LOS ANGELES: Oscars season kicked off on Thursday as actors Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Italian costume designer Piero Tosi were the first to receive honourary Governors Awards, said the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
The Governors Awards are Oscar statuettes given to those in film that have made significant contributions to the industry through their body of work. They will be presented at a ceremony in Hollywood on November 16.
Jolie, 38, is the youngest of the four recipients, and is being honoured for her career, including her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, her directorial debut with 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey, and her humanitarian work.
Comedic actor and three-time Oscar host Martin, 68, has a long-standing career playing witty or dim characters in comedy films such as 1979’s The Jerk, The Pink Panther series and 2005’s Shopgirl.
Despite a career spanning 60 years, Martin has never received an Oscar nomination. The actor tweeted on Thursday, “Proud to win an honourary Oscar this year. A salute to comedy and all the great people I’ve worked with.”
Lansbury, 87, is a three-time Oscar nominee for her roles in 1944’s Gaslight, 1945’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate. She is also widely known for her role as fictional writer-sleuth Jessica Fletcher in television series Murder, She Wrote.
Five time Oscar-nominated costume designer Tosi, 86, garnered recognition for his work on Italian director Luchino Visconti’s films such as 1957’s White Nights, 1963’s The Leopard and 1971’s Death in Venice.
The honourary Governors Awards are presented ahead of the Academy Awards, which will close out the Hollywood awards season on March 2 next year.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2013.
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