The Governors Awards presentation is an annual award ceremony hosted by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

(AMPAS), at the Grand Ballroom of the

Hollywood and Highland Center Ovation Hollywood (formerly Hollywood & Highland) is a shopping center and entertainment complex in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, United States. Located at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, the ...

, in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Three awards that signify lifetime achievement within the film industry – the

Academy Honorary Award The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of M ...

, the

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) at the Governors Awards ceremonies for an individual's "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes". Prior to 2009 and i ...

, and the

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Governors Awards ceremonies to "creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion pictur ...

– are presented at this ceremony. The first Governors Awards ceremony was held on November 14, 2009. Prior to this, these three awards were formally presented during the main

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

ceremony, which now conducts a short mention and appearance of the awards recipients after displaying a montage of the Governors Awards presentation. In the years since, the awards have gained prominence as a major red-carpet destination and industry event.

Description and history

The Governors Awards are one of five award ceremonies hosted by AMPAS, along with the

Academy Scientific and Technical Award The Scientific and Technical Awards are three different Honorary Awards that are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) during the annual Academy Awards season. The Awards have been presented since the 4th Academy Awards ...

s, Academy

Student Academy Awards The Student Academy Awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an annual competition for college and university filmmakers. Description The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first ...

, the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, and the main Oscars. The

(every year),

(some years), and

(some years) are presented at the ceremony. The Governors Awards are held the November or December before the main Academy Awards ceremony, usually held in February or March the following year. The Awards are not voted upon but, rather, are presented at the discretion of the Academy. The Academy Honorary Awards and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards are both Oscar statuettes, while the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is a small bust of Thalberg on a plinth. The Academy Honorary Award is given for "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy". The Thalberg Award is given to "a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production". The board members of AMPAS had previously been concerned about awarding more than one or two Honorary Academy Awards each year for fear of lengthening the main Academy Awards presentation but, in most iterations of the Governors Awards to date, they have awarded three Honorary Academy Awards. So far in the history of the Governors Awards, the Hersholt Award and the Thalberg Award have always been given on separate years. The smaller presentation of the Governors Awards was designed to invoke the feel of the early Academy Award ceremonies. During the event, several notable colleagues of the awardees give them tributes before they make an acceptance speech. Though the event has not been televised, thus far, the Academy posted most of the speeches for the 2013 and 2014 events online. Since its inception, the event has become a major red-carpet stop for many prospective Oscar hopefuls, including actors and filmmakers, and is, in some ways, the first major stop of the seasonal Awards Circuit.

Ceremonies and honorees

1st Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 1st Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 14, 2009. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award:

Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

, and Gordon Willis * Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: John Calley

2nd Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 2nd Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 13, 2010. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award: Kevin Brownlow,

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...

, and

Eli Wallach Eli Herschel Wallach (; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. From his 1945 Broadway debut to his last film appearance, Wallach's entertainment career spanned 65 years. Origina ...

* Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award:

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five ...

3rd Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 3rd Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 12, 2011. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award:

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

and Dick Smith * Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Oprah Winfrey

4th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 4th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on December 1, 2012. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award: D. A. Pennebaker,

Hal Needham Hal Brett Needham (March 6, 1931 – October 25, 2013) was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast ...

and

George Stevens Jr. George Cooper Stevens Jr. (born April 3, 1932) is an American writer, playwright, director, and producer. He is the founder of the American Film Institute, creator of the AFI Life Achievement Award, and co-creator of the Kennedy Center Honors. H ...

* Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and ...

5th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 5th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 16, 2013. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award:

Angela Lansbury Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American film, stage, and television actress. Her career spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States, and her work received a great deal ...

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominat ...

and

Piero Tosi Piero Tosi (10 April 1927 – 10 August 2019) was an Italian costume designer. Biography Tosi's film credits include '' Senso'', ''Bellissima'', ''The Leopard'', ''Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'', ''Death in Venice'', ''The Night Porter'', and ...

* Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...

6th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 6th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 8, 2014. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award:

Jean-Claude Carrière Jean-Claude Carrière (; 17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing ''Heureux Anniversaire'' (1963), and was later conferred an Honorary ...

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

, and

Maureen O'Hara Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural redhead who was known for pl ...

* Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internat ...

7th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 7th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 14, 2015. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs gave a speech in support of France following the

November 2015 Paris attacks The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bomber ...

the day before. The following awards were presented. * Academy Honorary Award:

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

and Gena Rowlands * Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...

(who was not able to attend; her granddaughter Billie Lourd accepted on her behalf)

8th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 8th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 12, 2016, and presented the following awards: * Academy Honorary Award:

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

Anne V. Coates Anne Voase Coates (12 December 1925 – 8 May 2018) was a British film editor with a more than 60-year-long career. She was perhaps best known as the editor of David Lean's epic film ''Lawrence of Arabia'' in 1962, for which she won an Oscar. C ...

Lynn Stalmaster Lynn Arlen Stalmaster (November 17, 1927 – February 12, 2021) was an American casting director. He was noted as the first casting director to be conferred an Academy Award, having received an Honorary Oscar in 2016. Early life Stalmaster was ...

and Frederick Wiseman

9th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 9th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 11, 2017, and presented the following awards: * Academy Honorary Award: Agnès Varda, Charles Burnett,

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) a ...

and Owen Roizman

10th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 10th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 18, 2018, and presented the following awards: * Academy Honorary Award:

Cicely Tyson Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical eleme ...

and Marvin Levy * Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall

11th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 11th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on October 27, 2019, and presented the following awards: * Academy Honorary Award:

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

Wes Studi Wesley Studi ( chr, ᏪᏌ ᏍᏚᏗ; born December 17, 1947) is a Native American ( Cherokee Nation) actor and film producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and awards throughout his career, particularly for his portrayal of Native American ...

, and

Lina Wertmüller Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich (14 August 1928 – 9 December 2021), known as Lina Wertmüller (), was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art house films '' Seven Beaut ...

* Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Geena Davis Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor

12th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 12th Annual Governors Awards ceremony in on March 25, 2022. The following awards were presented: * Academy Honorary Award: Samuel L. Jackson,

Elaine May Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She has received numerous awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and a Tony. She made her initial impact in the 1950s with h ...

, and

Liv Ullmann Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress and film director. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses of all time, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent partner of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She acted in ...

* Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Danny Glover Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the '' Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films inclu ...

On December 22, 2021, the AMPAS announced that due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

-related concerns—involving the widespread surge of the Omicron variant in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

—that it "made the decision to change plans for hosting the ceremony in person on January 15, 2022," with a new date to be announced. The ceremony would afterwards be held on the newly scheduled date of March 25, 2022.

13th Annual Governors Awards

The Academy held its 13th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 19, 2022. * Academy Honorary Award: Peter Weir,

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has received several awards including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three ''Billboard'' Music Awards and an Honorary Academy Award. War ...

and Euzhan Palcy * Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Michael J. Fox

Associated events

(February or March) *

s (about two weeks before the Academy Awards ceremony) * Academy

* Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting

References

External links

* {{Academy Awards 2009 establishments in California Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards established in 2009