The Film Experience

We're about one month away from the announcement of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients. They're usuallly announced at the end of August for a November Governor's Awards ceremony. This year's ceremony will be on November 12th. Last year rumors circled that it was Doris Day's turn but that didn't turn out to be accurate. For the past two years, The Film Experience has tried to make up for the dearth of movie site reporting about the Oscar Honorary careers (beyond the sharing of press releases / YouTube videos of their speeches) with mini-retrospectives so we're always hoping they'll choose well to give us wonderful careers to discuss right here.

Let's reprint a list of worthies we shared a year or so ago, with a few adjustments, in case any of the elites in the Academy are undecided about who to put forth or get behind for these coveted honors.

James Ivory (left) is still with us though his filmmaking and life partner Ismail Merchant (right) died 11 years ago. Oscar rarely honors LGBT giants and he's 100% HONORARY OSCAR WORTHY WITH MULTIPLE BEST PICTURE NOMINEES79 SUGGESTIONS FOR HONORARIES
None of whom have Oscars or honoraries but many of whom have been nominated

Voice To The Stars:
Marni Nixon... this is a dream but an impossible one. There's no branch to advocate for her but she'd be more than worthy having contributed so much to an entire genre: the movie musical.

Directors
James Ivory would be an ideal choice at 88 years of age. He's still with us but his partner (Ismail Merchant) has already passed away and together they made movies that Oscar outright adored. It would also be a nod to the LGBT community which the Academy really ought to make nice with given their history. What's the hold up, honestly? He'd be a PERFECT choice.

Others: Mike Leigh, David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Jan Troell, or David Cronenberg. more suggestions follow...

Actresses Catherine Deneuve is our most fervent dream these days. She's still working and still challenging herself and that filmography is gorgeous and long-lasting and has an enviable number of classics in it.

Other great options: Liv Ullmann, Glynis Johns, Jeanne Moreau, Doris Day, Glenn Close, Mia Farrow, Pam Grier (defined a whole subgenre!) or Gong Li (stellar acting and filmography and they NEVER honor Asian actors). But we'd like to take this moment to thank AMPAS profusely for actually forcing us to change this list up about, having recently honored two of our most frequent suggestions: Debbie Reynolds & Maureen O'Hara.

Casting Directors: Lynn Stalmaster, Juliet Taylor, Ellen Lewis

Producers Kathleen Kennedy, Ridley Scott, Zhang Yimou, Carlos Saura

Actors Albert Finney, Max Von Sydow, Sir Ian Holm, Sir Ian McKellen, Donald Sutherland, Harrison Ford , and James Caan

Costume Designers Penny Rose (egregiously never nominated), Anna B Sheppard, Julie Weiss, Jeffrey Kurland, or Bob Mackie.

Michael Ballhaus's amazing work spans several classics from Rainer Werner Fassbender to Martin Scorsese and richly beautiful 80s films like The Fabulous Baker Boys

Cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, who is 80 years old, is our favorite option here -- that filmography is splendid and international and he's been nominated three times and he basically retired with the Best Picture winner The Departed (2006). But there's also Roger Deakins and Allen Daviau. They waited too long on our Douglas Slocombe suggestion and he passed away around Oscar time earlier this year.

Production Designer Jeannine Oppenwall

Sound Kevin O'Connell, Michael J Kohut, Greg P. Russell

Editor Richard Marks, Sally Menke (posthumously... Tarantino's movies have never been the same since)

Makeup Edouard F Henriques, Aldo Signoretti

Music Diane Warren, Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, or Angelo Badalementi

Documentaries: Frederick Wiseman, Steve James, Michael Apted, or Werner Herzog

Finally...

Though we don't normally approve of and often are outright puzzled by Oscars willingness to give Honorarys to people who've already won -- some more than once! -- we would understand honoraries for the following two win since their wins came very early in incredible careers.

Anne V Coates with Ethan Hawke recently Photo Source

Anne V Coates -Editor, won for Lawrence of Arabia. Much brilliant work thereafter including Soderbergh classics
Julie Andrews -Actress, won for her debut. Bonafide classics followed. Beloved by multiple generations.