by Nathaniel R
Just this weekend we loved you all anew for that robust conversation about worthy Honorary Oscar recipients. News broke yesterday that the Board of Governors has named the four 2019 recipients. Honorary Oscars will go to the actor Wes Studi (who many thought should have been nominated for Last of the Mohicans in 1992, his starmaking role), and two previously nominated directors, David Lynch (who we've been campaigning for) and Lina Wertmüller who was famously the first woman ever nominated for the directing Oscar for her total masterpiece Seven Beauties. In addition to those three artists, the actress Geena Davis will receive this year's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. That's a special subdivision of the Honorary that's not actually about the movies but your "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes"...
You may recall that Geena already has an Oscar for her film career (The Accidental Tourist, 1988) but the Jean Hersholt has different criteria and in this "Honorary" case, it actually helps to be a previous Oscar winner (though the Academy doesn't say so). Past examples of competitive acting winners who've then scored the Humanitarian Award include Angelina Jolie, Paul Newman, Liz Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, and Gregory Peck. The list of famous actors who've won the Huminatarian Award without already being an Oscar winner is shorter: Rosalind Russell, Danny Kaye, Debbie Reynolds, and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers (of Wings fame, the first Best Picture winner).
Geena Davis is a terrific choice for that honor given her advocacy and work with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and her very inclusive Bentonville Film Festival. We have to admit that we never once thought of Geena for this honor but it probably didn't occur to us because she's quite young as Honorary recipients go. Geena is just 63 years old and looks yet younger than that. (Angelina Jolie was a total anomaly, age-wise, for the Academy winning the Honorary when she was 39 or 40. Most people are a few decades older than that when they get these kind of lifetime achievement honors.)
As for the four as a unit, it's quite unusual to have only two professions recognized (directing and acting)! Usually the Honoraries mix it up more than that with someone 'below the line' thrown in. At any rate, we'll celebrate each one of them with a miniseries right here at TFE before the Governor's Awards in October.