Honorary Oscars

Mister Tee
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Post by Mister Tee »

Sonic Youth wrote:I'd have thought Godard would be the last person to care when the honorary awards are given out. Or if the Academy Awards are held at all.

Now that we know he's an Oscar affectionado, could someone ask him his opinion about expanding the Best Picture field to ten nominees?
Hipster writers have long had this desperate fantasy that some iconoclast will use Oscar night to tell the Academy to stick it. But, so far, the most unlikely people have turned out to go just as squishy for the Oscars as the Hollywood crowd. Altman was thrilled by his honorary prize, and Bob Dylan supposedly keeps his songwriting Oscar in his dressing room while he tours. If Godard is aboard, who is there to possibly play the skunk at the party?

We're all Oscar whores. (God knows I would be, too)
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Post by Sonic Youth »

I'd have thought Godard would be the last person to care when the honorary awards are given out. Or if the Academy Awards are held at all.

Now that we know he's an Oscar affectionado, could someone ask him his opinion about expanding the Best Picture field to ten nominees?
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Post by jack »

I agree.

I only saw the highlights from last years Governors Ball, and it all seemed too rehearsed even for the Oscars. Gordon Willis presentation was the only one I enjoyed watching.

I still don't understand why they moved the Honorary Awards to their own presentation. Bafta have done this for decades, but it was always for a very respected cinema figure like Hitchcock, Lean, Spielberg etc... It was a slight embarrassing watching the Oscars this year seeing Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman grudgingly stand as their names were called for the new blood to applaud them. They both seemed uncomfortable to me. Give the recipients their standing ovation from the Kodak Theatre. They deserve it. Not just because of Goddard.

And by-the-by I think Al Pacino will present Coppola with Thalberg. It should be George Lucas, but I would bet Pacino will be at the podium.
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Post by Hustler »

I support Goddard on that decission You know. Honorary distinctions should be given on the annual ceremony. The more people will reject the offering, the more chance to get back to normal will be.
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Post by OscarGuy »

I think it's the opposite of what this article suggests. That it's because it's a separate ceremony that Godard will go. He'll have much longer to make a speech, won't be beholden to Hollywood's penchant for playing off speeches and keeping to time formats. I'd say the Governors Awards ceremony would be less Hollywood than the actual ceremony, which I would think would appeal to him greatly.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Jean Luc Godard may attend the Oscars after all.

Hmmm. Maybe he's tired of being thought of as a grouchy, reclusive misanthrope?
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Post by Big Magilla »

Well, no, he promises to write them a letter:

It is left to Anne-Marie Mieville, his partner in life and in work, to explain his feelings about the honour, which is also due to be bestowed on veteran American actor Eli Wallach, and British film historian Kevin Brownlow, at a ceremony in November.

"He just told me, 'It's not the Oscars,' " she says, referring to his reaction on learning about the award. "At first he thought it was going to be part of the same ceremony, then he realised it was a separate thing in November."

Not that it would make any difference. "Jean-Luc won't go to America, he's getting old for that kind of thing. Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?"

She says it is likelier that "someone from his production team" will be there to represent him, and she rejects suggestions that his silence is a snub to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or a reflection of his well-documented scorn for Hollywood values.

"He will reply to the letter," Mieville insists.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

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Post by Big Magilla »

The article was written by Steve Pond for The Wrap prior to the announcment. Here it is:

Before Tuesday has ended, three or four people will win Academy Awards.

The process will involve some quiet head-to-head competition behind closed doors, but only a genteel level of campaigning. The winners won't know the names of the people they beat, and the losers won't know they were even in the running.

But the special meeting of the Academy's Board of Governors will choose the recipients of the 2010 Governors Awards, and result in three or four industry veterans taking home shiny new Oscar statuettes (and perhaps an Irving Thalberg and/or Jean Hersholt award as well) at a ceremony on Nov. 13.

2009 Governors Award winnersPredictions are risky, but honorees could range from Doris Day to Brian Grazer, Tony Curtis to Robert Evans.

Under new rules that were passed last year when the Governors Awards were moved off the Oscar telecast to their own non-televised show, the first three honorary awards require only a majority vote of the 43 governors; the fourth requires a three-fourths vote.

The new rules make it a virtual certainty that three people will be chosen as Oscar recipients, and a likelihood that the slate will be made up of four, as it was last year at the first Governors Awards ceremony.

The awards come in three categories: the Irving Thalberg Award, which is given to a producer for his body of work; the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, awarded for charitable or humanitarian efforts; and the most-awarded of the three, the Honorary Academy Award, which honors a career in any aspect of film.

Last year’s Governors Awards – a collegial affair in which informal toasts were given and there was no time limit on speeches – was extremely well-received within the Academy, making it likely that the governors will adopt a similar approach this year.

