LOS ANGELES.- Hollywood’s awards season may seem a little self-indulgent, but some of the biggest movie stars will gather tonight to honor someone other than themselves. Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett and film editor Carol Littleton will collect honorary statuettes from the scar at a private, non-televised dinner on Tuesday in Los Angeles in a ceremony almost as stellar as the Oscars themselves.
Michelle Satter, founder and director of Sundance Institute artist programs, will also receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The annual event is organized by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding careers and contributions to the industry. The Governors Awards were part of the televised Oscar ceremony, but became a separate gala in 2009, with heartfelt tributes from some of the honorees’ most beloved collaborators and no time limitations on speeches.
Most honorary Academy Award recipients have not won competitive Oscars, but Brooks is an exception. She won an Oscar for the original screenplay of The Producers. At that ceremony, in 1969, she said that she wanted to thank the Academy of Sciences and Arts and the money for this wonderful award.
The now 97-year-old filmmaker began his career writing for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, and for the next 70 years he wrote, directed, acted, produced film, television and Broadway theater, and wrote books, including his recent memoir. He is one of the rare EGOTs (artists who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards). He also received two other Oscar nominations, for writing the lyrics to John Morris’s song Blazing Saddles and another nomination for the screenplay for Young Frankenstein, which he shared with Gene Wilder.
Bassett, 65, whose credits include Boyz N the Hood, Malcolm X, Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, received his first nomination. Oscar for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (Tina) and her second last year for playing the grieving queen in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Littleton worked frequently with Lawrence Kasdan and Jonathan Demme, editing films such as Body Heat, The Big Chill, Swimming to Cambodia and The Manchurian Candidate. He received his first and only Oscar nomination for ET The Extra-Terrestrial, the only film he has edited for Steven Spielberg. She was married to cinematographer and former Academy president John Bailey, who died in November at age 81.
Meanwhile, Satter has directed the Sundance Institute’s artist programs for more than 40 years, helping filmmakers in the early stages of their careers, from Paul Thomas Anderson to Ryan Coogler. She also recently suffered a tragic death in the family: her son, Michael Latt, was murdered in December in Los Angeles. Latt, 33, was making a name for herself in the industry thanks to projects with filmmakers like Coogler and Ava DuVernay.
The event, which was delayed from its original November date due to the actors’ strike, is also a stop in the campaign for the season’s awards hopefuls. Voting for the 96th Oscars begins Thursday and nominations will be announced Jan. 23 for the March 10 ceremony. There will undoubtedly be a big turnout from the filmmakers and casts of Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, Maestro and other top contenders.
FUENTE: AP
