Who Should Receive Honorary Oscars Next?

We're about one month away from the announcement of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients. They're usuallly announced at the end of August for a November Governor's Awards ceremony. This year's ceremony will be on November 12th. Last year rumors circled that it was Doris Day's turn but that didn't turn out to be accurate. For the past two years, The Film Experience has tried to make up for the dearth of movie site reporting about the Oscar Honorary careers (beyond the sharing of press releases / YouTube videos of their speeches) with mini-retrospectives so we're always hoping they'll choose well to give us wonderful careers to discuss right here. 

Let's reprint a list of worthies we shared a year or so ago, with a few adjustments, in case any of the elites in the Academy are undecided about who to put forth or get behind for these coveted honors.

James Ivory (left) is still with us though his filmmaking and life partner Ismail Merchant (right) died 11 years ago. Oscar rarely honors LGBT giants and he's 100% HONORARY OSCAR WORTHY WITH MULTIPLE BEST PICTURE NOMINEES79 SUGGESTIONS FOR HONORARIES
None of whom have Oscars or honoraries but many of whom have been nominated

Voice To The Stars:
Marni Nixon... this is a dream but an impossible one. There's no branch to advocate for her but she'd be more than worthy having contributed so much to an entire genre: the movie musical.

Directors 
James Ivory would be an ideal choice at 88 years of age. He's still with us but his partner (Ismail Merchant) has already passed away and together they made movies that Oscar outright adored. It would also be a nod to the LGBT community which the Academy really ought to make nice with given their history. What's the hold up, honestly? He'd be a PERFECT choice.

Others:  Mike Leigh, David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Jan Troell, or David Cronenberg. more suggestions follow...

Actresses Catherine Deneuve is our most fervent dream these days. She's still working and still challenging herself and that filmography is gorgeous and long-lasting and has an enviable number of classics in it.

Other great options: Liv Ullmann, Glynis Johns, Jeanne Moreau, Doris Day, Glenn Close, Mia Farrow, Pam Grier (defined a whole subgenre!) or Gong Li  (stellar acting and filmography and they NEVER honor Asian actors). But we'd like to take this moment to thank AMPAS profusely for actually forcing us to change this list up about, having recently honored two of our most frequent suggestions: Debbie Reynolds & Maureen O'Hara.

Casting Directors: Lynn Stalmaster, Juliet Taylor, Ellen Lewis

Producers Kathleen Kennedy, Ridley Scott, Zhang Yimou, Carlos Saura

Actors Albert Finney, Max Von Sydow, Sir Ian Holm, Sir Ian McKellen, Donald Sutherland, Harrison Ford , and James Caan

Costume Designers Penny Rose (egregiously never nominated), Anna B Sheppard, Julie Weiss, Jeffrey Kurland, or Bob Mackie.

Michael Ballhaus's amazing work spans several classics from Rainer Werner Fassbender to Martin Scorsese and richly beautiful 80s films like The Fabulous Baker Boys

Cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, who is 80 years old, is our favorite option here -- that filmography is splendid and international and he's been nominated three times and he basically retired with the Best Picture winner The Departed (2006). But there's also Roger Deakins and Allen Daviau. They waited too long on our Douglas Slocombe suggestion and he passed away around Oscar time earlier this year.

Production Designer Jeannine Oppenwall

Sound Kevin O'Connell, Michael J Kohut, Greg P. Russell

Editor Richard Marks, Sally Menke (posthumously... Tarantino's movies have never been the same since)

Makeup Edouard F Henriques, Aldo Signoretti

Music Diane Warren, Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, or Angelo Badalementi

Documentaries: Frederick Wiseman, Steve James, Michael Apted, or Werner Herzog

Finally...

Though we don't normally approve of and often are outright puzzled by Oscars willingness to give Honorarys to people who've already won -- some more than once! -- we would understand honoraries for the following two win since their wins came very early in incredible careers. 

Anne V Coates with Ethan Hawke recently Photo Source

Anne V Coates -Editor, won for Lawrence of Arabia. Much brilliant work thereafter including Soderbergh classics
Julie Andrews -Actress, won for her debut. Bonafide classics followed. Beloved by multiple generations.

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Links: Banderas, Cho, Parsons, Jones, Holtzmann, and More

TV
Vulture provides an A-Z glossary of all of Stranger Things mad sci-fi referencing  from Alien (1979) toVideodrome (1983)
Comics Alliance American Gods, Bryan Fuller's adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, gets its first logo and a promotional image 
EW Impromptu Smash reunion. Katharine McPhee invited Megan Hilty on stage with her Sunday night at a LA jazz club - and yes they sang Smash songs.

Movies
Playbill Fences sets its release date for December 16th
Antagony & Ecstasy looks back at His Girl Friday - the Rosalind Russell role was a male role in the source material.

