Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow in "Shame"Pete Hammond at Deadline revealed this morning that with all the dates moving earlier next Oscar season, the Academy is actually choosing the next Honorary Oscar winners THIS WEEKEND. It's too late then for an FYC but we feel the need to do one anyway. In the past we've made great suggestions like Albert Finney, Doris Day, Neil Simon, Michael Ballhaus, and Marni Nixon but they let all those people die without honoring them which is such bad form. At least they heard us on Maureen O'Hara, Harry Belafonte, and Angela Lansbury!
I have a suspicion that Caleb Deschanel, obviously a well-loved cinematographer given that surprise sixth nomination for the German film Never Look Away last season, will be named this year. He's 74 years old. For some reason I don't think they'll go with Glenn Close quite yet though she's a common prediction. She's 72 but working a lot right now and still in her prime.
TWELVE SUGGESTIONS...
JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD
- Tippi Hedren - but will they consider animal rights work 'humanitarian?'
- Sir Ian McKellen - A two time Oscar nominee and a gay icon and advocate for LGBTQ rights. Oscar has not been kind to the gays in many ways so this would be a deserving and smart gesture.
HONORARY OSCAR
- Catherine Deneuve -total screen icon. Former nominee. Bonafide classics across four entire decades (1960s-2000s) and still acting, too, and often with fine or challenging directors in France. She's 75.
- Max Von Sydow & Liv Ullmann - Ingmar Bergman's Scandinavian muses have both been Oscar nominated multiple times and have rich filmographies. Von Sydow is 90 and Ullmann is 80.
- Glynis Johns - She was only nominated once but she has a really fun filmography and she was one of a kind on the screen. She'll turn 96 just a week or two before the Honoraries this year.
- David Lynch - so unique as a writer/director that he has his own adjective and everyone understands what "Lynchian" means. Multiple classics, four previous nominations. He's 73 years old and will clearly never win an Oscar given that he's too iconoclastic. You have to be on his wavelength.
- John Waters - like Lynch he's one of a kind. It would be a daring nod to really "indie" filmmakers who create their own worlds onscren and change the culture. Even if they embrace "trash" rather than respectability where Oscars usually come from. He's 73 years old.
- David Cronenberg - For the same reasons as Lynch & Waters - one of a kind. Though I fear they've missed a window with him. There were a few years in which people felt he was undervalued but that time frame isn't right now. He's 76 years old.
- Ridley Scott - Always a bridesmaid at the Oscars (4 nominations) despite unassailable classics like Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, and Alien and a Best Picture winner in Gladiator. He's 81 years old.
- Zhang Yimou. He's 69 and has so many great films under his belt. He's been up twice for the Best Foreign Film Award.
- Sigourney Weaver. Three-time nominee. Still awesome. 69 years old
Who is your dream for an Honorary Oscar this year? You know I wanted to say Pfeiffer, Bassett, Woodard, and The Bening but they're all in their early to mid sixties which is a bit young for an Honorary.