The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Board of Governors will present Honorary Awards to actor Jackie Chan, film editor Anne V. Coates, casting director Lynn Stalmaster, and documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.
“The Honorary Award was created for artists like Jackie Chan, Anne Coates, Lynn Stalmaster, and Frederick Wiseman – true pioneers and legends in their crafts,” Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement. “The Board is proud to honor their extraordinary achievements, and we look forward to celebrating with them at the Governors Awards in November.”
The Oscars will be presented at the Academy’s 8th Annual Governors Awards on November 12, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom.
Jackie Chan — the second highest-paid actor in the world, according to Forbes — has starred in, in addition to writing, directing, and producing, more than 30 martial arts movies in Hong Kong. His “Rush Hour” films, “Shanghai Noon,” “Shanghai Knights,” “Around the World in 80 Days,” “The Karate Kid,” and the hit animated franchise “Kung Fu Panda” also found worldwide audiences.
Anne Coates, whose career spans six decades, won her first Oscar for “Lawrence of Arabia.” She also nabbed Academy Award nominations for “Becket,” “The Elephant Man,” “In the Line of Fire,” and “Out of Sight.” In addition to David Lean, she’s also worked with Sidney Lumet (“Murder on the Orient Express”), Richard Attenborough (“Chaplin”), and Steven Soderbergh (“Erin Brockovich”).
Lynn Stalmaster began working in casting in the mid-1950s. His 200-plus films include “The Graduate,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Harold and Maude,” “Deliverance,” “Tootsie,” and “The Right Stuff.” He helped launch the careers of such actors as Jon Voight, Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Reeve, and John Travolta.
Frederick Wiseman has made one film almost every year since 1967. His first documentary, “Titicut Follies,” went behind the scenes at Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane. His other work includes “Law and Order,” “Domestic Violence,” “National Gallery,” and “In Jackson Heights.”
The Academy created the Governors Awards as a separate event in 2009, after decades of including them on the Oscar telecast. Proponents argued that an untelevised event would allow more honorees each year (unaffected by broadcast time constraints), there would be no pressure to select individuals who are recognizable to TV audiences, and that a separate ceremony would allow more than 90 seconds to honor a lifetime of work.
The experiment was a big success, and by the 2010 ceremony, it was a hot ticket in Hollywood.
It also became a don’t miss stop for Academy Award campaigners, since the room was literally filled with Oscar voters.
The Academy can salute up to four people each year: one or two honorary Oscars, and one apiece for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which goes to a producer for their body of work. It’s generally been four honorees, except for 2011 and last year, when there were three.
Academy rules say the Governors Award cannot be voted posthumously, and no current governor is eligible. There is no rule about previous winners. Hayao Miyazaki received an honorary Oscar, two years ago, even though he’d won competitively.
Here are all the recipients in the past six years:
2009: Lauren Bacall, John Calley, Roger Corman, Gordon Willis
2010: Jean-Luc Godard, Kevin Brownlow, Francis Ford Coppola, Eli Wallach
2011: James Earl Jones, Dick Smith, Oprah Winfrey
2012: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hal Needham, D.A. Pennebaker, George Stevens Jr.
2013: Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin, Piero Tosi
2014: Harry Belafonte, Jean-Claude Carrière, Maureen O’Hara, Hayao Miyazaki
2015: Spike Lee, Debbie Reynolds, Gena Rowlands
