The sibling Bond movie producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have been tapped to receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, writer-director Richard Curtis will be feted with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and composer-producer Quincy Jones and casting director Juliet Taylor will receive honorary Oscars at the 2024 Governors Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday.
The 15th annual Governors Awards — honorees for which were determined as the last move of the Academy’s 2023-2024 board of governors, which changed following recent board elections — will be presented at a ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 17.
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“The recipients of this year’s Governors Awards have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers, and the Academy’s board of governors is thrilled to recognize them with Oscars,” Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement. “The selection of Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli is a testament to their success as producers of the fan-favorite Bond series and their contribution to the industry’s theatrical landscape. Richard Curtis is a brilliant comedic storyteller whose tremendous charitable efforts embody the meaning of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Quincy Jones’ artistic genius and relentless creativity have made him one of the most influential musical figures of all time. And Juliet Taylor has cast iconic and beloved films and paved a new path for the field. Their profound love of cinema and indelible contribution to our art form make these five individuals truly deserving of these honors.”
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, first presented in 1937, is named after MGM’s legendary head of production in the early days of Hollywood. It is presented on occasion to a creative producer — or producing team — whose work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production. (Past recipients include three-time honoree Darryl F. Zanuck, Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn, Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and, most recently, in 2018, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.) The award has heretofore existed in the form of a bust of Thalberg’s head, but starting this year, per a vote of the Academy’s board of governors, it will look like the iconic Oscar statuette.
Wilson, 82, and Broccoli, 63, are children of the original producer of the Bond films, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli (he partnered with Harry Saltzman), who received the Thalberg Award in 1981 and died in 1996. In the early ’90s, the senior Broccoli handed over Bond producing duties to his children, and they have presided over every installment in the franchise since 1995’s GoldenEye.
(You can tune in to The Hollywood Reporter‘s 2017 Awards Chatter interview with Barbara Broccoli here.)
The Hersholt Award, first presented in 1956, is given out only on occasion — just 44 times prior to this year. Previously it recognized an industry figure who — or organization that — has made “outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.” (Previous recipients include Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Angelina Jolie, Michael J. Fox and, last year, Michelle Satter.) But following a change to the wording earlier this year, it is now given to an industry figure whose — or organization that’s — humanitarian efforts “have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities.”
Curtis, 67, is best known for writing rom-coms including Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, for which he received an Oscar nom), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Love Actually (2003). But the Brit is also the co-founder of Comic Relief UK and USA, and his fundraising work over 40 years has helped raise more than $2 billion and supported over 170 million people. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty History and helped produce the Live 8 concerts. And, most recently, he co-founded the group Project Everyone, giving practical support to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and established the ethical investment campaign Make My Money Matter, which has helped transfer £1.3 trillion into sustainable pensions.
Honorary Oscars are presented each year to recognize “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences or for outstanding service to the Academy.” They tend to go to people who practice a variety of film-related disciplines, some household names and others not, and some of whom have previously been recognized with competitive Oscars and others of whom have not.
Jones, 91, has been in show business for some 70 years and was presented with the Hersholt Award in 1994. He has received seven competitive Oscar noms for work on films such as 1967’s In the Heat of the Night (he became the first Black composer ever nominated for best original song) and In Cold Blood, 1978’s The Wiz and 1985’s The Color Purple (which he produced and for which he received a best picture nom).
(You can tune in to The Hollywood Reporter‘s 2018 Awards Chatter interview with Jones here.)
Taylor, meanwhile, has cast more than 100 films, most famously 43 of Woody Allen‘s dating back to 1975’s Love and Death. After starting as a receptionist for Broadway mogul David Merrick, she landed a job working under legendary casting director Marion Dougherty. Her first solo casting credit was for 1973’s The Exorcist, and subsequent credits include 1976’s Taxi Driver and 1993’s Schindler’s List.
