Mckenna Grace received the Spotlight Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival's 27th Annual Honors Brunch on October 18, at Balboa Bay Resort. The event, co-presented with Variety's 10 Actors to Watch class, will be filmed for a PBS SoCal broadcast this January.
The timing is deliberate. Grace opens November 20 as Maysilee Donner in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Lionsgate's prequel set during the 50th Hunger Games. Maysilee is a District 12 tribute who forms an alliance with a young Haymitch Abernathy, played by Australian newcomer Joseph Zada. The character carries specific weight in the franchise: Maysilee is the original owner of the mockingjay pin that Katniss Everdeen wears through all four films of the original series.
At the brunch on Sunday, Grace called her first day on set "a ridiculous bonding experience," a remark referencing a Cornucopia sequence shot over three days with 48 young cast members.
The same event honored Taraji P. Henson with the Artist of Distinction Award and Jack O'Connell with the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for Danny Boyle's Ink. Sosie Bacon received the Breakout Award for Family Movie, and casting director Sarah Finn was recognized with the Casting Visionary Award.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping opens in North American theaters November 20, 2026.
