The Hollywood Academy has announced in a statement that it will honor actress Angela Bassett, actor-writer-director Mel Brooks and editor Carol Littleton with an honorary award in November. The institution also noted that the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will be presented to the founding director of the Sundance Independent Film Festival’s feature film program, Michelle Satter.
The four statuettes will be presented at the 14th annual Academy Governors Awards ceremony, which will take place on Saturday, November 18 in Los Angeles (California).
“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the motion picture industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and moviegoers,” Academy President Janet Yang said in a statement.
Yang highlighted Bassett’s “transcendental performances”, Brooks’ “humor”, the “model” of work that Littleton has left in film editing, as well as Satter’s fight for the promotion of independent cinema.
The Academy Honorary Award is an Oscar statuette awarded “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, outstanding contributions to the state of the motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.” According to information from the institution.
This will be the first statuette received by Bassett, who earned her first award nomination in 1994 for her role as the recently deceased Tina Turner in the film What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993). This year, Bassett was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Ramonda in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the end, the award went to Jamie Lee Curtis for her tax inspector in All at Once Everywhere.
Mel Brooks, for his part, received his first award as a screenwriter at the renowned awards with The Producers in 1968, and in 1975 he was nominated for his work as a composer and writer for Blazing Saddles. Carol Littleton has only been nominated once at the Hollywood Academy Awards ceremony, and it was in 1983 for her work as an editor on the film E.T, the Extra-Terrestrial, by director Steven Spielberg.
The 96th Academy Awards will take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, with the show airing live on ABC in more than 200 territories around the world.
