Salma Hayek Honoured With The Khalil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Award 2015

Hollywood actor Salma Hayek was honoured with the 2015 Khalil Gibran "Spirit of Humanity" award from the Arab American Institute recently at a ceremony in Washington.

Hayek was recognized in the 'Individual Achievement' category, for her role as producer of the animated film 'Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet'.

Born in Mexico to a Lebanese father and Spanish mother, Salma Hayek has become not only an award winning actress but an internationally recognized advocate. She formed the Salma Hayek Foundation, which works to end violence against women and bring global attention to humanitarian crises. She and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, along with the fashion house Gucci, founded Chime for Change, a global initiative to support and strengthen women's empowerment projects. The Frida star is also on the board of the Kering Foundation. She has also worked with organizations such as Youth AIDS, Global Green, VDay and others.

Salma Hayek, looked resplendent in a floor-length red gown when she received the award for her humanitarian work.

Apparently, Ms.Hayek expressed that she was a citizen of the world and her country was humanity. Salma added that kids were poets from the moment of birth and they could get Kahlil Gibran's message without thinking about the individual meaning of words.

In Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet nine directors interpret the work of the poet from Lebanon, which incidentally is the country in which Hayek's father was born.

One of the selected poems tells the kaleidoscopic and symbolic story of an imprisoned poet and a mischievous little girl.

The movie, brainchild of Roger Allers (The Lion King) and Bjarne Hansen, illustrates the poems of Gibran, and includes contributions from artists from around the world.

Hayek articulated that animating a work already read by 120 million people around the world was a challenge, so she recruited nine leading animation directors and gave them total freedom to imagine a story based on Gibran's poems.

Produced and spearheaded by Salma Hayek, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet was an official selection at Cannes and made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The script was written by Roger Allers (The Lion King) and blends together individual sequences based on Gibrain's poems. Each segment is animated by a different filmmaker, including Tomm Moore ("The Secret of Kells," "Song of the Sea"), Nina Paley ("Sita Sings the Blues") and Bill Plympton ("Guide Dog").

The film's synopsis reads: "Set in a Mediterranean sea-side village, Kamila (Salma Hayek) cleans house for exiled artist and poet Mustafa (Liam Neeson), but the more difficult job is keeping her free-spirited young daughter, Almitra, (Quvenzhane Wallis) out of trouble. The three embark on a journey meant to end with Mustafa's return home, but first they must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in his words will incite rebellion."

In addition to Hayek, Neeson and Wallis, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet" features the vocal talents of John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina and John Rhys-Davies and music from Damien Rice, Glen Hansard and Yo-Yo Ma. It is expected to hit the theaters on August 7, 2015.