Yesterday, Justice League director Zack Snyder accepted the first-ever Valiant Award during the 4th Annual Hollywood Critics Association Film Awards. The reason the filmmaker received that is because of his "visionary filmmaking and resilience to overcome any obstacles."
As you'll know, the filmmaker walked away from the DC Comics adaptation following the tragic death of his daughter, Autumn Snyder, by suicide. Now, though, thanks to the support of fans, the "Snyder Cut" will see the light of day on March 18th when it launches on HBO Max.
Many of those who got behind the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement also raised a huge amount of money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
"Thank you to the Hollywood Critics Association for honoring me with this Valiant Award. Making a movie is hard enough. The story of the Snyder Cut of Justice League is a saga that is almost eight years in the making," Snyder says in the video below. "It's a movie that was never going to see the light of day, but thanks to the perseverance of thousands of fans around the world, millions of tweets, incredible social media activations — whether it be billboards in Times Square, bus stops in San Diego, or airplanes literally flying around the studio — those amazing and dedicated fans got a giant corporation like WarnerMedia to take notice of them, hear what they had to say, and got them, finally, to agree to finish the film as I originally intended."
"So, on March 18th, that movie will come out, and it will be a victory for all of them."
"But the real victory is not that the movie is getting finished," the filmmaker adds. "[That] is what happened during the course of making Justice League. It's that these fans were also able to join together and create a community that got behind a cause that is not only to me and my family but also needed in the world. With the same billboards and tweets that they used to get the movie made, the fans were able to raise over half a million dollars for AFSP and to generate so much awareness for a topic that is oftentimes in the dark. The work that they have done is literally saving lives. So you see, the real victory is that effort. The real victory is those lives being saved."
It's easy to forget that Justice League fans raised a seven-figure sum for AFSP while promoting their cause, and something that's definitely overlooked by many. It's great to see Snyder highlight them here, and his comments will no doubt be appreciated by those who helped make this cut a reality.
Check out Snyder's comments in the video below: