Angelina Jolie headed to Washington, D.C. this week to honor her friend Mariane Pearl at the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards gala. The actress played Pearl, a journalist, in the film ‘A Mighty Heart.’

‘A Mighty Heart’ told the true story if Marianne and her husband Daniel Pearl. Daniel, also a journalist, was beheaded by terrorist in 2002.

Jolie presented Pearl with the Fern Holland Award and said the journalist was an example of “courage, hope and tolerance.” As Pearl accepted the award she called the pregnant actress “a sister.”

Meanwhile, Jolie was accompanied to Washington, D.C. by her two sons Maddox and Pax. She and her partner Brad Pitt also have two daughters and are expecting their fifth child.