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Academy To Award Thalberg to Coppola, Honorary Oscars to Brownlow, Godard, Wallach

by Anne Thompson | August 25, 2010 4:29 AM
5 Comments

Thompson on Hollywood
The Motion Picture Academy's board of governors took a vote Tuesday night on this year's honorary Oscar winners, and came up with a remarkable list.

The coveted Irving G. Thalberg award goes to director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather saga). Honorary awards will go to Brit historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, who wrote the must-read silent cinema text The Parade's Gone By and restored Abel Gance's Napoleon; French critic-turned-director and grand semiotician Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Contempt); and actor Eli Wallach (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), who at age 94 turned in a canny cameo in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer this year and also stars in Oliver Stone's upcoming Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Thompson on Hollywood
I look forward to the awards dinner on November 13 at the Kodak Theatre. Last year's inaugural event, honoring the likes of Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis and Roger Corman, was a night to remember. This year, ex-Academy president Sid Ganis and the co-producer of the next Academy Awards, Don Mischer, will produce. Stated Academy President Tom Sherak:
“Each of these honorees has touched movie audiences worldwide and influenced the motion picture industry through their work. It will be an honor to celebrate their extraordinary achievements and contributions at the Governors Awards.”

Here's more:

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 Thalberg Award, a bust of the motion picture executive, is given to "a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production."

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5 Comments

  • M | August 26, 2010 5:44 AMReply

    I hate to see Godard and his work sullied by the stain of mainstream approval...

  • Tom Brueggemann | August 25, 2010 7:54 AMReply

    Day is not receiving a Governors' award. The link is for a petition to ask that she get one.

  • Brian | August 25, 2010 7:00 AMReply

    Doris Day? I am soooo there!!! They better show lots of clips, esp. from LOVER COME BACK.

  • dsinla | August 25, 2010 6:32 AMReply

    Join the facebook page: Doris Day to be (finally) Honored by the Oscars? http://www.facebook.com/pages/Doris-Day-to-be-finally-Honored-by-the-Oscars/121899117830151?ref=mf

  • Tom Brueggemann | August 25, 2010 5:09 AMReply

    The idea of Tom Sherak and Jean-Luc Godard in the same paragraph is surreal. Godard of course turned down a New York Film Critics' special awards some year ago. The reading of his letter of rejection was a highlight of that year's ceremony. I am thrilled about Eli Wallach's award. He is a treasure. Also, it is almost unheard of for someone who was primarily a character/supporting actor to be so honored. Brownlow is unexpected, but a really deserving choice as well.

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