2009 Governors Awards went to actress Lauren Bacall, executive John Calley (who was given the Thalberg), producer Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis. A similar spread would result in one award to a veteran actor who’d been overlooked in the past, one to below-the-line talent, probably a Thalberg as well.

So who’s in the running? The answer relies on guesswork – governors are free to nominate anyone still alive and not on the board, and runners-up are never announced.

But among actors who have yet to be rewarded, Doris Day is perhaps the most frequently mentioned, and the subject of the most concerted campaigning outside the Academy. Drawbacks: AMPAS tends to ignore outside campaigning, and the reclusive Day is probably a longshot to attend.

Other actors who’ve been mentioned include Tony Curtis, Albert Finney, Christopher Plummer, Jeanne Moreau, Debbie Reynolds, Maureen O’Hara and Max Von Sydow; none are slam dunks, but a passionate governor could make a persuasive case for any of them.

In the crowded competition for a Thalberg award, Alan Ladd Jr. and Brian Grazer have been mentioned as possible recipients in the past, though James Ivory, Scott Rudin, Robert Evans and even James Cameron could be in the running.

(Given Pixar’s track record, John Lasseter seems to be a no-brainer pick for this particular award when he leaves the board.)

With Willis’ selection last year, another cinematographer is unlikely; look, instead, maybe an editor (though Dede Allen’s death in April robbed the Academy of an easy pick) or a documentarian (Albert Maysles?) or, given current trends in cinema, a special effects pioneer like Douglas Trumbull.

The board could look outside the United States to an influential European director – though it’s hard to imagine, say, Jean-Luc Godard not making a point of rejecting the honor. (Would Alain Resnais be more accommodating?)

They could look at the Academy Awards show itself, and decide that since Gil Cates doesn’t appear to be on the producers’ shortlist anymore, they should reward him as the man who righted the ceremony in the aftermath of the Allan Carr disaster, and produced more Oscar shows than anyone else.

Or they could turn to the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and consider the likes of Mia Farrow.

It’ll all happen in a few rounds of voting at Tuesday evening’s board meeting. The meeting begins, according to those who’ve participated, with each governor given a chance to nominate candidates.

Usually, around 10 people are nominated, and the names placed on a board without regard to whether they’ve been put up for the Hersholt, Thalberg or Honorary Oscar.

Each governor then votes electronically for the person they think is most deserving. But the person with the most votes isn’t an automatic Oscar winner – he or she simply moves on to a second round of voting, in which a single question is put before the governors: Do you support giving an Oscar to this candidate? If 22 of the 43 governors (assuming a full house) vote yes, an Oscar is awarded.

The process then begins again: an initial vote narrows the remaining candidates to one, and a second vote decides the fate of that one.

So it goes, until the candidates don’t get enough votes, or until the limit is reached. (From 2002 through 2008, that limit was two honoraries in a single year; now, it’s four.)

And once the limit is reached and the meeting comes to an end, the winners will be revealed.

The Governors Awards ceremony will take place at the Grand Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center. The show will be produced by former Academy president Sid Ganis, and by Don Mischer Productions.
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Post by dbensics »


Here's an article about how the Academy picks Honorary Oscars.

Hello Anonymous:

I'm on a computer loaded with IE6 and am unable to connect to this website. Would you be kind enough to post the text of the article here.

Thank-you
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Post by dbensics »

Before the inception of last year's Governor's night to present honorary Oscars, it seemed that the Academy limited the number of these awards to about two a year, maybe three max.

Neither the Hersholt or the Thalberg were given every year.

However, every year there was an honorary actor/actress/director who received an Oscar.

Now, with this new system, it seems that to justify a separate evening the Academy is going to make it standard to give four honoraries a year.

To me, that seems like too much.

But then again, I'm still against the 10 nominees for Best Picture.

My motto is...don't dilute the brand.
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Post by Cinemanolis »

Goddard's reply to the NYFCC IN 1995.

http://filmbrain.tumblr.com/post....e-nyfcc
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Well, thanks to the Oscar's official Youtube page, Jean Renoir and Ingmar Bergman also did not show up for their respective honorary awards (an Honorary Oscar and a Thalberg respectively). They did, however, accept it.
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Post by rain Bard »

I hear he's a friendster loyalist.

Seriously, I'm sure he must be aware of the decision. He's probably also aware that to accept the award like most anyone else would, only would help to deflate the Godard mystique. He probably figures the Academy would benefit from the approval of his acceptance more than he would from its honor.

I just think it's terrific that they've picked Brownlow. Since they're putting him in the same room with Francis Ford Coppola, perhaps the pair can hammer out a way for Brownlow's restoration of Abel Gance's Napoleon to be released in the U.S., where it's long been unavailable out of some kind of misplaced respect for Carmine Coppola's 1981 score to a much shorter cut of that film.
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Post by Greg »

I take it Godard doesn't have a Facebook or MySpace page. :D
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