On Sunday night, per annual tradition, dozens of the current crop of top Oscar contenders — among them Maria lead actress Angelina Jolie, Gladiator II lead actor Paul Mescal, The Substance lead actress Demi Moore, The Brutalist lead actor Adrien Brody and Emilia Pérez supporting actress Selena Gomez — turned up at Ovation Hollywood for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards ceremony, a black-tie dinner at which the organization presents special awards to industry legends.
The 15th Governors Awards’ highest profile honoree, composer/producer Quincy Jones, was celebrated posthumously, having passed away on Nov. 3 at the age of 91. The most moving part of the evening came toward the end, when Jones’ honorary Oscar statuette was accepted by his daughter, actress/writer Rashida Jones, who, flanked by some of her siblings, tearfully paid tribute to her father and read the speech that he had planned to give at the ceremony.
An honorary Oscar was also presented to the casting director Juliet Taylor, who is best known for casting dozens of Woody Allen’s movies, making her only the second member of her profession ever to receive the recognition, after the late Lynn Stalmaster. Producers/siblings Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the guardians of the Bond film franchise, were feted with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. And filmmaker Richard Curtis, who is best known for rom-coms, was celebrated with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
The honorees, as always, were chosen by the Academy’s board of governors, which includes 55 reps from across the branches of the organization, and three governors-at-large. Current governors include the Oscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin, directors Ava DuVernay and Jason Reitman, documentarian Chris Hegedus, execs Pam Abdy and Hannah Minghella, the Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, producer Jason Blum and the Oscar-winning writer Eric Roth.
Academy president Janet Yang kicked off the event by seemingly acknowledging the presidential election of less than two weeks ago, remarking, “It goes without saying that we are living during a transformative time.” She went on to tease the 97th Academy Awards, set for March 2, 2025, and her reference to last week’s news that comedian Conan O’Brien has been tapped to host drew enthusiastic applause from a crowd that included a wide assortment of big names — from Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence (EPs of the documentary Bread & Roses) to Mark Hamill (“Luke Skywalker” voiced a character in The Wild Robot) to 1990s icons Pamela Anderson (lead actress of The Last Showgirl) and Sharon Stone.
Before the presentation of awards got underway, Sing Sing lead actor Colman Domingo served as a sort of unofficial emcee, welcoming everyone and also acknowledging the tumultuous political moment in America: “Tonight, we will inspire each other to just keep going. … What we do makes a difference in this world. … The dreamer and optimist in me believes that films can breach the deep divides that exist in our nation. … We are more alike than unalike.” (He also jokingly pitched himself to Broccoli and Wilson — “Bond or Bond villain? You decide.”)
Taylor, who has cast more than 100 films, including 43 of Allen’s dating back to 1975’s Love and Death, was the first honoree summoned to the podium. Babygirl lead actress Nicole Kidman introduced her, praising “the instinct of this woman” who began her career at 22 in 1968 as a receptionist for/assistant to the late, great casting director Marion Dougherty. A video montage highlighted the fact that Taylor helped to launch the film careers of Kidman, Diane Keaton, Linda Blair, Jodie Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Meryl Streep, June Squibb, Holly Hunter, Wallace Shawn and Nathan Lane, among others.
Taylor’s work with Allen, now a polarizing figure in and beyond Hollywood, was referenced only glancingly in the video — he appeared on-camera to offer a few remarks — but Taylor made sure to acknowledge him in her speech, even if the audience’s reaction was muted: “The director who really changed my life with his loyalty and his support was Woody Allen. From the beginning, he had confidence in me. He was always kind and patient and polite, and working with him was a casting director’s dream because he was so open and so humble. I could feel free to throw out the most outlandish ideas, and Woody would just raise his eyebrows. And if he had an idea that I didn’t take to, I could say, ‘Oh, Woody, that’s a terrible idea.’ And he would just laugh. I can’t tell you what an honor and a joy it has been to be a part of his wonderful world of filmmaking and to have him as a lifelong friend.”
Taylor closed by thanking the board of governors for approving a casting Oscar that will debut in 2026, opining, “It’s been a long time coming.”
James Bond himself — or at least the most recent inhabitant of the role, Queer lead actor Daniel Craig — presided over the presentation to Broccoli and Wilson of the Thalberg Award. The same honor was previously presented, in 1981, to their late father Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the original producer of the Bond films (along with Harry Saltzman), who turned over producing duties to his children in the early 1990s (they have presided over every installment in the franchise since 1995’s GoldenEye) and died in 1996. Never before had the award gone to multiple generations of the same family.
Craig began his comments by cracking, “If you came here this evening to find out who the next James Bond is, don’t look at me,” before adding, “He may be in this room tonight!” He went on to say of Broccoli and Wilson, “They take risks on people. They took a big risk on me.” In a video montage that followed, fellow former Bond Pierce Brosnan, Bond girls Léa Seydoux and Naomie Harris, and Bond villain Javier Bardem all gushed about the siblings.
Wilson dedicated the honor to all of the past Bonds — mentioning them by name — and to the thousands of others who have worked on Bond films and the millions who saw them. “My sister Barbara is only the second woman to be given this prestigious award,” he also noted (Kathleen Kennedy was the first), before turning to her and saying, “I have to say thank you to you for the support and inspiration you’ve given to me over the last 40 years.” She repaid the gratitude — “Thank you, Michael, for always putting up with me and supporting me” — and closed by addressing their late father, “Thank you, Daddy, for giving me the greatest life imaginable.”
Heretic lead actor Hugh Grant, who was the star of the Curtis-written 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Curtis written and directed 2003 film Love, Actually, hilariously introduced the Hersholt recipient, noting that Curtis almost nixed his participation in the former film: “The only person who didn’t want me, and who took an instant and violent dislike to me, was the writer, and it is this asshole that we honor tonight.” He also teased Curtis about receiving a Hersholt Award rather than a competitive Academy Award — “Would we call it an Oscar? It’s a kind of Oscar. It’s a better-than-nothing Oscar.” — before proposing that they make one more film together “before we get dragged and dropped to that great ‘junk’ folder in the sky.” (He suggested the titles Four Funerals and a Wedding and Bridget Jones’s Diaper.)
A Julia Roberts-narrated video highlighted the voluminous philanthropic efforts that led to the Academy tapping Curtis for the Hersholt. 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.
Curtis accepted his award from Grant and teased him right back: “I do recommend his new film — he’s in this new documentary called The Heretic.” Turning more serious, he dedicated his award to charity workers around the world, and urged colleagues in the film industry to set aside a small portion of their budget for “impact-based” efforts like those mounted by the recently departed Participant Media. He said they could make a difference “for the same amount of cash that you’d spend on a few more ads.”
Then came the segment of the evening devoted to Quincy Jones, who, during his 70-year career, had garnered seven competitive Oscar nominations and was presented with the Hersholt Award in 1994. Jamie Foxx called the audience to its feet to celebrate “an incredible 91 years” and did a spot-on impression of “Q” that had Jones’s children howling. That was followed by a musical tribute from Jennifer Hudson, which was greeted with a standing ovation. And then came the remarks of Rashida Jones, who said of her father: “His music has literally defined an entire century of culture, spanning genres, jazz, disco, film, pop, R&B, hip-hop. But the real thread in his music is that his music is all infused with his love. That was his gift to us. So tonight, when you’re on your way home, I invite you to listen, because there’s so much to listen to.”