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Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman, Gordon Willis: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipients Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall, and Gordon Willis at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.
“It’s so much better … that nobody’s worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching us or 29.2,” remarked Warren Beatty, a former Irving G. Thalberg Award recipient who paid homage to this year’s Thalberg Award honoree John Calley, who, reportedly suffering from serious health issues, was unable to attend the ceremony.
After Kirk Douglas declared he once unsuccessfully tried to seduce her, and Anjelica Huston praised her “steadfastness,” 85-year-old Lauren Bacall waved away an escort trying to help her get to the podium, remembered her “great love” Humphrey Bogart, her myriad leading [...]

Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Vera Farmiga: Governors Awards 2009

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipients Saul Zaentz, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Walter Mirisch, and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks present the Thalberg Award to producer John Calley (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons), who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Actress Vera Farmiga, a potential contender for the 2010 best supporting actress Oscar

Four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges and wife Susan

Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme (for The Silence of the Lambs) and Honorary Award recipient Roger Corman
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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George Lucas, Meg Tilly, Kirk Douglas: Governors Awards 2009

Academy Award-nominated actresses Jennifer Tilly (as best supporting actress, for Bullets Over Broadway) and Meg Tilly (also in the best supporting actress category, for Agnes of God), arrive at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient and two-time best director Academy Award nominee George Lucas with investor/TV show hostess Mellody Hobson

Three-time Academy Award nominee Kirk Douglas pays tribute to Lauren Bacall, his co-star in both Young Man with a Horn (1950) and Diamonds (1999)
Photos: Michael Yada (Jennifer and Meg Tilly, Lucas), Richard Harbaugh (Douglas) / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Roger Corman, Anjelica Huston, Sally Kellerman: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Roger Corman, the producer-director of cult classics such as House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Tower of London, The Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and Bloody Mama, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Academy Award-nominated actress Sally Kellerman (in the supporting category, for M*A*S*H, in 1970) and Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston (also as best supporting actress, for Prizzi’s Honor in 1985)

Five-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, among whose credits are The Black Stallion, The Right Stuff, The Natural, and The Passion of the Christ
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Gordon Willis, Ron Howard, Dana Delany: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of classics such as Klute, The Godfather films, Serpico, All the President’s Men, Annie Hall, Comes a Horseman, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, and The Purple Rose of Cairo, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14. Despite his impressive list of credits, Willis has been nominated for only two Academy Awards: Zelig (1982) and The Godfather Part III (1990)

Ron Howard, who won a best director Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind in 2002

Actress Dana Delany of the television series Desperate Housewives
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Lauren Bacall, Maria Bello, Alec Baldwin: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall, who appeared in, among others, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Young Man with a Horn, How to Marry a Millionaire, Woman’s World, Sex and the Single Girl, Murder on the Orient Express, The Fan, and The Mirror Has Two Faces, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Maria Bello, the leading lady in A History of Violence

Oscar 2010 co-host Alec Baldwin, a best supporting actor Academy Award nominee for The Cooler
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Tom Hanks, Annette Bening, Warren Beatty: Governors Awards 2009

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipients Dino de Laurentiis, Warren Beatty, Norman Jewison, Saul Zaentz, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Walter Mirisch and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks present the Thalberg Award to producer John Calley (The Remains of the Day, The Da Vinci Code), who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Norman Jewison, whose socially conscious cop drama In the Heat of the Night won the best picture Oscar in 1968

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Board of Governors posed for a group photo following the 2009 Governors Awards
Front Row (left to right): Sid [...]

Warren Beatty, Steven Spielberg, Dino de Laurentiis: Governors Awards 2009

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Warren Beatty, who also won a best director Oscar for Reds in 1982, at the presentation of the Thalberg Award to John Calley, who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Steven Spielberg, who also won two best directors Oscars, for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Dino de Laurentiis, the producer of classics such as La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, The Great War, The Stranger, and Serpico
Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Lauren Bacall, Annette Bening, Jeff Bridges: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall, the star of classics such as To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Designing Woman. Bacall was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for The Mirror Has Two Faces in 1996.
“A man at last,” the 85-year-old Bacall exclaimed while holding her Honorary Oscar. “I’m here to stay so you better get used to the idea.”

Three-time Oscar nominated actress Annette Bening toasts Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall during the 2009 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of classics such as The Godfather Part II, All the President’s Men, and The Purple Rose of Cairo, receives [...]

Warren Beatty, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg: Governors Awards 2009

Past Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipients Dino de Laurentiis, Warren Beatty, Saul Zaentz, George Lucas, Norman Jewison, Walter Mirisch, Steven Spielberg presenting this year’s Thalberg Award to John Calley, who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Honorary Award recipient Roger Corman, the producer-director of numerous low-budget films including Attack of the Crab Monsters, Carnival Rock, Bloody Mama, and House of Usher

Honorary Award recipient Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of classics such as The Godfather, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, with Jeff Bridges, one of the stars of Bad Company, a 1972 Western shot by Willis
Richard Harbaugh (Willis/Bridges, group photo), Matt Petit (Corman) / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Oscar 2010: Anjelica Huston, Jonathan Demme, Kirk Douglas to Present Honorary Oscars

Lauren Bacall

Oscar winners Anjelica Huston, Jonathan Demme, and Quentin Tarantino, and Honorary Award recipient Kirk Douglas will be some of the presenters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ first Governors Awards event on November 14 at Hollywood & Highland Center’s Grand Ballroom.
The evening will feature presentations of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producer-executive John Calley, and Honorary Awards to actress Lauren Bacall, producer-director Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis.
The black-tie dinner event for more than 600 guests will feature film clips as well as statements from the honorees, and tributes from their colleagues and admirers.
The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given to an individual [...]

