Governors Awards
The annual Governor’s Awards, where honorary awards are presented by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, are usually a celebration. This year’s 15th edition was a happy occasion too, but it was muted by the fact that one of the honorees, Quincy Jones, died on Nov. 3, just two weeks before the awards […]
Quincy Jones is set to receive an honorary Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ 15th Governors Awards on Sunday, Nov. 17, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood. This year’s other honorees, voted on by the Academy’s board of governors, are casting director Juliet Taylor; filmmaker and philanthropist Richard Curtis (the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award) and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, best known for the James Bond franchise (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award).
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“The recipients of this year’s Governors Awards have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers, and the Academy’s board of governors is thrilled to recognize them with Oscars,” Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement. Of Jones, she added, “Quincy Jones’ artistic genius and relentless creativity have made him one of the most influential musical figures of all time.”
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This is the second honorary Oscar for Jones, 91, who was voted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994. Jones accepted that award on the Oscar telecast in 1995 from his longtime friend Oprah Winfrey. He said in part, “This moment, this evening, this spot where I stand tonight was not my destination when I was young and full of vinegar. I did not engineer this journey. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I could even see this far. And now that I’m older and full of wonder, I can see that maybe other forces were at the wheel.”
Jones has received seven Oscar nominations, but has yet to win a competitive Oscar (which is the reason he is not officially an EGOT). Nonetheless, Jones has made Oscar history many times. He was the first Black musician to be hired as music director on the annual Oscar telecast.
In 1967, Jones became the first Black composer to receive an Oscar nomination for best original song for “The Eyes of Love” from Banning. (His collaborator, Bob Russell, was the first Black lyricist to be nominated.) That same year, Jones became only the third Black composer to be nominated in a scoring category, for In Cold Blood. (The first two Black composers to land scoring nods were Duke Ellington, for Paris Blues, and Calvin Jackson, for The Unsinkable Molly Brown).
Jones has received two more nods in scoring categories, for The Wiz (1978) and The Color Purple (1985). He has also received two more nods for best original song, for the title song from For Love of Ivy (which he also co-wrote with Russell) and “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)” from The Color Purple. Jones is, to this day, the only Black composer with three nods in scoring categories. He is one of two Black songwriters with three nods for best original song. (The other is Lionel Richie, one of his collaborators on “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister).”)
Jones received a seventh Oscar nod as a producer of the 1985 film The Color Purple.
He has won all of the other major entertainment awards – 28 Grammys (spanning from 1964 to 2019), a Primetime Emmy (for composing music for the landmark 1977 miniseries Roots) and a Tony (for serving as a producer of the revival of The Color Purple in 2016).
Of the other honorees, Yang said: “The selection of Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli is a testament to their success as producers of the fan-favorite Bond series and their contribution to the industry’s theatrical landscape. Richard Curtis is a brilliant comedic storyteller whose tremendous charitable efforts embody the meaning of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Juliet Taylor has cast iconic and beloved films and paved a new path for the field. Their profound love of cinema and indelible contribution to our art form make these five individuals truly deserving of these honors.”
Curtis’ film credits include Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually. He received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Four Weddings and a Funeral. Curtis is the co-founder of Comic Relief U.K. and USA; his fundraising work over 40 years has helped raise more than $2 billion. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty History and helped produce the Live 8 concerts. Most recently, he co-founded the group Project Everyone, giving practical support to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and established the ethical investment campaign Make My Money Matter.
Taylor is a prolific casting director who is behind some of the most acclaimed casts in film history. Some notable credits from her 50-year career include Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, Big, Sleepless in Seattle and Schindler’s List. She has worked with directors including James L. Brooks, Nora Ephron, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Wilson and Broccoli of EON Productions are producers of the James Bond film series. They have produced some of the most successful 007 films ever, including including Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die. (The last-three named films all yielded Oscar winners for best original song, for Adele‘s “Skyfall,” Sam Smith‘s “Writing’s on the Wall” and Billie Eilish‘s “No Time to Die,” respectively.) Wilson and Broccoli are directors of the Broccoli Foundation, founded by Dana and Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli to support the arts, medicine and education. Cubby Broccoli received the Thalberg Award in 1981. Barbara Broccoli is the second woman to receive the Thalberg Award (following filmmaker Kathleen Kennedy in 2018).
The Honorary Award is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences of any discipline, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities.”
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is presented to creative producers “whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”
You may not be able to catch her now, but the Oscars just might be able to.
As awards season kicks into high gear, Olivia Rodrigo has her sights set on the Academy Awards. At the Academy’s 14th annual Governors Awards on Tuesday, the Grammy-winner dished on the Oscar chances for her song “Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and her plans for her upcoming 21st birthday.
“It’s so incredible,” Rodrigo gushed to Access Hollywood of her Hunger Games prequel track making the Academy’s shortlist for best original song. “There’s just so many people on that list who I’m inspired by, so many songs that I think are incredible, so it’s an honor.”
Rodrigo, alongside go-to collaborator Dan Nigro, co-wrote and performed “Can’t Catch Me Now” for the box-office-topping Hunger Games prequel starring Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, Hunter Schafer and Tom Blyth. The haunting Americana-inflected track reached No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the 2023 Hollywood Music in Media Awards, “Can’t Catch Me Now” won best original song in a sci-fi, fantasy or horror film.
