The Governors Awards, which deliver seriously mixed messages Saturday night at Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, are back.
On one hand, the three-plus-hour ceremony delivered Honorary Academy Awards to directors Peter Weir and Euzhan Palcy and songwriter Diane Warren, plus the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to actor and Parkinson’s disease activist Michael J. Fox. This part of the evening was both a celebration as well as a history lesson. There were many standing ovations, and even some tears.
The awards are also given at a time when pre-Oscar voting is about to begin in three weeks. This lure of placing their top contenders before a room full Academy voters and journalists was enough to convince studios to spend in excess of five figures to fill the tables packed tightly into a large ballroom.
The event was also a campaign event and handed out Academy Awards. It also doubled as an Oscar ceremony. The guests of honor were Weir, Palcy, Warren and Fox, and the people honoring them were Jeff Bridges, Viola Davis, Cher and Woody Harrelson – but beyond that, the room couldn’t help but focus on Cate Blanchett, Jessica Chastain, Damien Chazelle, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Dano, Guillermo del Toro, Laura Dern, Colin Farrell, Greta Gerwig, Tom Hanks, Rian Johnson, Zoe Kazan, Jennifer Lawrence, Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Florence Pugh, Eddie Redmayne, Margot Robbie, Adam Sandler, Jeremy Strong, Michelle Williams, Michelle Yeoh and many, many more.
The industry’s conflicted feelings toward the Governors Awards were made pretty clear in March of this year, when the pandemic caused the show to be moved to the Friday before the Oscars. At that point, all the Oscar votes had already been cast — and lacking any reason to show up and campaign, stars and studios mostly didn’t show up at all. You could have counted the number of Oscar nominees in the room on one hand, and the studio heads in attendance consisted of Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker and … well, I’m sure all the others had important things they needed to do instead.
The Fairmont Century Plaza’s ballroom filled up with creators and cast members of every major movie that had a chance to win an Oscar nomination. It was hard to believe they were not there to celebrate either the artistic talent of Warren, Palcy or Weir or the humanitarianism and generosity of Fox.
Still, the Governors Awards have always had a way of wresting attention away from the wannabe nominees and putting it on the night’s recipients. And it’s not as if all those contenders were doing any overt campaigning. It was one time. “Babylon” director Damien Chazelle and “Armageddon Time” director James Gray could be found discussing the merits of Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieślowski, while at another “Last Film Show” director Pan Nalin gave “The Fabelmans” star Gabriel LaBelle a rundown of the rather astounding list of similarities between his film, India’s Oscar entry, and LaBelle’s movie in which the young actor plays a version of the teenage Steven Spielberg.
Eddie Redmayne spoke with Greta Gerwig about the delights and drawbacks associated with living in London. He lives there, and she was only nine months away from shooting. “Barbie”Michelle Williams, meanwhile, spoke out about her visit to New York with her newborn baby (less than two months) while her co-star in “The Fabelmans,”Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan were there with their three-week-old baby. “They’ve been each other’s first playdates,”She spoke.
Academy President Janet Yang introduced the ceremony. Mindy Kaling hosted it. Mindy Kaling’s brief opening monologue was probably her best. “A Dry White Season,”A notable film by Euzhan Palcy was “until recently, how I referred to awards season.”
Kaling handed the proceedings to Woody Harrelson who had more laughs when he introduced Michael J. Fox. Fox. “Cheers”And “Family Ties,”They laughed about being “’80s famous”It involved some carousing and a lot of sex. But Harrelson also got serious when he talked about Fox’s life after his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29, calling him “someone whose immeasurable talent is surpassed only by the depth of his courage and his commitment to a cause.”
Fox, who arrived at the ceremony in a wheelchair, walked to the stage to receive his Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and immediately poked fun at himself and the audience that gave him the first of the night’s many standing ovations. “Stop it,”As his right hand was twitching on the podium, he said. “You’re making me shake.”
Fox called Hersholt “a wholly unexpected honor”He then spoke about how a history teacher discouraged him from becoming an actor. “He said, ‘Fox, you’re not gonna be cute forever,’”He said. “I said, ‘Maybe just long enough.’ Turns out we were both right.”
Cher was dressed in a hot pink jacket and miniskirt to present Diane Warren with an honorary Oscar. She is the first songwriter to be awarded this honor. Warren’s futility at the Academy Awards has been the stuff of legend: She’s been nominated 13 times, including seven times in the last eight years, but has never won, although few people have enjoyed being in the race as much as she has.
“Every song she writes, she calls me and says, ‘This is the greatest song I’ve ever written,’” Cher said in a video about Warren’s career – and when the video ended, the singer shared one last memory of Warren “following me into an Al-Anon meeting to play me a song.”She laughed and held the Honorary Oscar. “I am so thrilled to present this to you. You’ve waited so f—ing long.”
Warren stood for another long standing ovation and looked at the Oscar, before addressing her mother. “Mom?”She spoke. “I finally found a man. I know you wanted him to be a nice Jewish boy, but it’s hard to tell.”She smiled. “I’ve waited 34 years to say this: I’d like to thank the Academy.”
The prolific songwriter teared up during her speech when talking about her parents – her father encouraged her songwriting but her mother did not – and then ended by going back to “the words I never thought I’d get to say but always hoped I would: I’d like to thank the Academy.”
Jeff Bridges then followed with a laconic and rambling introduction to Peter Weir (Australian director), with whom he had worked. “Fearless”2006 In 2006. “missing chapter” of the Bible and also found the director explaining that he became known for cutting lines from his films because he didn’t like the over-emoting of Australia’s stage-trailed actors.
Then he noted the fact that his Oscar had been voted by the Academy’s Board of Governors. “Board of Governors – it’s a sound I like very much,”He said. “It has a short of medieval tinge to it.”
By choice, Weir hasn’t made a movie for the past 12 years – but the final honoree, Martinique-born director Euzhan Palcy, hasn’t done so for 30 years, since the 1992 musical “Siméon.”With the Apartheid drama, she was the first Black woman to direct a major-studio feature. “A Dry White Season”1989
“As a Black woman artist, I feel I am always defending my womanhood and my Blackness,”Viola Davis was the one who introduced Palcy. “You said, ‘I ain’t gonna do that. I am going to wait for the work that is worthy of me.’”
Palcy’s 1983 breakthrough film is just one of her other films. “Sugar Cane Alley,”She related a similar story in her own comments. “I stepped back so I could truly stand up and stand tall,”She spoke. “I was so tired of being told that I was a foreigner. I was tired of being told I was the first of too many firsts, but being denied the chance to do my work.”
Later, she retorted more forcefully. “Why did I keep my silence? I was tired of hearing those words, ‘Black is not bankable. Female is not bankable. Black and female is not bankable.”
She stopped, then pointed to Davis. “C’mon, guys, look at my sister!”Davis was Davis’s first. “Black is bankable. Female is bankable. Black and female is bankable.”She ended her speech with a plea for change “Camera. Sound. And…action.”
After the ceremony, large crowds gathered in front of the honorees. “Glass Onion”Rian Johnson, director, talked about the success of the event. Diane Warren was photographed with a group of admirers, including Carter Burwell and Justin Hurwitz.
Looking at the Oscar in her hand – which, unlike the competitive Oscars handed out during the Academy Awards show, was already engraved with her name – she shook her head. “Is this real?”She asked. “It’s already got my f—ing name on it!”