David E. Kelley to Receive Inaugural Showrunner Award at ATX Festival (Exclusive)

The ATX Television Festival is establishing a Showrunner Award this year, and its first recipient is one of the people for whom the term was invented.

David E. Kelley will receive the first Showrunner Award at the festival in Austin, Texas, which is set for May 29-June 1. He joins fellow ATX Fest awardees Christine Baranski (the Achievement in Television Excellence honor) and The Diplomat creator Debora Cahn (the Impact in Storytelling award, presented with Human Rights Watch) at the 14th edition of the fan-centered festival.

Along with the award, the festival will present a screening of Kelley’s Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent and a discussion of that series and others from his prolific career, which ranges from L.A. Law to Big Little Lies.

“David E. Kelley’s impact and influence as a TV creator, showrunner, producer, and collaborator cannot be overstated,” said Jennifer Morgan, vp programming for ATX TV. “From courtroom dramas and small town surrealism, to true crime adaptations and pop culture phenomena, he continues to show us the full range of what is possible on TV. We’re honored to have this opportunity to celebrate his truly singular career with our first ever Showrunner Award.”

Along with Kelley’s honor, the festival announced three additions to its programming lineup:

• Muslim Matchmaker: Unscripted Stories of Real Connections will feature Hoda Abrahim and Yasmin Elhady, the hosts of the Hulu series, along with creator and executive producer Smriti Mundhra and EP Senain Kheshgi.

• Pain Points of the Indie TV Ecosystem (and How to Solve Them) will feature a group of producers who are working outside the mainstream system with independent production and distribution efforts. Panelist include  Mark Duplass (Duplass Brothers Productions), Rick Gomez and Steve Zahn (Macaroni Art), Smriti Mundhra (Meralta Films), Christie Marchese (Kinema) and Emily Best (Seed & Spark).

• Bollywood Dance U is a look at the independently produced docuseries from Mundhra’s Meralta Films and Amplify Pictures.

The ATX Festival’s lineup also includes retrospectives for Mad Men, The Leftovers and UnReal; a session with Late Night host Seth Meyers; a sneak peek at Hulu’s King of the Hill revival; and an Andor panel, among many others.