After decades spent shaping modern movies without ever taking home a competitive Oscar, actor Glenn Close and director Ridley Scott will finally receive statuettes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this fall.
The academy announced Wednesday that Close and Scott will receive honorary Oscars at this year’s Governors Awards alongside pioneering animator Floyd Norman, while producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, co-founders of Killer Films, will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
The annual Governors Awards, launched in 2009, recognize lifetime achievement and significant contributions to filmmaking and the motion picture industry. The Thalberg Award honors producers whose bodies of work reflect consistently high-quality motion picture production.
Unlike the competitive Oscars handed out during the telecast, the honorary prizes are presented at a separate ceremony attended by film industry figures, academy members and awards season contenders.
Close, 79, one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation, has received eight Oscar nominations over her career, including for “Fatal Attraction,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Albert Nobbs” and “The Wife.”
Scott, 88, the architect of “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” whose striking visual style helped define modern blockbuster filmmaking, has scored nominations for directing “Thelma & Louise,” “Gladiator” and “Black Hawk Down,” while also earning a best picture nomination for “The Martian.”
Despite their long influence on Hollywood, both have frequently appeared on lists of prominent Oscar nominees never to win a competitive Academy Award.
The 90-year-old Norman, who began working at Disney in the 1950s, became the studio’s first Black animator, contributing to films including “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Jungle Book” and “Robin Hood.” His career has spanned more than six decades.
Vachon and Koffler have been central figures in American independent cinema for decades, backing such films as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Far From Heaven,” “Carol,” “First Reformed” and “Past Lives,” the last of which earned them their first best picture nomination in 2024.
The honors will be presented Nov. 15 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood during the academy’s 17th Governors Awards ceremony.
