by Nathaniel R
After a year off from the Honorary Oscars, thanks to COVID-19, we deserved an awesome list this year and the Academy has provided. This is exactly the type of list we need each year wherein the Academy honors people who haven't already won Oscars but contributed indelibly to film culture. At the next Governor's Awards, which will be on January 15th, 2022 (instead of in its usual November spot) the Honorary Oscar will be given to actors Samuel L Jackson (one previous nomination, Pulp Fiction) and Liv Ullmann (two previous nominations, The Emigrants and Face to Face), and the actress/director/screenwriter Elaine May (two previous nominations for writing for Primary Colors and Heaven Can Wait). If you count honorary prizes this means 89 year old Elaine May will just be an Emmy short of EGOTing since she's already won a Tony (The Waverly Gallery) and a Grammy (An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May)...
Danny Glover, who has starred in co-starred in everything from acclaimed indies (To Sleep With Anger, Last Black Man in San Francisco), to Oscar favourites (The Color Purple, Places in the Heart, Witness, Dreamgirls), to new classics (Royal Tenenbaums) and blockbusters (the Lethal Weapon franchise) across four decades of American cinema has been selected for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. This award isn't technically for acting but Glover has an awards-worthy resume there, too. Glover has been a lifelong activist serving for the United Nations Development Program, and UNICEF, and fighting for healthcare and education.
We've been pushing for Liv Ullmann whenever this topic came up for years so you know we're thrilled about that one but all four are stupendous choices and the right age for it, too: Jackson is the youngest at 72 and May the oldest at 89.
No notes. Well done, Academy.
(Actually one note: PUT THESE TRIBUTES BACK ON TELEVISION, DAMNIT. We deserve to see the legends honored)