And the Honorary Oscar Goes To...
Wednesday, September 6, 2017 at 5:12PM 
Jason from MNPP here -- the four fine movie folks being given Honorary Oscars this year have been announced and they are (drumroll please) the actor Donald Sutherland, the directors Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) and Agnès Varda (Cleo from 5 to 7), and the cinematographer Owen Roizman (The Exorcist). You can read the statement from the Academy right here, which dives into each of this exemplary quartet's many many accomplishments...
... but can I just get a rowdy huzzah for Donald Sutherland in particular, who has long been the recipient one of my fiercest "HOW HAS HE NEVER BEEN NOMINATED BEFORE" battle cries? (I mean Six Degrees of Seperation alone.) And heck the 82 year-old actor is still turning in fine work, so perhaps he's still got a shot. Somebody give this truly grand actor a truly great role again, please. (And now that he's off the checklist maybe next year they'll get around to Mia Farrow?)
So what do we think of this foursome?
Reader Comments (34)
And "Ordinary People", too. That is great news about Donald Sutherland. Very well deserved!
Max von Sydow would have been an infinitely more deserving choice from the Actors Branch.
Agnes Varda is totally deserving. She has excelled in both the fiction film and the documentary disciplines.
Is Sutherland terminal? Certainly a journeyman actor but his lack of nominations tells us all we need to know. Competent, consistent but not great.
I'm so pleased for Donald Sutherland! A fine, fine actor.
Great news also about Owen Roizman. One of my favourite cinematographers - five nominations in his career. I'd have given him wins for The French Conection and Network. Very well deserved.
And well done Agnes Varda and Charles Burnett. Really smart choices by the Academy.
Pleased with the two filmmakers. Sour about Glenn.
I would pick Sutherland over von Sydow anytime. Hurray for him. Just because you are not nominated for an Oscar does not mean you are any less great.
I can ( but will not ) name actors/actresses with Oscars who are far from great.
Congrats to Sutherland! He may be a "journeyman" actor, and I think that is a great thing to honor with an honorary Oscar--those hardworking dependable beloved professionals who consistently deliver.
Donald Sutherland, Charles Burnett, and Agnes Varda are all deserving. All great contributors to cinema.
Pete: Dude: Don't Look Now, a better performance than the entire 1973 Lead Actor field? Or his supporting turn in Animal House? Or his supporting turn in JFK, one of two vastly superior performances (the other being Gary Oldman's) that got passed over for Tommy Lee Jones' homophobic cameo? He's been deserving of nominations.
All excellent choices down the line. I'm especially thrilled for Burnett and Sutherland. I do wish Cicely Tyson would've been named as an honoree, she'll be 93 this year and time is running out (I hope that didn't come off as too morbid).
This is such an outstanding class of Honorary Oscar recipients. I love that all four have never won before. Hell, three of them were never even nominated! I must say, I'm positively delighted with the Academy's choice to honor Charles Burnett. His Killer of Sheep remains the ultimate American neorealist masterpiece.
In other news, this is further proof that a certain commenter right here on this thread spouts nothing but ignorance. He may be "pleased with the two filmmakers" receiving their long overdue Oscars this year, but that's just his way of eating crow. I guess Charles Burnett's niche qualities didn't prevent the Academy from considering him AND awarding him after all, huh, 3rtful?
Sutherland is an excellent choice.
A terrific quartet of choices and like most I'm thrilled for Donald Sutherland, one of those actors who is so consistently good that he's taken for granted, though I will admit there are times he'll chew the high grade ham.
Once again no Doris Day! Sigh.
Sutherland is my fav movie dad of all time in Pride And Prejudice
Sutherland is the man
I regret that all I have really seen of Donald Sutherland was Dirty Sexy Money, an ABC drama that never survived the writers' strike -- but he was the patriarch of this powerful NYC family and there is a scene where he tries to blackmail Candis Cayne (who more than held her own, and I have to wonder if she was intimidated as hell or not), and it was SO. GOOD. That and when he was the scary psycho in Backdraft.
Put these awards back on TV!
Doris Day!
I am so happy for Agnès Varda.
