The Governors Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is always one of the annual Hollywood nights I look forward to, one that delivers Honorary Oscars in a non-televised but always warm, fun, and inspiring evening. I have attended every single one of them, and even wrote the 2nd Governors Awards, but I have to say Tuesday night’s 14th annual ceremony had an extra personal and devastatingly heartfelt kick to it, quite unforseen when the Academy’s Board Of Governors announced their honorees -97 year old Mel Brooks, Film Editor Carol Littleton, Angela Bassett, and Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter – way back on June 26.
The ceremony as it usually is, was set for a mid November date, the 18th but due to the unpredictability of the writers and actors strikes was moved to January 9, Sadly life intervened in the meantime. Littleton’s husband and former AMPAS President, cinematographer John Bailey passed away on November 10, just a week before the event was originally to have taken place. And then on November 27, Satter’s youngest son, 33 year old Lead With Love founder Michael Latt was senselessly murdered in an unthinkable tragedy. Those deaths certainly made the 14th Governors Awards an even more emotional affair than ever, but it also turned out to be one of the best, if not the best I have ever witnessed.
Jennifer Fox returned for the fifth time to produce and it was an exceptionally well-structured and moving evening, awards that started with some laughs thanks to Brooks, and ended with tears after Satter dedicated her Oscar to son Michael. Academy President Janet Yang got things underway just before the dinner break by saluting each of the evening’s honorees, earning each the first four standing ovations of the night.
John Mulaney at the 14th Governors Awards
After dinner, a little surprise as John Mulaney was introduced as the host, something I don’t believe they ever had before. The comedian actually just won an Emmy over the weekend for writing one of his stand up specials, and Kimmel better watch out because this guy proved he would be a great Oscar show host. Jo Koi who just hosted the Golden Globes to downer reviews could take some tips from Mulaney who only that day showed up for rehearsal but nailed it with every single line and bit landing big with the normally tough industry crowd. One of his best lines was aimed at Bassett, but not in a mean-spirited way. “Here’s how great an actress Angela Bassett is: she got an Oscar nomination for a Marvel movie. That’s like getting a Pulitzer Prize for a Reddit comment.” He also had a hilarious bit, all true, about an offer he got to “audition” for a role as Cop #1 in a new Maggie Gyllenhaal movie, and nabbed big laughs recounting Al Pacino’s story about attending his first Oscar show as a Best Actor nominee 50 years ago. And in a nod to the character Carey Mulligan plays in Maestro he said the movie was actually initially called Bye Felicia.
Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick who starred in the Broadway and movie musical version of his hit 1968 comedy, The Producers charmingly ran through bits of just about every single song in that show in a specialty number concocted by Marc Shaiman who played piano with the orchestra. Brooks gave the briefest of the night’s speeches beginning by apologizing and saying he feels bad about what happened to his previous Oscar. “I never should have sold it, times were tough ” he lamented to big laughs and promised to keep this one.
Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks at the 14th Governors Awards
I caught up with Littleton at the pre-show cocktail reception where I told her how sorry I was that her husband Bailey didn’t get to see this moment. “This is for both of us,” she said knowing he certainly knew about it for several months. He figured prominently in her clip presentation reel that was introduced by Glenn Close who co-starred in one of the films Littleton edited, The Big Chill. Littleton talked about meeting and marrying Bailey and then managing to get to work with him on no less than a dozen films that he shot and she edited. Both of them also served together on the Academy’s Board Of Governors, one of the rare married couples to ever do it. Among voices heard lauding her was Steven Spielberg for whom she edited E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Littleton noted it was “a forceful story about tolerance for each other”, something that makes it more timely than ever right now.
Carol Littleton, Glenn Close at the 14th Governors Awards
Angela Bassett, who just last Spring was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gave a powerful acceptance speech that celebrated all the Black actresses who have won Oscars to date, beginning with Gone With The Wind’s Hattie McDaniel in 1940 who had to come frm the back of the room to accept hers . Regina King, who is one of those women, served as the presenter for her old friend, even reminding her they appeared on the NBC sitcom, 227 that King was a regular on as a young kid. Bassett ended her speech by quoting Lena Horne, “It’s so nice to get flowers when you can still smell the fragrance”. I caught up with her after the show as she was holding her shiny new Oscar and told here it looked like the engraving had a lot to say (it actually says “Honorary Award to Angela Bassett who has inspired audiences around the world with her powerful and fearless performances”). She hadn’t read it yet. “I am gonna need my glasses for this,” she laughed. She ran her hands down the Oscar and told me her late mother would have loved this moment. “She always took me to the movies. We would sit through four in a row sometimes. She loved the movies.”
Angela Bassett at the 14th Governors Awards
Finally the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was presented to independent film champion Satter by two young filmmakers the Sundance Institute wizard helped mentor, Ryan Coogler and Chloe Zhao. Coogler told how when he was developing his breakout film, Fruitvale Station there that Satter gave some honest tough love. “She tore the film apart”, but with her notes was always right on and showed how much she cared for filmmakers. Regarding the recent loss of Satter’s son, Zhao said they were so sorry they couldn’t take away the pain. “We are all your children. We love you,” she said. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as she came up to get her Oscar and salute all the many novice filmmakers and others who have benefitted from her 40 years at Sundance. Recalling how it all started, she boldly made a suggestion to Sundance founder Robert Redford that maybe there should be an L.A. office and she could run it. “‘Okay’, he said. ‘Let me know when you get there’.” She added a lesson she learned from that: “when someone says ‘yes’ , stop talking”. Satter noted also that the directors of the last three films to win the Best Picture Oscar (Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Daniels, CODA’s Sian Heder, Nomadland’s Zhao) all came to work at the lab.
Carol Littleton, Ryan Coogler, Chloé Zhao at the 14th Governors Awards
The Governors Awards, happening as they do during Oscar campaign season are also a must stop for contenders, never more so than this year as the strike-postponed event landed just two days before voting starts. Perhaps that explains the long list of actors and filmmakers who crowded into the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation in Hollywood where the Oscars themselves will be celebrating at the Governors Ball after the Academy Awards on March 10. You can check out the long list of names attending on Deadline’s photo gallery (studios by tables that cost a reported $120,000 each) including Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper, Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Juliette Binoche, Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Giamatti, Martin Scorsese, and many many more.
I stopped by Nolan’s table to congratulate him and producer wife Emma Thomas on their five Golden Globe wins Sunday night. He mentioned something amusing he saw in my Notes On The Season column last week where I mentioned all the times over the many-months-long Oscar season where each week someone proclaims “the Oscar race has begun”. The fact is it never seems to end, but no doubt someone will write about tonight’s Governors Awards and say it represents “the start of the season!” If only…. But everyone can look on the bright side: there are exactly only two months until Oscar night.
What I love about this event was that many of these contenders may have showed up thinking it is a good place to be seen so close to ballots going out. But I guarantee you that once the show started and these well-deserved honorary Oscars were handed out you leave with a different take on things. For one fine evening the Academy let the work take precedence, and Mel Brooks, Carol Littleton, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Satter reminded everyone in that room just why they should be proud to be able to do what they do.
It was truly a golden night.