Quincy Jones, James Bond producers set to receive honorary Oscars at the Governors Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its lineup of honorees for the 2024 Governors Awards on Wednesday, spotlighting the illustrious careers of music producer Quincy Jones, casting director Juliet Taylor, "Love, Actually" director Richard Curtis and James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
The awards will be conferred at the academy’s 15th Governors Awards on Nov. 17 in Los Angeles.
In recognition of his seven-decade career in film and music, Jones will receive an honorary Academy Award. Jones began his career as a jazz arranger and conductor, working with legends like Ray Charles and Dizzy Gillespie, before transitioning to film scoring in the 1960s on films like "The Pawnbroker" and "In the Heat of the Night." In addition to his pioneering musical achievements — including collaborations with Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson, whose smash albums "Off the Wall," "Thriller," and "Bad" he produced — Jones was the first Black composer to be nominated for an original song Oscar for "The Eyes of Love" from the 1967 film "Banning." Throughout his career, Jones has received seven nominations for his work on films including "In Cold Blood," "The Wiz" and "The Color Purple" but has never won a competitive Oscar.
Taylor, whose sharp eye for talent has shaped the casts of numerous acclaimed films, also will receive an honorary Oscar for her lifetime achievement in Hollywood. In addition to casting seminal movies such as "The Exorcist," "Taxi Driver" and "Schindler's List," Taylor is perhaps best known for her frequent collaborations with Woody Allen, for whom she cast 43 movies beginning with 1975's "Love and Death" and including "Annie Hall," "Manhattan," "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Midnight in Paris." Taylor is only the second casting director to earn an honorary Oscar following 2016 honoree Lynn Stalmaster. Earlier this year, the academy announced the creation of a new Oscar for casting, which it will begin handing out in 2026.
British filmmaker Curtis, who will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, is celebrated not only for his witty, much-loved romantic comedies like "Notting Hill" and "Love, Actually" but also for his extensive charitable work. In 1985, Curtis co-founded Comic Relief, a charity that has raised more than $2 billion by leveraging the power of comedy to help address poverty, food insecurity and other social causes. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty History and helped produce the Live 8 concerts. Most recently, he co-founded the group Project Everyone to support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and established the ethical investment campaign Make My Money Matter.
Wilson and Broccoli, the producing masterminds behind the James Bond franchise, will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which is presented to creative producers “whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion-picture production.” Under their stewardship, the long-running 007 series has not only maintained its relevance but delivered many of its biggest box office hits, including “Casino Royale,” “Quantum of Solace,” “Skyfall,” “Spectre” and “No Time to Die.” Wilson and Broccoli have produced and executive produced independent film projects such as “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” “Nancy" and “Till.” Broccoli — whose father, Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, received the Thalberg Award in 1981 — is only the second woman to receive the Thalberg Award following Kathleen Kennedy, who earned it in 2018.
In a statement, Academy President Janet Yang said this year's recipients "have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers. … Their profound love of cinema and indelible contribution to our art form make these five individuals truly deserving of these honors.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