And as for Donald Sutherland, he'd easily win my 1973 Best Actor Award for 'Don't Look Now', and for 1976, he'd be my runner-up in the Supporting Actor category for 1900 (which nobody seems to have mentioned yet), right after Laurence Olivier.
At one point it was said that the Academy did not honor Doris Day because she refused to appear in person or even tape a thank you message. That's how reclusive she was at least at that time. Who knows now?
I don't agree with honoring Glenn Close. She is far too young and has every chance to be nominated again and win.
But I second thefilmjunkie's push for Cicely Tyson. One word: Sounder.
Wow wow wow for Agnès Varda! It takes guts and a finer-than-fine taste to reward this Nouvelle Vague director with an accolade! This alone made me respect the Academy (at least for this year). Sidenote: I am co-presenting an academic paper on Varda's latest film and although chances are very slim, we actually contacted her agent if we can interview her. Man, I really want to see this woman in person.
I met Charles Burnett in person many years ago when I was working for a fledgling film festival. While he wasn't very chatty that evening, I was already in awe of his rarely-seen The Annihilation of Fish with Lynn Redgrave and James Earl Jones. Then I belatedly discovered his progressive, eternally subversive Killer of Sheep which I always thought is in the same lineage with last year's Moonlight 2011's Pariah and 2008's Ballast.
Also glad for the consistently good Donald Sutherland.
Good choices all around. Now if only they'll give that to Glenn Close, Danielle Darrieux and Fernanda Montenegro next time, I would be even happier.
Excellent choices.
My favourite Charles Burnett movie (if not objectively his best) is To Sleep With Anger. Highly recommended to see Danny Glover, Mary Alice and Sheryl Lee Ralph in fine form.
Donald Sutherland deserved to win Supporting Actor for Day Of The Locust - better than Burgess Meredith (who managed to get a nomination - such an un-Oscars film, did Meredith simply get an "overdue veteran" narrative? Who could know that Rocky was just around the corner!?)
thrilled about sutherland who just bizarrely was never nominated. great choices all. so fun that Varda is having such a stretch of honors around the world.
As perhaps the one person who thinks he, not De Niro in RAGING BULL, should have been the 1980 Best Actor winner, I am of course completely over the moon for the Sutherland selection. Unbelievable Roizman never won either! Burnett and Varda are such inspired picks too.
I've seen the new Varda movie. It is as beautiful as it gets. Like, one of the best movies of the year.
(There's an anti-cameo by a great filmmaker near the end of the movie that made me cry)
Varda - what an inspired choice by the Academy. Would love to see both she and Sutherland receive some time at the live show instead of another dumb skit.
I'm starting the campaign now - it's time for the Big Business duo to receive their honorary love. Bette and Lily 2019.
It's hard to imagine anyone more deserving than Donald Sutherland.
Klute? Ordinary People? Six Degrees of Separation? He's acted opposite so many actresses doing the best work of their lives. Bonus points for Don't Look Now.
The Academy generally doesn't reward men who (literally or figuratively) duet with actresses in pieces designed around the female character. Ask Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere, John Malkovich...
Yes, Donald Sutherland. He's so deserving. As others have noted, his performances in Ordinary People (should he have ever been skipped for a deserved nomination it was for this), Don't Look Now, Day of The Locust, Klute, etc, etc were all superb. Recognition sometimes comes later than it should, but better late than never.
God list and Sutherland should have one an Oscar by now
Sutherland should have gotten an Oscar nod for Pride & Prejudice
Very good choices. Much better than Jackie Chan!!! As for Glenn Close - doesn't she have two films out this year that could nab her another oscar nomination? The Wife and Wilde Wedding. And if she doesn't get nominated this time - surely she would get the oscar for Sunset Boulevard? Oh and Cicely Tyson, Max Von Sydow and Mia Farrow would all be worthy honorees.
I would've cut this down to 2...
Very pleased for Varda.
I'm super happy about this list. I really hope Agnes shows up in her potato suit.
Cicely Tyson.....very good. But, she's excelled in one movie that I am aware of. Primarily a TV movie person and stage actress. I would think someone like John Travolta or Glenn Close would b much more deserving. Or give a posthumous one to Judy Garland.