photo (c) AMPAS all rights reserved.

by Marla Lewin

The inaugural Governors Awards event of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be held on November 14, Academy President Tom Sherak announced today. Oscar® winners Jonathan Demme, Anjelica Huston and Quentin Tarantino, along with past Honorary Award recipient Kirk Douglas, will be among the presenters. The evening will feature presentations of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producer-executive John Calley, and Honorary Awards to actress Lauren Bacall, producer-director Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis.

Demme, Douglas, Huston and Tarantino will join 600 invited guests at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center® to celebrate the careers of Bacall, Calley, Corman and Willis, who each have made lasting contributions to the motion picture industry.

They will each receive an Honorary Award, which is an Oscar statuette, for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”

The Thalberg Award, a bust of the legendary motion picture executive, is given to “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”

The Governors Awards presentation is being produced for the Academy by Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen in association with Emmy®-winning producer Don Mischer. It will be a black-tie dinner event and will include film clips as well as remarks from the honorees, their colleagues and admirers.