On Sunday night time, 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 business legends.
The fifteenth Governors Awards’ highest profile honoree, composer/producer Quincy Jones, was celebrated posthumously, having handed away on Nov. 3 on the age of 91. Essentially the most shifting a part of the night got here towards the tip, 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 browse the speech that he had deliberate to present on the ceremony.
An honorary Oscar was additionally introduced to the casting director Juliet Taylor, who’s greatest recognized for casting dozens of Woody Allen’s motion pictures, making her solely the second member of her occupation ever to obtain the popularity, after the late Lynn Stalmaster. Producers/siblings Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the guardians of the Bond movie franchise, had been feted with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. And filmmaker Richard Curtis, who’s greatest recognized for rom-coms, was celebrated with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
The honorees, as all the time, had 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 with out saying that we live throughout 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 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 type of unofficial emcee, welcoming everybody and likewise acknowledging the tumultuous political second in America: “Tonight, we are going to encourage one another to simply preserve going. … What we do makes a distinction on this world. … The dreamer and optimist in me believes that movies can breach the deep divides that exist in our nation. … We’re extra alike than unalike.” (He additionally jokingly pitched himself to Broccoli and Wilson — “Bond or Bond villain? You determine.”)
Taylor, who has forged greater than 100 movies, together with 43 of Allen’s relationship again to 1975’s Love and Demise, was the primary honoree summoned to the rostrum. Babygirl lead actress Nicole Kidman launched her, praising “the intuition of this girl” 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 truth 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 within the video — he appeared on-camera to supply just a few remarks — however Taylor made positive to acknowledge him in her speech, even when the viewers’s response was muted: “The director who actually modified my life along with his loyalty and his help was Woody Allen. From the start, he had confidence in me. He was all the time type and affected person and well mannered, and dealing with him was a casting director’s dream as a result of he was so open and so humble. I may be at liberty to throw out probably the most outlandish concepts, and Woody would simply elevate his eyebrows. And if he had an concept that I didn’t take to, I may say, ‘Oh, Woody, that’s a horrible concept.’ And he would simply snicker. I can’t inform you what an honor and a pleasure it has been to be part of his great world of filmmaking and to have him as a lifelong good friend.”
Taylor closed by thanking the board of governors for approving a casting Oscar that can debut in 2026, opining, “It’s been a very long time coming.”
James Bond himself — or no less than the latest 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 unique producer of the Bond movies (together with Harry Saltzman), who turned over producing duties to his youngsters within the early Nineties (they’ve presided over each installment within 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, “For those who got here right here this night to seek out out who the subsequent James Bond is, don’t have a look at me,” earlier than including, “He could also be on this room tonight!” He went on to say of Broccoli and Wilson, “They take dangers on individuals. They took an enormous threat on me.” In a video montage that adopted, fellow former Bond Pierce Brosnan, Bond ladies Léa Seydoux and Naomie Harris, and Bond villain Javier Bardem all gushed in regards to the siblings.
Wilson devoted the respect to all the previous Bonds — mentioning them by title — and to the hundreds of others who’ve labored on Bond movies and the hundreds of thousands who noticed them. “My sister Barbara is barely the second girl to be given this prestigious award,” he additionally famous (Kathleen Kennedy was the primary), earlier than turning to her and saying, “I’ve to say thanks to you for the help and inspiration you’ve given to me over the past 40 years.” She repaid the gratitude — “Thanks, Michael, for all the time placing up with me and supporting me” — and closed by addressing their late father, “Thanks, Daddy, for giving me the best life conceivable.”
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, Truly, hilariously launched the Hersholt recipient, noting that Curtis nearly nixed his participation within the former movie: “The one one that didn’t need me, and who took an instantaneous and violent dislike to me, was the author, and it’s this asshole that we honor tonight.” He additionally teased Curtis about receiving a Hersholt Award moderately than a aggressive Academy Award — “Would we name it an Oscar? It’s a sort of Oscar. It’s a better-than-nothing Oscar.” — earlier than proposing that they make yet another movie collectively “earlier than we get dragged and dropped to that nice ‘junk’ folder within the sky.” (He prompt the titles 4 Funerals and a Wedding 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 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 individuals. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty Historical past and helped produce the Dwell 8 live shows. And, most lately, he co-founded the group Undertaking 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 suggest his new movie — he’s on this new documentary referred to as The Heretic.” Turning extra critical, he devoted his award to charity employees world wide, and urged colleagues within the movie business to put aside a small portion of their funds for “impact-based” efforts like these mounted by the lately departed Participant Media. He stated they may make a distinction “for a similar amount of money that you just’d spend on just a few extra advertisements.”
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 referred to as the viewers to its toes to have fun “an unimaginable 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 actually outlined a complete century of tradition, spanning genres, jazz, disco, movie, pop, R&B, hip-hop. However the true thread in his music is that his music is all infused along with his love. That was his reward to us. So tonight, whenever you’re in your manner house, I invite you to pay attention, as a result of there’s a lot to hearken to.”