On Sunday evening, per annual custom, dozens of the present crop of prime Oscar contenders — amongst them Maria lead actress Angelina Jolie, Gladiator II lead actor Paul Mescal, The Substance lead actress Demi Moore, The Brutalist lead actor Adrien Brody and Emilia Pérez supporting actress Selena Gomez — turned up at Ovation Hollywood for the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards ceremony, a black-tie dinner at which the group presents particular awards to trade legends.
The fifteenth Governors Awards’ highest profile honoree, composer/producer Quincy Jones, was celebrated posthumously, having handed away on Nov. 3 at the age of 91. Essentially the most transferring a part of the night got here towards the finish, when Jones’ honorary Oscar statuette was accepted by his daughter, actress/author Rashida Jones, who, flanked by a few of her siblings, tearfully paid tribute to her father and learn the speech that he had deliberate to provide at the ceremony.
An honorary Oscar was additionally introduced to the casting director Juliet Taylor, who’s finest identified for casting dozens of Woody Allen’s motion pictures, making her solely the second member of her career ever to obtain the recognition, after the late Lynn Stalmaster. Producers/siblings Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the guardians of the Bond movie franchise, have been feted with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. And filmmaker Richard Curtis, who’s finest identified for rom-coms, was celebrated with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
The honorees, as at all times, have been chosen by the Academy’s board of governors, which incorporates 55 reps from throughout the branches of the group, and three governors-at-large. Present governors embrace the Oscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin, administrators Ava DuVernay and Jason Reitman, documentarian Chris Hegedus, execs Pam Abdy and Hannah Minghella, the Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, producer Jason Blum and the Oscar-winning author Eric Roth.
Academy president Janet Yang kicked off the occasion by seemingly acknowledging the presidential election of lower than two weeks in the past, remarking, “It goes without saying that we are living during a transformative time.” She went on to tease the 97th Academy Awards, set for March 2, 2025, and her reference to final week’s information that comic Conan O’Brien has been tapped to host drew enthusiastic applause from a crowd that included a large assortment of huge names — from Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence (EPs of the documentary Bread & Roses) to Mark Hamill (“Luke Skywalker” voiced a personality in The Wild Robotic) to Nineteen Nineties icons Pamela Anderson (lead actress of The Final Showgirl) and Sharon Stone.
Earlier than the presentation of awards received underway, Sing Sing lead actor Colman Domingo served as a kind of unofficial emcee, welcoming everybody and additionally acknowledging the tumultuous political second in America: “Tonight, we will inspire each other to just keep going. … What we do makes a difference in this world. … The dreamer and optimist in me believes that films can breach the deep divides that exist in our nation. … We are more alike than unalike.” (He additionally jokingly pitched himself to Broccoli and Wilson — “Bond or Bond villain? You decide.”)
Taylor, who has forged greater than 100 movies, together with 43 of Allen’s courting again to 1975’s Love and Dying, was the first honoree summoned to the podium. Babygirl lead actress Nicole Kidman launched her, praising “the instinct of this woman” who started her profession at 22 in 1968 as a receptionist for/assistant to the late, nice casting director Marion Dougherty. A video montage highlighted the indisputable fact that Taylor helped to launch the movie careers of Kidman, Diane Keaton, Linda Blair, Jodie Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Meryl Streep, June Squibb, Holly Hunter, Wallace Shawn and Nathan Lane, amongst others.
Taylor’s work with Allen, now a polarizing determine in and past Hollywood, was referenced solely glancingly in the video — he appeared on-camera to supply a couple of remarks — however Taylor made positive to acknowledge him in her speech, even when the viewers’s response was muted: “The director who really changed my life with his loyalty and his support was Woody Allen. From the beginning, he had confidence in me. He was always kind and patient and polite, and working with him was a casting director’s dream because he was so open and so humble. I could feel free to throw out the most outlandish ideas, and Woody would just raise his eyebrows. And if he had an idea that I didn’t take to, I could say, ‘Oh, Woody, that’s a terrible idea.’ And he would just laugh. I can’t tell you what an honor and a joy it has been to be a part of his wonderful world of filmmaking and to have him as a lifelong friend.”
