In order to try and speed up the main Oscar ceremony, last year they moved most of the honorary awards out of spring shebang and into their own Governors Awards ceremony in the autumn. The Oscar body, AMPAS, has now announced who will receive this year’s honorary Oscars, with Francis Ford Coppola, Eli Wallach, French director Jean-Luc Godard and preservationist Kevin Brownlow getting the gongs.
Coppola, a five time Oscar winner in the competitive categories, will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given to a producer for his or her body of work. While best known as a writer and director, Coppola also founded American Zoetrope, which has produced over 30 movies, as well as helping to introduce the work of little known but very talented foreign directors to western audiences.
The others three will receive honorary Academy Awards. 94-year-old Eli Wallack will be honored for his 60-year career, which has taken in everything from Baby Doll and The Good The Bad And The Ugly, to the more recent The Ghost and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Godard is, of course, a lauded director and critic, with his award coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his seminal Breathless. Brownlow is a far less well known name, but he’s done a huge amount to both study and preserve films from the silent era, ensuring numerous movies haven’t been lost forever, as well a writing books and documentaries that look into cinema’s past.
The awards will be handed out on November 13th.