The Motion Picture Academy Governor's Awards, delayed for weeks due to actor and screenwriter strikes, took place Tuesday on the eve of voting on Oscar nominations, and Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett and editor Carol Littleton received honorary Academy Awards and the Sundance Institute Award. Michelle Satter delivers an emotional speech while accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Filmmakers Ryan Coogler and Chloé Zhao, two of the dozens of directors Satter has trained as founding director of the Sundance Institute's artist programs, presented the award to the woman they both considered a mother figure. Coogler briefly broke down a couple of times during his remarks, passionate about the impact Satter has had on his life and distraught over the loss he suffered when his son, Michael Latt, a marketing consultant and social justice advocate with strong ties to Hollywood, was murdered. murdered in November. Latt worked on Coogler's 2013 directorial debut, “Fruitvale Station.”
“You changed our lives,” Coogler told Satter, “and I think Michael was your greatest gift to the world. And every time I talk to you, every time I'm in your presence, I feel like he's still here with us.”
Satter said he shared the honor with Michael and, noting his devoted support for people and organizations that uplifted artists of color, urged attendees to “come together as an inclusive community.”
It was one of several emotionally charged moments during the Governors Awards ceremony, an evening that features the honorary Oscars that were once part of the televised Academy Awards and also serves as a campaign stop of sorts. for contenders trying to catch the attention of academy voters.
On the latter front, the casts and crews of such high-profile films as “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” were in attendance, and “The Holdovers” star Paul Giamatti was busy greeting the sympathizers. between bites of a meal that wasn't as good as the burger he enjoyed at the Westwood In-N-Out on Sunday after winning the Golden Globe.
The evening also served as a reaffirmation of the value of hiring a comedian host, in this case, John Mulaney, who is actually smart and funny. Mulaney, introducing himself to “those who don't recognize me from Tuesday night's AA meeting in the Palisades,” delivered a fantastic 20-minute opening monologue, addressing the desperation of actors and the self-importance of Hollywood and praising the actors of the night honored.
“Angela Bassett is a great actress: she got an Oscar nomination for a Marvel movie. “That’s like getting a Pulitzer Prize for a comment on Reddit,” Mulaney said.
Governors Awards emcee John Mulaney and Olivia Munn on the red carpet.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Bassett could argue that point, proud as she is of Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” And she probably would have won the Oscar for that role last year if “Everything Everywhere All at Once” hadn't swept the entire season.
Regina King presented the Oscar to Bassett, calling the star of films such as “What's Love Got to Do with It” and “Boyz n the Hood” a “national treasure” and saying she is “artistic excellence embodied in form.” human.” Bassett's speech initially followed the usual rhythms of gratitude. But she was just warming up and he noted that she “thought long and hard” about what she would say.
“Shall I follow the path of saying a few words of gratitude for what this moment means to me?” Bassett mused. “Or do I give voice to what I hope this moment means for generations of black actresses to come?”
Bassett took the latter route, listing all the black women who have won competitive Oscars and mentioning their names for “being beacons of possibility.”
“What I hope this moment means is that we are taking necessary steps toward a future where it is the rule rather than the exception to see and accept the stories and perspectives of others,” Bassett said. “When we are together, we win together.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” actress Lily Gladstone was among the Oscar contenders attending the Governors Awards.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Brooks, 97, kept his comments brief. Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, stars of Broadway and film versions of Brooks' hit “The Producers,” introduced him, and Broderick noted that Brooks' detractors had often accused him of “vulgarity.” “To which he responded, 'That's nonsense…'” Broderick said. The duo then sang a medley of songs, serenading the comedian with numbers that referenced his films like “High Anxiety” and “Young Frankenstein.”
Brooks took the stage, kissed both presenters on the cheek (not that cheek) and told the audience in the Ray Dolby Ballroom that he was going to keep this award, unlike the original screenplay Oscar he won in 1968 for the first version. cinematographic. from “The Producers”.
“I miss him a lot,” Brooks joked. “I should never have sold it.”
“If your fellow writers, directors and actors like you and appreciate your work, it means a lot,” Brooks continued. “To greet them with this wonderful statue, it's fantastic.” Pause. “I'm not selling this one, I swear to God!”
Glenn Close praised film editor Littleton, calling her a “great humanist” who “loves us with all our flaws and weaknesses.” “She doesn't judge us,” Close said. “She seeks the truth of a moment. She knows that in our ignorance, despite ourselves, if we gently (or not so gently) hold each other's hands, we have the collective ability to feel what is true. And it is that truth that moves us, that changes us.”
Close also thanked Littleton for the way he cut the kitchen dancing scene in “The Big Chill,” specifically for “putting my butt in that shot.”
“It made me look like a really good dancer!” Close said.
Actor Glenn Close, who presented “The Big Chill” collaborator Carol Littleton with an honorary Oscar on Tuesday, is photographed on the red carpet at the Governors Awards.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Littleton earned an Oscar nomination for his editing work on Steven Spielberg's “ET the Extra-Terrestrial” and collaborated with Jonathan Demme (“Beloved,” “The Manchurian Candidate”) and Lawrence Kasdan (“Body Heat,” “ The Big Chill”) in multiple films. She served as governor of the academy's film editors branch and was married to former academy president and accomplished cinematographer John Bailey, who died in November. They worked together on 12 films.
“I accept this beautiful Oscar as a highlight of my life on film,” Littleton said. “I accept it for all the editors who work in the darkness of an editing room… to create a unique and believable world born of the imagination. And most of all, I want to thank John, my dear John.”
Margot Robbie, Rosamund Pike and director Emerald Fennell, from left, on the red carpet for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Board of Governors Honor Awards.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey on the red carpet.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Natalie Portman, on the red carpet.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
