Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, editor Carol Littleton to receive honorary Oscars
Angela Bassett will receive an Oscar this year, after all.
The “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” star is among four people the academy’s board of governors will present honorary Oscars to at the Governors Awards later this year, the academy announced on Monday. Legendary writer, director, and actor Mel Brooks and acclaimed editor Carol Littleton will join Bassett as honorary Oscar winners. The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will go to the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter.
Bassett was a popular pick to win her first competitive Oscar this year for the Marvel sequel, but the actress lost Best Supporting Actress to “Everything Everywhere All At Once” co-star Jamie Lee Curtis. Bassett was a previous nominee for 1993’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” where she played Tina Turner. Other acclaimed performances for which she failed to receive academy recognition include “Malcolm X,” “Waiting to Exhale,” “Boyz N the Hood,” and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.”
Brooks, who turns 97 this week, won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for 1967’s “The Producers.” He received three Oscar nominations in total, including Best Original Song for “Blazing Saddles” and Best Adapted Screenplay for “Young Frankenstein.”
Littleton was an Oscar nominee for “E.T. the Extra-terrestrial” but her list of feature films runs deep with classics and well-regarded dramas, including “Body Heat,” “The Big Chill,” “Silverado,” “The Accidental Tourist,” Jonathan Demme’s remake of “The Manchurian Candidate,” and “Margot at the Wedding.” As the academy noted, Littleton was also a “governor of the academy’s Film Editors branch, president and vice president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and on the Board of Directors of American Cinema Editors.”
“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” said the academy’s president, Janet Yang. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her.”
Satter, who won the humanitarian honor, “is the founding senior director of the Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs, focused on the cultural impact of supporting independent storytellers. In her more than 40 years in this role at the nonprofit, she has discovered and fostered the careers of hundreds of notable and award-winning filmmakers, many from underrepresented communities,” the academy said in a press release. “She has also led the Sundance Institute’s international initiatives in Asia, Europe, India, Latin America, and the Middle East. She founded and oversees the vision and content of Sundance Collab, a global digital storytelling community and learning platform.”
“A pillar of the independent film community, Michelle Satter has played a vital role in the careers of countless filmmakers around the world,” Yang said of Satter.
Some background on these honors, per the academy: “The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given ‘to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.’”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is “also an Oscar statuette” and is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”
The 14th annual Governors Awards are set to take place on November 18.
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