In appreciation of his continued support, Austin’s Harry Ransom Center is honoring Robert De Niro! Along with The University of Texas at Austin, the center is creating a new endowment called the De Niro Curator Film. Plus, they are celebrating the Ransom Center’s 65th anniversary with a star-studded gala in September.

“A Celebration of Film” attendees will join De Niro for an evening celebrating filmmaking and film history. A benefit for the Ransom Center, De Niro and some VIP friends will be in attendance. Part of the university’s What Starts Here campaign, the event will generate critically needed funding for the new endowment to preserve and expand the collection.

Speaking of those VIP friends, that includes Meryl Streep and Leonard Maltin. And that’s not all! The Ransom Center is also hosting its first-ever ticketed, post-gala public event co-hosted by Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson and Andrew Wilson. More info on that here.

“I strongly believe in and support what the Harry Ransom Center does to open the creative process of filmmaking to students and the community,” De Niro said. “The Center has done a remarkable job curating a breadth of collections underscoring the history of the art form and the business.”

De Niro donated his archive documenting his cinematic career in 2006. Additional contributions of materials have been made throughout the years. From scripts and production records to costumes, props, film and video, the Robert De Niro Papers add to a significant collection related to Hollywood filmmaking of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

More about the Harry Ransom Center!

The foundation of the Ransom Center’s film holdings is the archive of producer David O. Selznick. Many of Selznick’s most notable productions are documented in great detail, including: A Star is Born (1937), Gone With The Wind (1939), Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945) and Duel in the Sun (1946). 

Gloria Swanson’s archive highlights her work with such filmmakers as Cecil B. DeMille, Erich von Stroheim and Billy Wilder.

The archive of Ernest Lehman, Hollywood’s top screenwriter for many years, documents his work on such films as: North by Northwest (1959), The Sound of Music (1965) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Matthew Weiner donated the archive of the Mad Men television series in the hopes that this material would, in his own words, “provide both inspiration and edification” to students and scholars.

Learn more about the Ransom Center and plan your trip here.

Featured photo by Josh Jensen via Wiki Commons.