Two actresses and one director who have never won Oscars will finally get their due. Spike Lee, Debbie Reynolds and Gena Rowlands have been picked for the recipients of this year’s honorary Academy Awards.
Lee, 58, will be honored for his championing of independent film, especially as he continues to make his own independently financed projects. While he received a Student Academy Award in 1983, he has never won an Oscar for his films. His iconic 1989 film Do The Right Thing earned him a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He was also nominated for his 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls. The often controversial filmmaker is currently filming Chi-Raq, which will be Amazon Studios’ first feature film.
Rowlands, 85, still occasionally acts today. While younger generations might know her from The Notebook, she is still best known for her stellar work with her husband, John Cassavetes, in his own independent films. She earned Best Actress nominations for A Woman Under The Influence and Gloria, both of which were directed by Cassavetes. She began acting on TV in the early 1950s and made her film debut in 1958’s The High Cost of Living.
Lastly, Reynolds, 83, will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. This is just the latest honor for Reynolds, who also received the Screen Actors Guild’s Lifetime Achievement award in January. Reynolds, who starred in Singin’ In The Rain, was only nominated previously for her performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
The Academy is specifically recognizing Reynolds’ work as a founding member of the Thalians, a group created by the entertainment community to raise awareness for mental illness.
“The Board is proud to recognize our honorees’ remarkable contributions at this year’s Governors Awards,” Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement. “We’ll be celebrating their achievements with the knowledge that the work they have accomplished – with passion, dedication and a desire to make a positive difference – will also enrich future generations.”
The Governor’s Awards will be held on Saturday, Nov. 14 in Hollywood.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com