The Root Leslie Jones of SNL & Ghostbusters fame was hounded by racists on twitter - they're feeling so bold these days thanks to the GOP -- fans rallied behind her
Salon "Free Jillian Holtzmann" on why Sony isn't saying that the most popular new Ghostbuster character is a lesbian
AV Club talks to John Cho about Star Trek, gay sulu, and Asian representation in cinema
The Guardian Antonio Banderas to play Gianni Versace in a biopic. The Versace estate is not pleased calling it "fiction" 
Coming Soon Fifty Shades Darker set photos
The Guardian on film franchises with the most episodes: Jungle Jim, Godzilla, and a few more
Awards Daily wonders if the political turmoil will turn the Oscars nostalgic rather than brave (see also 1968 Best Picture winner Oliver!) 
Towleroad Twenty year-old actor Ross Lynch is going from Disney Channel fame to serial killing? He'll play Jeffrey Dahmer, pre-murders, as a troubled teen in a new film.
Variety Sigourney Weaver will be honored for her career as this September's San Sebastian film festival 

...and Anton Yelchin's parents sent a beautiful message to friends and fans and the industry...

Beautiful. Anton Yelchin's parents thank Hollywood in ad @THR: 'Grateful for your unconditional love of our son' pic.twitter.com/01yn7owcL5

— Janice Min (@janicemin) July 18, 2016

Theater
Playbill Jake Gyllenhaal to headline the revival of Burn This. The original hit production in 87/88, which went from Off-Broadway to Broadway for a year-plus long run, won praise for Eric Roberts (Theater World award), John Malkovich (Drama Desk Nomination) and Joan Allen (Tony win)
NYT Estelle Parsons health scare prompts closing of her new play. Send healing vibes her way. She's a national treasure. If you haven't yet seen Season 2 of Grace & Frankie it closes beautifully with an arc about her guest starring role as "Babe," a larger than life friend of the pair who's throwing herself a big going away party. Parsons has done a lot of work on TV but weirdly despite being a highly esteemed actor with an Oscar win and 5 Tony nominations, she's never received an Emmy nomination. 

Miscellania
Huffington Post Jennifer Aniston tears into the media for their obsession with women's bodies and whether or not she's pregnant 
Wicked Gay Blog Dolly Parton working on a dance album with a track called "I'm a Wee Bit Gay" 
The New Yorker "Donald Trump's Ghostwriter Tells All" a harrowing profile 
Logo My Way hosted a contest to redesign the embarassing Trump Pence logo - Love some of these entries
Pajiba on the shitshow that was the RNC's first night with its plagiarized First Lady speech 

Doc Corner: 'Miss Sharon Jones!'

Glenn here. Each Tuesday we bring you reviews and features on documentaries from theatres, festivals, and on demand.

Barbara Kopple is an old-fashioned filmmaker who is free of flash. Whether she is documenting the lives of everyday people or celebrities, she has a knack for zeroing in on subjects whose lives demand closer inspection. We saw this in Shut Up & Sing about the Dixie Chicks and her Oscar-winning debut masterpiece Harlan County, USA, even in A Conversation with Gregory Peck, which we looked at recently. And we see it again in her latest film, Miss Sharon Jones! What could have been a simple tribute doc becomes something much more poignant by pointing her camera at a subject who’s trademark energy and spirit has been pointedly struck down my destructive cancer and its ramifications on those around her.

The early parts of Kopple’s film are actually a lot like its subject: hectic. A rough start that shows signs of a filmmaker at uncharacteristic odds with how to tell her story. In these early passages we get our only instances of awkward narration, out-of-place talking head testimonial that never appear again, and an all-too brief history lesson that isn’t thorough enough to add anything of any real consequence. The editing is skittish, bouncing around the story, cutting off performances, and taking unnecessary diversions. Was Jones not allowing herself to be truly seen on camera? Who knows, but it thankfully doesn’t last when at the 30-minute mark Kopple’s camera remains fixed on Jones as she performs “The Eye is On the Sparrow” in a gospel church. It doesn’t cut, it doesn’t flinch, it just lets Jones’ miraculous voice and performance physicality take over. The film is never the same. [more...]

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Jake and Tilda Serving Fashion on the 'Okja' Set

Category is: behind the scenes sci-fi satire realness.

Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer follow-up Okja already has one of the coolest casts since... well, Snowpiercer. And if the set photos from New York this weekend are any indication, the film itself will be even more outlandish than Joon-ho's last - at least as far as the cast is concerned.

The film returns Joon-ho to monster movie territory, but chaos and destruction to entertain when you have Tilda Swinton in and Jake Gyllenhaal in costumes like these? I don't know if Tilda is playing Taylor Swift and Jake is Rooster from a safari production of Annie, but this first look tells you everything you need to know about why you should be excited about Okja.

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