In addition to “Can’t Catch Me Now,” other notable songs on the Academy’s shortlist include Billie Eilish‘s “What Was I Made For?” (from Barbie) — which won the equivalent Golden Globe Award on Sunday — Fantasia‘s “Superpower (I)” (from The Color Purple), The Osage Tribe’s “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” (from Killers of the Flower Moon) and Jon Batiste‘s “It Never Went Away” (from American Symphony).
Although she finds herself among stiff competition, Rodrigo didn’t write her Hunger Games track with the intention of entering the Oscar race. “I think that if I was writing a song and thought about how other people were gonna hear it, I just would be so overcome by anxiety that I couldn’t write at all,” she told Access Hollywood. “So I try to kind of block that all out and just write for me.”
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Later on the red carpet, the “Traitor” singer spilled her birthday plans to Entertainment Tonight. “It is a big birthday,” she said. “I think I’m gonna have a party with my friends and pop some champagne, you know? It’s the 21st!” The multihyphenate turns 21 next month (Feb. 20), but she says Vegas isn’t quite in her line of sight yet. “I’ll save that. I’ll save that for later,” she said.
Shortly before her birthday, Rodrigo will enjoy the 66th annual Grammy Awards, where she boasts six nominations, including in album of the year (Guts) and record and song of the year (“Vampire”). The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum already has three Golden Gramophones to her name; she took home best new artist, best pop vocal album (Sour) and best pop solo performance (“Drivers License”) at the 2022 ceremony.
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Diane Warren has famously gone 0-13 at the Academy Awards in the best original song category, but on Saturday Nov. 19, she finally won an Oscar, albeit an honorary one, at the 13th Governors Awards put on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The event, which also honored directors Peter Weir and Euzhan Palcy and film and TV star Michael J. Fox, was held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
“I’ve waited 34 years to say this: ‘I’d like to thank the Academy’,” Warren said in her acceptance speech. She also joked, “Mom, I finally found a man.” Gazing at the Oscar statue, she added, “I know you wanted him to be a nice Jewish boy, but it’s really hard to tell.”
Cher presented Warren with the award and stayed close during Warren’s acceptance speech. Warren expressed her appreciation, but in a humorous way: “Cher doesn’t go east of the 405 for anybody.” (Warren wrote Cher’s biggest and best hit of the 1980s, “If I Could Turn Back Time,” as well as her showcase song in the 2010 film Burlesque, “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me.”)
Warren has been called the Susan Lucci of the Oscars because she has lost so many times. But on Saturday, Warren framed it differently. “13 times my songs have been chosen. That’s a pretty big f—ing win.”
Warren, 66, is one of only nine songwriters in Oscar history to amass 13 or more nominations for best original song. And she is the first person primarily known as a songwriter to receive an honorary Oscar. Previous honorary Oscars have been awarded to three famed film composers — Alex North, Lalo Schifrin and Ennio Morricone. These awards date back to 1950.
Warren remembered seeing Born Free, with John Barry’s Oscar-winning song and score, in 1966 (when she was 10). “It wrecked me,” she said. “It showed me the beauty of music in the movies.”
Warren’s speech was preceded by a tribute film (produced by Bess Kargman) that included insightful comments from Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Clive Davis, Quincy Jones and more.
Many praised Warren’s fierce work ethnic. David Foster, who produced Dion’s recording of “Because You Loved Me,” said “Work is all she knows. Work is all she cares about. She writes this stuff by herself in this miserable room of hers.” The visual was of a cluttered room that was indeed less grand than you might expect for such a successful songwriter.
In the film, Cher noted with amusement that Warren always tells her, for every song she writes, “This is the best song I have ever written.”
Jennifer Hudson marveled, “I’ve never met or seen anyone that passionate about what they do.”
Jones simply said “She’s a mother f—er. My kind of girl.”
Warren has a ways to go to become the female with the most Oscar nominations. Legendary fashion designer Edith Head amassed 35. But you wouldn’t want to bet against the tireless Warren.
Woody Harrelson presented the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 29. In 2000, Fox launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which is the leading Parkinson’s organization in the world. Fox, 61, thanked, among others, Bruce Springsteen for his 1984 song “No Surrender,” which, Fox said, has been “a personal anthem” for him.
Jeff Bridges presented an honorary award to Weir, the director of such films as The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Like Warren, Weir has been a perennial Oscar bridesmaid. He has gone 0-6 at the awards, despite four nominations for directing, one for writing and one for best picture. Weir is 78 and retired.
Viola Davis presented an honorary award to Palcy, who was hailed as the first Black woman to direct a major Hollywood film. Palcy, 64, directed Sugar Cane Alley and A Dry White Season. (Mindy Kaling, who opened the show with some witty remarks, said of A Dry White Season: “Until recently that’s what I called awards season.”)
The four honorees reflect the Academy’s stepped-up global outlook. Weir was born in Australia; Palcy in the French West Indies, Fox in Canada and Warren in the U.S.
The honorary award is given “to honor 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 is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”
Jennifer Fox produced the event for the fourth year. Rob Paine was supervising producer. The show was directed by Jonathan X and written by Jon Macks. Rickey Minor served as music director.
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