Oscar 2010: Honorary Awards for Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis, Roger Corman

Lauren Bacall (above), Roger Corman, and Gordon Willis have been chosen by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be the next recipients of the Academy’s Honorary Award. Additionally, producer-executive John Calley will be given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
Previously, special awards were handed out at the Oscar ceremony, but from this year onward they will be presented at the Governors Awards ceremony. The first-ever such event will take place on Saturday, November 14, at the Grand Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center.
This year’s honorees:
Lauren Bacall has one Academy Award nomination to her credit: her stern mom in Barbra Streisand’s much panned (and [...]

Oscar 2010: Honorary Awards Relocated

Unfortunately, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to come up with a new annual event to present its special awards – the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Honorary Award.
I say "unfortunately" because in my view the presence of veterans like, say, Deborah Kerr or Ennio Morricone, are the highlights of the Oscar ceremony. But then again, perhaps they’ll now find some extra time to add more Hugh Jackman musical numbers for those who are into that sort of stuff.
From now on, special honorees will be selected and announced in September (instead of December); [...]

Oscar 2008: Robert Boyle to Receive Honorary Oscar

Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest

Production designer Robert Boyle, 98, a veteran with nearly 100 highly eclectic film credits — ranging from Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954) to Portnoy’s Complaint (1972) — will receive an Honorary Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2008, "in recognition of one of cinema’s great careers in art direction."
Boyle, the subject of the 2000 Oscar-nominated documentary short The Man on Lincoln’s Nose, has earned four Academy Award nominations in the art direction category: North by Northwest (1959), Gaily, Gaily (1969), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and The Shootist (1976).
In addition to North by Northwest, he collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on several other projects. [...]

Honorary Oscars & Women II

Walter Pidgeon, Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver (top); Don Ameche, Claudette Colbert in Midnight (middle); Corinne Griffith, Victor Varconi in The Divine Lady (bottom)

Honorary Oscars Bypass Women: Part I
Among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere — some of whom dating back to the early days of cinema — who have gone to the Great Beyond without receiving the Academy’s career achievement Oscar are actresses Greer Garson, Claudette Colbert, Gloria Swanson, Audrey Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Marlene Dietrich, Alida Valli, Simone Signoret, Joan Crawford, Anna Magnani, Susan Hayward, Dolores del Río, Norma Talmadge, Anne Baxter, Joan Bennett, Lilli Palmer, Constance Bennett, and Kay Francis.
Also, Ann Sheridan, Constance Talmadge, Irene Dunne, Colleen Moore, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Jean Arthur, [...]

Honorary Oscars Bypass Women

Mary Pickford

At the 1936 Academy Awards ceremony, D. W. Griffith became the first individual to win an Honorary Award for his body of work. Seventy-one years and 77 (my count*) Honorary Oscar winners later, a mere eight women have been recognized for their cinematic oeuvre. The chosen 8 — 6 of them actresses, plus one actress-producer — are: Greta Garbo (at the 1955 ceremony), Lillian Gish (1971), actress-producer Mary Pickford (1976), editor Margaret Booth (1978), Barbara Stanwyck (1982), Myrna Loy (1991), Sophia Loren (1991), and Deborah Kerr (1994).
Considering the amount of female talent that has gone un-honored these past seven decades, I find it impossible not to believe that the Board of Governors of the Academy of [...]

Oscar 2007: Ennio Morricone to Receive Honorary Academy Award

Over his 45-year career, prolific composer-conductor Ennio Morricone has created more than 500 scores for both films and television — including my all-time favorite movie score, the Once Upon a Time in the West ballad.
He will finally be given his Oscar due on February 25, 2007, when he’ll be picking up an Honorary Academy Award for his contributions to film art. More than a film composer, Morricone has been frequently the lone savior of poor films made bearable — at times even memorable — merely because of his compositions.
Thus far, Morricone has earned five Academy Award nominations for original score — for Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Bugsy (1991) and Malena [...]

Oscar 2006: Robert Altman to Receive Honorary Oscar

Iconoclastic director-producer-writer Robert Altman, 80, will be the next recipient of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Honorary Award, to be presented at the the 2006 Academy Awards ceremony next March 5. The Honorary Award will be given to Altman for "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike."
Altman has never won an Oscar despite five Academy Award nominations for directing — for M*A*S*H (1970), Nashville (1975), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), and Gosford Park (2001) — in addition to nominations as a producer of best picture nominees Nashville and Gosford Park.
In the last 55 years, he has directed nearly 90 features, made-for-TV movies, and episodes from [...]

Oscar 2005: Sidney Lumet to Receive Honorary Award

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Board of Governors has chosen director Sidney Lumet, 80, as the next recipient of the Honorary Oscar. The award, in honor of Lumet’s "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers and the art of the motion picture," will be presented at the 77th Academy Awards ceremony on February 27, 2005.
Lumet, who made his feature-film début in 1957, has been nominated four times for a best directing Academy Award: 12 Angry Men (1957), starring Henry Fonda; Dog Day Afternoon (top photo, 1975), starring Al Pacino; Network (1976), starring William Holden, Peter Finch, and Faye Dunaway; and The Verdict (1982), starring Paul Newman.
Lumet (along with Jay Presson Allen) was [...]

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