Glenn Close and Deborah Kerr at the 66th Academy Awards. | © AMPAS
By this point, everyone and their mother has heard about the Honorary Oscar recipients for 2026. It’s been decided by the Academy to bestow these honors on Ridley Scott, Glenn Close, and pioneering Black American animator Floyd Norman. Producers Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon will also receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, with nobody getting a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for the first time since 2020. Much will be written about these artists, here and elsewhere, with plenty of time still to go until the 17th annual Governors Awards are held on November 15. However, to start things off, why not dispel some of the seriousness that comes as a package deal with such honorifics and enjoy a bit of silly speculation. Specifically, who should present Glenn Close with her long-awaited Oscar?
Back in 1994, at the 66th Academy Awards, then five-time nominee Glenn Close had the privilege to deliver six-time nominee Deborah Kerr with the trophy she had earned since her Powell & Pressburger days. In actressexual and Oscar obsessive circles, this momentous occasion is seen with some irony, as it almost feels as if one perpetual Oscar loser passed her legacy to the next generation. Or should we call it a curse? If that’s the case, should Close keep with tradition and doom another thespian to a life without a competitive Oscar win? If that’s the case, the choice of presenter is clear…
AMY ADAMS
Honorary Academy Awards are usually presented by past collaborators of the artist being recognized, so Adams has that covered, as she starred alongside Close in the most recent film that earned the latter a nomination. While that Ron Howard farrago is better forgotten, its leading lady could be a nice pick for the ceremony. Adams does have some career similarities with Close, including a start in theater and many years working up from supporting roles on screen to star status. Maybe it’ll even make Oscar voters think Adams looks good, up there, on that stage, curse Kerr curse be damned.
However, I think there are better options from Close’s vast array of colleagues.
ROSE BYRNE
Adams might have worked with Close on one misbegotten disaster of a Netflix biopic, but Rose Byrne spent five years co-leading one of the great shows of the Golden Age of Television with her. Damages contains some of these women’s finest hours, getting dramaturgically thornier by the year with performances deepening in tandem. The two have often spoken highly of each other, and after Byrne became an Oscar nominee last year, it’d be nice to invite her to the Governors Ball. Getting to witness Close perfecting such a titanic characterization as Patty Hewes would likely yield plenty of anecdotes and keen observations that would elevate the Governors Awards ceremony.
Though, perhaps I’m too focused on actresses. Glenn Close has acted alongside many a great male thespian.
JONATHAN PRYCE
Many pundits and casual Oscar fans, myself included, believed that The Wife was Close’s best ticket to Academy gold. Sadly – or not so sadly, depending on where you stand – it wasn’t to be, with Olivia Colman coming out victorious, and Joan Castleman losing the Oscar to go along with the Nobel that went to her husband for writing that wasn’t his. It’s because of that narrative dimension that Jonathan Pryce would make for such a fun choice. There would be poetic justice in seeing The Wife’s Joe Castleman giving his spouse the public recognition she so deserved. It’s a metafictional lark, perchance a tad too “high-concept” for the occasion, but fun nevertheless.
That being said, my preferred option would actually be someone whose work is done behind the camera, though it invests the screen with sartorial splendor.
ANN ROTH
There is no star in the Hollywood firmament who more enthusiastically shines a light on the art of costume design than Glenn Close. She has often celebrated the craft, collected what garments she could from her filmography, and even donated them to be exhibited to the public. In his twilight years, Anthony Powell was even interviewed on camera by the woman he fashioned into Cruella de Vil and Norma Desmond. But the Oscar-winning costume designer of Travels with My Aunt, Death on the Nile and Tess is no longer among us. You know who is? Living legend Ann Roth, with whom Close worked on five different projects, including the actress’ screen debut, The World According to Garp. Let’s have a titan honor a sister of similar magnificence, both devoted to the performing arts through different disciplines.
Well, these four serious picks that could conceivably come to be. Now, I want to indulge in fantasy.
PATTI LUPONE
Like Marie Kondo, I love mess. And after Sunset Blvd. lawsuits, generational drama, feuds everlasting, there’d be nothing messier than having the original singing Norma Desmond of the London stage present her most infamous replacement with an Oscar. I don’t suppose Patti Lupone would turn the Governors Awards into a soap opera, yet I’m sure she’d have some amazing venom to spill over Andrew Lloyd Webber’s name. Some insult comedy could be fun, right? As long as it doesn’t target Close herself, though I might be overestimating Lupone’s restraint in assuming she’d hold her tongue for the night’s guest of honor.
If Lupone would be a hater brought on to the lovefest, then it’s only fitting for me to suggest Glenn Close’s biggest fan to complete this half dozen suggestions.
KEVIN JACOBSEN
The Film Experience has many friends over the interwebs and film-loving scene. Among them, you’ll find Kevin Jacobsen, who has taken part in endeavors like the Supporting Actress Smackdown and even invited various members of the Team Experience into his own passion projects. In years past, his podcast, And the Runner-Up Is, covered every Best Picture and Best Actress Oscar race. Nowadays, it’s been rebaptized The World According to Glenn, covering every available work in the actress’ career, from film to TV, with some theater in the middle there. I know no greater fan of this year’s Honorary Oscar queen and, even though it’s an impossible dream, one can’t help but wish for a world where he’d get to present his idol with her own little golden man. Close would be so lucky to have her biggest fan present.
If not this, I hope the Academy regards Glenn Close as they once did Paul Newman, and give her a competitive trophy after the honorary. For Kevin’s sake.
Who would you pick? Is it one of my six possibilities or someone else altogether? Please, sound off in the comments and help us start a conversation.