max mara | 20 years of wif’s face of the future with maude apatow

If you want to predict the next decade of Hollywood royalty, you don’t need to look further than the WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award.

For 20 years, the Italian luxury house has acted as the industry’s most accurate crystal ball, crowning talents like Emily Blunt, Zoë Saldana and Elizabeth Debicki right before they ascended to global superstardom. This month, the brand celebrated two decades of that clairvoyance with a double-header celebration in Los Angeles, crowning Maude Apatow as the 2025 recipient.

The ‘Euphoria’ star and recent West End lead (she recently took a turn as Sally Bowles in London’s ‘Cabaret’) accepted the 2025 honour with a speech that eschewed typical industry platitudes for something more personal. Citing inspirations ranging from Judy Blume to her mother, Leslie Mann, Apatow dedicated her future career to advocacy. “The best part of working in the industry so far has been the women I’ve met along the way,” she said. “That bond and commitment we have to each other is something we need now more than ever.”

The festivities began on Wednesday, November 5th, at the Chateau Marmont hosted by Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti – Global Brand Ambassador and granddaughter of the label’s founder Achille Maramotti. With DJ Mia Moretti on the decks, the guest list was a sharp mix of established icons and the new guard: Jane Fonda, Jamie Lee Curtis, Naomi Watts, Kate Hudson and Sarah Paulson mingled with the likes of Victoria Justice, Lukas Gage and Olivia Holt.

The main event followed on Thursday, November 6th, at the WIF Honors gala at the Beverly Hilton. Maria Bello, who was the very first recipient of the award back in 2006, took the stage to highlight just how much the landscape has shifted. “Thanks in part to Max Mara’s investment, Women in Film has grown in the past twenty years, adding significantly more programmes, more members, and most importantly more representation in TV and film,” Bello noted. She was joined by a powerful tribunal of past honourees: Elizabeth Debicki (2019), Zoey Deutch (2017) and Lili Reinhart (2022).

For Max Mara, which remains a privately held, family-run business, this partnership is existential. “True power comes not just from being seen but also from being heard […],” said Prezioso Maramotti. “Supporting women is not just an adornment for us. It is woven into the fabric of our very purpose.”

With a roster of alumni that includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Florence Pugh (a past recipient not listed but part of the history) and Gemma Chan, the award has proven that Max Mara knows exactly where the future of film is heading. If history is any indicator, we should all be keeping a very close eye on Maude Apatow.

photography. courtesy of Jon Kopaloff, Nisha Johny, Max Mara
words. Gennaro Costanzo