All you need to know: 7th Governors Awards (2015)

Spike Lee, Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds will be honored Nov. 14. All three will receive Oscar statuettes. This is the honorary Academy Awards — the 7th Annual Governors Awards, an untelevised, dinner event put on by the Academy to bestow its testimonial awards.

Spike Lee, Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds will be honored Saturday night. All three will receive Oscar statuettes. This is the honorary Academy Awards — the 7th Annual Governors Awards, an untelevised, dinner event put on by the Academy to bestow its testimonial awards.

Reynolds, however, will not be present at the ceremony.

She will miss the ceremony because of "an unexpectedly long recovery from a recent surgery," Associated Press reported Nov. 13.

"I'm heartbroken that I'm unable to be there in person to receive this extraordinary honor you have given me — so you could see how unbelievably happy you have made me," Reynolds said in the statement.

Associated Press also reported Saturday security at the event will likely be increased in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

Expected in attendance: Meryl Streep, Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Bryan Cranston, Jane Fonda, Samuel L. Jackson, Amy Schumer, Ava DuVernay and Quentin Tarantino.

The Board of Governors of the Academy voted Aug. 25 to present Honorary Awards to writer-director Lee and actress Rowlands, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to actress-singer-dancer Reynolds.

More intimate and slower-paced than the big ceremony in February, 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 honorees

On Saturday, Nov. 14, 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:

Lee, a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers, made an auspicious debut with his NYU thesis film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” which won a Student Academy Award® in 1983. He proceeded to blaze a distinctive trail with such features as “She’s Gotta Have It,” “School Daze” and “Do the Right Thing,” which earned him a 1989 Oscar® nomination for Original Screenplay. His work as a director ranges from the Oscar-nominated documentary feature “4 Little Girls” to such mainstream successes as “Malcolm X” and “Inside Man.” Lee’s other feature credits include “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Jungle Fever,” “Crooklyn,” “He Got Game,” “25th Hour,” “Miracle at St. Anna” and “Red Hook Summer.” He currently serves as the artistic director of the graduate film program at NYU.

Rowlands, an original talent whose devotion to her craft has earned her worldwide recognition as an independent film icon, received Academy Award nominations for her lead performances in “A Woman under the Influence” (1974) and “Gloria” (1980), both directed by her husband and frequent collaborator, John Cassavetes. She got her start on the New York stage and in live television in the 1950s and has appeared in 40 feature films to date, from “The High Cost of Loving” in 1958 to “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” which she starred in earlier this year. Her other notable films include “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Faces,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “Opening Night,” “Another Woman,” “Unhook the Stars,” “Hope Floats,” “Playing by Heart,” “The Notebook” and “Broken English.”

Reynolds, a Hollywood icon since she won hearts with her buoyant performance in “Singin’ in the Rain,” embarked on the role of a lifetime as a founding member of the Thalians, a charitable organization conceived and sustained by entertainers to promote awareness and treatment of mental health issues. She served as the group’s president almost continuously from 1957 to 2011, adding numerous terms as board chair and frequently presiding over its annual fundraising gala. Her tireless efforts have enabled the Thalians to contribute millions to the Mental Health Center at Cedars-Sinai and to UCLA’s Operation Mend, which helps military veterans recover from the physical and psychological wounds of war. Reynolds has appeared in more than 40 feature films, including “The Tender Trap,” “A Catered Affair” and “Mother,” and received a 1964 Oscar nomination for her lead performance in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

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 screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, director Hayao Miyazaki and actress Maureen O’Hara, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to actor and singer Harry Belafonte.

Watch videos here from the Academy's YouTube channel:


In 2013, 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.

Producers

Julie Lynn and Bonnie Curtis were named producers for the 7th Annual Governors Awards in September by Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, a past producer of the awards ceremony herself.

Lynn formed Mockingbird Pictures in 1999, with Curtis joining as a partner in 2011. They have produced five films together, including Oscar nominees “Albert Nobbs.” Working with the Academy before, Lynn has served as producer of the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards Presentation & Live Read. Prior to joining Mockingbird in 2011, Curtis spent 15 years with Steven Spielberg at Amblin and DreamWorks, producing such films as “Minority Report” and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” as well as co-producing “Saving Private Ryan.”

Last year's producer, Reginald Hudlin, will be co-producing next year's Oscars with David Hill. Other past producers for the Governors Awards have included Paula Wagner, 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. More information about the Governors Awards can be found on the Academy website.

Read a recap past years: 6th Annual, 5th Annual,  4th Annual, 3rd Annual, 2nd Annual.

The 88th Academy Awards, for outstanding film achievements of 2015, will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries worldwide.