Mel Brooks. Visual China Data Map
On January 10, local time in the United States, the Oscar honorary awards were first awarded. Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett, Carol Littleton, and Michelle Sartre, four highly respected filmmakers who have been working in their respective fields for decades, received their own statuettes.
Once upon a time, the awarding of honorary Oscars would be arranged in the middle and late stages of the awards ceremony. At that time, all the guests in the audience stood up, cheered and applauded the seniors, and this link has always been the most heart-warming and touching moment at the Oscar Awards ceremony in previous years. However, in order to shorten the length of the ceremony, since 2009, the Oscars have changed their tune and held a so-called governors awards ceremony specifically for Lifetime Achievement Award winners, awarding the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Hersholt Humanitarian Award. , held specifically in November every year, is not broadcast live on television, and is only for the entertainment of insiders. Three years into the pandemic, the Council Awards Ceremony was either postponed or canceled, and it was not until 2023 that it finally got back on track. However, this session, which was originally scheduled to be held in November 2023, was repeatedly postponed due to trade union strikes, and was finally postponed to January 9 this year.
Among this year’s four winners, 97-year-old actor, screenwriter, and director Mel Brooks is the earliest to enter the industry, and he is the only one among the four who has previously won a statuette. In fact, he was awarded this award. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which holds the Oscars since its establishment in 1927, is only 96 years old this year, one year younger than Mel Brooks.
In the American entertainment industry, there is a so-called "Grand Slam", which refers to the lucky ones who have won all the TV Emmy Awards, film Oscars, music Grammy Awards, and drama Tony Awards. Currently, a total of 18 people enjoy this honor. Brooks is one of them. He entered the industry as a comedian. In the 1960s, he co-created the TV comedy "The Confused Detective" which became very popular. Since then, he has become a film director, and directed films such as "Acrophobia", "Space Cannon", "Robin Hood Is Crazy" and "Vampires Are Crazy", all of which have become annual best-sellers.
Mel Brooks' comedy style focuses on parody. He has successively ridiculed Hitchcock thrillers, vampire movies, Frankenstein movies, western cowboy movies, space science fiction movies and other Hollywood genres, and has influenced Many latecomers including Stephen Chow. In the past, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for "The Producers", and the opponent he defeated that year also included Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey". It really makes people feel the different trends in Hollywood in different eras. . When
was on stage to receive his lifetime achievement that night, he jokingly said that the original award winner for Best Original Screenplay had been given to a pawn shop many years ago due to bad luck and tight money. "I will keep the one I got today!"
Angela Bassett (center), Carol Littleton (left) and Michelle Sutter (right). ic photo picture
Also receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award this year is Angela Bassett, a black actor who has been in the industry for exactly 50 years. To younger viewers, she is the Queen of Wakanda in the Black Panther series and Avengers 4, and back in the 1990s, she also appeared in Boys on the Block, Dark Tide, "Til I Wake Up" and many other important black films.
Angela Bassett. Visual China Data Map
In the past, Bassett has been nominated for an Oscar twice. When she competed for Best Actress in 1994 for "What's Love Got to Do with It," she lost to Holly Hunter from "The Piano Lesson." After being shortlisted for the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Queen Da, she watched as Jamie Lee Curtis of "Into the Universe" took home the statuette. Three months later, news came out that Bessette would be awarded the next Lifetime Achievement Award, which somewhat made up for her regret of not being selected for the statuette again.
It is worth mentioning that this is only the second black actress in Oscar history to win a lifetime achievement award.Cicely Tyson, who died in 2021, became the first black woman to win the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 2018. In his acceptance speech, Bessette also expressed the highest tribute to the late senior.
Film editor Carol Littleton. ic photo picture
Another recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award this year is carol littleton, a film editor who works behind the scenes. The 81-year-old has been in the industry for more than half a century. The works she has edited include Spielberg's "E.T.", for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Editing, but lost to "The Biography of Gandhi". ” editor John Blum. Starting with "Body Heat" in 1981, she became director Lawrence Kasdan's go-to editor, working with him nine times. At that time, the director of photography often used in Kasdan's films was none other than Carol Littleton's husband, John Bailey. The couple teamed up to bring a unique image style to director Kasdan's works including "The Big Chill" and "The Unexpected Traveler".
Carol Littleton, on the other hand, is a long-time member of the Editors Guild of America and the current director who leads the editors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. John Bailey, who passed away due to illness in November 2023, was elected as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 2017 to 2019. He served as the head of the Oscar Awards for three years. The couple has great influence in the entire industry. They can all be said to be very popular and enthusiastic people.
Michelle Satter, the first president of the Sundance Film Institute. ic photo picture
In addition to the above three Lifetime Achievement Award winners, this year’s Hellshot Humanitarian Award statuette was awarded to Michel, the first president of the Sundance Film Institute (sundance institute) who participated in the founding of the Sundance Film Festival. michelle satter. The Hersholt Humanitarian Award was founded in 1956 and is named after Jean Hersholt, the founder of the Hollywood Film Fan Aid Foundation. It aims to recognize filmmakers who have made positive contributions to humanitarian causes. Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Oprah Winfrey and others have all received this honor in the past.
According to Janet Yang, current president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ms. Sutter is "a mainstay in the independent film community and has played a vital role in the early stages of the careers of countless filmmakers around the world." effect". Winning this award is well deserved. At the awards ceremony, directors Kwan Ka-young, Ryan Coogler, and Zhao Ting were all favored by Michelle Satter, and Coogler and her son Michael Larter Latt is also a good friend, and Michael Latt was in charge of social media promotion for his first feature film, Fruitvale Station.
Unfortunately, at the end of November 2023, 33-year-old film marketing consultant Michael Larter was shot and killed when someone broke into his home. At the awards ceremony, after receiving the statuette from Coogler, mother Michelle Sutter held back tears and said she would share this honor with her son. Director Zhao Ting, who also presented the award, said excitedly, "Michelle, you are my mother, you are Ryan's mother, you are the mother of so many people here... Without you, we wouldn't be here... …We are all your children, we love you very, very much, and we will always support you."
