Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki, Maureen O’Hara and Harry Belafonte will be honored Saturday night. All four will receive Oscar statuettes. This is the honorary Academy Awards — the 6th Annual Governors Awards, an untelevised, dinner event put on by the Academy to bestow its testimonial awards.
By James A. Molnar
TGK Editor
Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki, Maureen O’Hara and Harry Belafonte will be honored Saturday night. All four will receive Oscar statuettes. This is the honorary Academy Awards — the 6th Annual Governors Awards, an untelevised, dinner event put on by the Academy to bestow its testimonial awards.
The Board of Governors of the Academy voted Aug. 26 to present Honorary Awards to screenwriter Carrière, director Miyazaki and actress O’Hara, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to actor and singer Belafonte.
More intimate and slower-paced than the big ceremony in February (or March, as was the case this year), the Governors Awards honors no more than four industry professionals and allows for lengthly video tributes, along with casual toasting and introductions by closely-connected friends and colleagues of honorees.
The 51 governors (which increased by three this year) were allowed to nominate as many living people as they wanted. The list of candidates generally numbers at least 10, TheWrap's Steve Pond reported two years ago.
Each governor casts a secret vote. The nominee with the largest number of votes then moves to a second round of voting, where each governor votes for or against that person's candidacy. If more than half the board votes yes, the Oscar is awarded.
The process continues until three awards are voted. The fourth and final candidate must receive yes votes from three-fourths of the governors to receive an award, according to Pond.
The honorees
On Saturday, Nov. 8 (a week earlier than last year), a black-tie dinner event at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center will celebrate the careers of Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki, Maureen O’Hara and Harry Belafonte.
Here are the honorees’ biographies provided by the Academy:
Carrière, who began his career as a novelist, was introduced to screenwriting by French comedian and filmmaker Pierre Étaix, with whom he shared an Oscar® for the live action short subject “Heureux Anniversaire (Happy Anniversary)” in 1962. He received two more nominations during his nearly two-decade collaboration with director Luis Buñuel, for the screenplays for “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “That Obscure Object of Desire.” Carrière also has collaborated notably with such directors as Volker Schlöndorff (“The Tin Drum”), Jean-Luc Godard (“Every Man for Himself”) and Andrzej Wajda (“Danton”). He earned a fourth Oscar nomination for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” with director Philip Kaufman.
Miyazaki is an artist, writer, director, producer and three-time Oscar nominee in the Animated Feature Film category, winning in 2002 for “Spirited Away.” His other nominations were for “Howl’s Moving Castle” in 2005 and “The Wind Rises” last year. Miyazaki gained an enormous following in his native Japan for such features as “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” “Laputa: Castle in the Sky,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” before breaking out internationally in the late 1990s with “Princess Mononoke.” He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a renowned animation studio based in Tokyo.
O’Hara, a native of Dublin, Ireland, came to Hollywood in 1939 to star opposite Charles Laughton in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” She went on to appear in a wide range of feature films, including the swashbucklers “The Black Swan” and “Sinbad the Sailor,” the dramas “This Land Is Mine” and “A Woman’s Secret,” the family classics “Miracle on 34th Street” and “The Parent Trap,” the spy comedy “Our Man in Havana” and numerous Westerns. She was a favorite of director John Ford, who cast her in five of his films, including “How Green Was My Valley,” “Rio Grande” and “The Quiet Man.”
An actor, producer, singer and lifelong activist, Belafonte began performing in theaters and nightclubs in and around Harlem, where he was born. From the beginning of his film career, he chose projects that shed needed light on racism and inequality, including “Carmen Jones,” “Odds against Tomorrow” and “The World, the Flesh and the Devil.” He was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, marching and organizing alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and often funding initiatives with his entertainment income. Belafonte was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1987 and currently serves on the boards of the Advancement Project and the Institute for Policy Studies. His work on behalf of children, education, famine relief, AIDS awareness and civil rights has taken him all over the world.The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given to an individual for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an Oscar statuette, is given to an individual whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the motion picture industry.
Past honorees
Last year, Honorary Awards went to Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Piero Tosi. Angelina Jolie received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Watch the acceptance speeches below. Tosi was unable to make the trip from Italy.
In 2012, at the 4th Governors Awards, held later than normal, on Dec. 1, recognized Hollywood stuntman Hal Needham, along with documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and filmmaker-arts advocate George Stevens, Jr., with Honorary Awards. DreamWorks Animation chief and philanthropist Jeffrey Katzenberg received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Each received Oscar statuettes.
One of the best speeches of the night by George Stevens, Jr.:
At the 3rd Governors Awards, Honorary Awards were presented to actor James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith (pictured) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award went to philanthropist Oprah Winfrey.At the 2nd Governors Awards, held Nov. 13, 2010, producer-director Francis Ford Coppola received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and Honorary Awards (pictured below) went to historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, director Jean-Luc Godard and actor Eli Wallach.
Honorees at the inaugural Governors Awards, held Nov. 14, 2009, were producer-executive John Calley (Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award) actress Lauren Bacall, producer-director Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis. The latter three received Honorary Awards.
Other previous recipients were Jerry Lewis (Hersholt Award) at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009, Robert Boyle (Honorary Award) at the 80th Academy Awards in February 2008 and Dino De Laurentiis (Thalberg Award) at the 73rd Academy Awards in March 2001.
The Board of Governors of the Academy voted in June 2009 to establish the Governors Awards, an annual event dedicated to presenting its testimonial awards – the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Honorary Award. Honorees are selected and announced in September and presented their awards in November. They are also acknowledged at the following Academy Awards ceremony.
The producer
Hudlin is an Oscar nominee, receiving a Best Picture nomination as a producer of “Django Unchained.” He directed “The Great White Hype,” “Boomerang” and “House Party,” which he also wrote. Hudlin has also directed TV episodes of “Psych,” “Modern Family,” “The Office” and “The Bernie Mac Show.” In September, Hudlin produced “The Academy Celebrates the Black Movie Soundtrack” concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
Hudlin is a member of the Academy, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild, and serves on the executive board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
Last year's producer was Paula Wagner, whose producing credits include more than 20 feature films, including the first three “Mission: Impossible” films and “Vanilla Sky.” Wagner is also member of the Academy. Other past producers for the Governors Awards have included Don Mischer, Charlie Haykel, Juliane Hare. writer-director Phil Robinson, former Academy president Sid Ganis and Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Cohen, who went on to co-produce the 83rd Academy Awards telecast.
Full coverage
Live coverage of the ceremony Saturday is available via the Academy’s Twitter account. The Gold Knight will recap the night Sunday, along with the fashion.
Okay, now I'm a little excited. #GovernorsAwards pic.twitter.com/PVTrbkUu2B
— Albert Tello (@Albert_Tello) November 7, 2014
More information about the Governors Awards can be found on the Academy website.
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The 87th Academy Awards, for outstanding film achievements of 2014, will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries worldwide.
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