Sep 5, 2013–The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present honorary awards to Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Piero Tosi, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Angelina Jolie.
The awards were voted on Tuesday night at a meeting of the Academy’s board of governors and will be presented at the fifth annual Governors Awards, scheduled to take place Nov. 16 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland. While the vote was tallied on Tuesday, the announcement was withheld until Thursday, after all the recipients had been personally notified.
“Individually their accomplishments are supreme and are wonderful, and then collectively, this is going to turn out to be a terrific, fun and memorable evening,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs says.
Honorary awards are given for lifetime achievements, exceptional contributions to motion picture arts and sciences, and outstanding service to the Academy.
Lansbury has received three Academy Award nominations for her supporting performances in 1944’s Gaslight, 1945’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate. Her other credits include Blue Hawaii, The World of Henry Orient and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. She also did voice work for the first animated feature to receive a best picture nomination, Beauty and the Beast.
“Ms. Lansbury is one of the giants in the world of acting and has been such a major influence on so many actors throughout the years,” says Boone Isaacs.
Martin is an actor, writer, comedian and musician who wrote and starred in The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Three Amigos, Roxanne, L.A. Story, The Pink Panther series and Shopgirl, which he adapted from his critically acclaimed book of the same name. A three-time host of the Oscars, Martin’s other acting credits include All of Me, Parenthood, Father of the Bride and It’s Complicated.
Costume designer Tosi collaborated with Italian director Luchino Visconti on such films as Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard, Death in Venice and Ludwig. He’s received five Academy Award nominations for costume design.
“Mr. Tosi’s influence is legendary,” says Boone Isaacs. “It also allows us to get out there his major contributions because with something like costume design, not many people focus on what a creative aspect and contribution costume designers have through the process of a motion picture.”
Jolie will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an Oscar statuette given to an “individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” The actor-director, who won an Oscar for her supporting performance in Girl, Interrupted, has been a strong advocate for humanitarian causes, such as the Prevent Sexual Violence Initiative. She has worked for a number of global advocacy groups including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for which she was appointed Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres in 2012 after 12 years of service. Her dedication to these causes has also led her to work on films that tackle global humanitarian issues, including A Mighty Heart. She made her feature film directorial debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey.
“We’re all very impressed with her mission in life and how she leads her life,” says Boone Isaacs of Jolie.
When asked about the delay in the announcement, Boone Isaacs says that she wanted to personally reach out of the recipients before the news went out. She said that more than one of the recipients was either traveling or in another time zone around the world.
“It was very important for me to reach out and communicate with each honoree,” she says. “Many of them were moving, because the world is our playground.”
