized Joey King in a party in the famed insider hotel for Hollywood stars Chateau Marmont, attended by Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Holt, Lori Harvey, Lisa Ann Walter, Dylan Mulvaney and Kathy Hilton.
 
So, FashionNetwork.com spoke to Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, granddaughter of the founder of Max Mara and a board member in the family-owned group, about linking the finest in film with fabulous fashion. 

 
Fashion Network: How do you feel about reaching your 20th anniversary with Women in Film? 
Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti: It is quite the achievement. Max Mara has had women empowerment in its DNA since its foundation. It is beautiful to look back at 20 years of partnership with WIF and to be able to have supported talented women talent for two decades. Not only throughout the Max Mara Face of The Future award, but also to look at supporting women in the movie industry as a form of performing art.

FN: What does Max Mara hope to achieve with this special relationship? 
MG: I believe women’s empowerment is about supporting education and exploiting talent.I believe it is our duty as a company to be able to support a cause which is really close to our DNA; especially with an association which has worked with some of the most incredible legends of the movie industry. 
 
FN: What was it about Joey King that made her the latest worthy winner of Face of the Future? 
MG: Joey is a talented artist; she has a strong sense of the reality. She also understands her industry with a business savviness which perfectly identifies the Max Mara woman. I love that she is an enthusiastic about life, that she does not take herself too seriously and that she is natural and spontaneous. 
 
FN: How come you have such a great track record of finding actresses on great career trajectories?
MG: Thanks, first, for acknowledging that. I think it is about the idea of always acknowledging talent, never about a marketing platform around an artist. And always about the ability to find a woman which fits into the codes of the brand DNA. I think this makes the partnership organic. Also, there must be content in what you do as a fashion brand, both in the product you create and in the activities that you do in order to transfer the brand values. This credo has led us in these past 20 years.