Taylor closed by thanking the board of governors for approving a casting Oscar that can debut in 2026, opining, “It’s been a long time coming.”
James Bond himself — or no less than the most up-to-date inhabitant of the function, Queer lead actor Daniel Craig — presided over the presentation to Broccoli and Wilson of the Thalberg Award. The identical honor was beforehand introduced, in 1981, to their late father Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the authentic producer of the Bond movies (together with Harry Saltzman), who turned over producing duties to his youngsters in the early Nineteen Nineties (they’ve presided over each installment in the franchise since 1995’s GoldenEye) and died in 1996. By no means earlier than had the award gone to a number of generations of the identical household.
Craig started his feedback by cracking, “If you came here this evening to find out who the next James Bond is, don’t look at me,” earlier than including, “He may be in this room tonight!” He went on to say of Broccoli and Wilson, “They take risks on people. They took a big risk on me.” In a video montage that adopted, fellow former Bond Pierce Brosnan, Bond women Léa Seydoux and Naomie Harris, and Bond villain Javier Bardem all gushed about the siblings.
Wilson devoted the honor to all of the previous Bonds — mentioning them by identify — and to the 1000’s of others who’ve labored on Bond movies and the thousands and thousands who noticed them. “My sister Barbara is only the second woman to be given this prestigious award,” he additionally famous (Kathleen Kennedy was the first), earlier than turning to her and saying, “I have to say thank you to you for the support and inspiration you’ve given to me over the last 40 years.” She repaid the gratitude — “Thank you, Michael, for always putting up with me and supporting me” — and closed by addressing their late father, “Thank you, Daddy, for giving me the greatest life imaginable.”
Heretic lead actor Hugh Grant, who was the star of the Curtis-written 1994 movie 4 Weddings and a Funeral and the Curtis written and directed 2003 movie Love, Really, hilariously launched the Hersholt recipient, noting that Curtis virtually nixed his participation in the former movie: “The only person who didn’t want me, and who took an instant and violent dislike to me, was the writer, and it is this asshole that we honor tonight.” He additionally teased Curtis about receiving a Hersholt Award reasonably than a aggressive Academy Award — “Would we call it an Oscar? It’s a kind of Oscar. It’s a better-than-nothing Oscar.” — earlier than proposing that they make another movie collectively “before we get dragged and dropped to that great ‘junk’ folder in the sky.” (He advised the titles 4 Funerals and a Marriage ceremony and Bridget Jones’s Diaper.)
A Julia Roberts-narrated video highlighted the voluminous philanthropic efforts that led to the Academy tapping Curtis for the Hersholt. The Brit can also be the co-founder of Comedian Reduction UK and USA, and his fundraising work over 40 years has helped elevate greater than $2 billion and supported over 170 million folks. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty Historical past and helped produce the Reside 8 live shows. And, most not too long ago, he co-founded the group Venture Everybody, giving sensible help to the UN’s Sustainable Improvement Objectives, and established the moral funding marketing campaign Make My Cash Matter, which has helped switch £1.3 trillion into sustainable pensions.
Curtis accepted his award from Grant and teased him proper again: “I do recommend his new film — he’s in this new documentary called The Heretic.” Turning extra severe, he devoted his award to charity employees round the world, and urged colleagues in the movie trade to put aside a small portion of their finances for “impact-based” efforts like these mounted by the not too long ago departed Participant Media. He stated they may make a distinction “for the same amount of cash that you’d spend on a few more ads.”
Then got here the phase of the night dedicated to Quincy Jones, who, throughout his 70-year profession, had garnered seven aggressive Oscar nominations and was introduced with the Hersholt Award in 1994. Jamie Foxx known as the viewers to its toes to rejoice “an incredible 91 years” and did a spot-on impression of “Q” that had Jones’s youngsters howling. That was adopted by a musical tribute from Jennifer Hudson, which was greeted with a standing ovation. After which got here the remarks of Rashida Jones, who stated of her father: “His music has literally defined an entire century of culture, spanning genres, jazz, disco, film, pop, R&B, hip-hop. But the real thread in his music is that his music is all infused with his love. That was his gift to us. So tonight, when you’re on your way home, I invite you to listen, because there’s so much to listen to.”
