Quincy Jones had already written his speech accepting the honorary Oscar this 12 months on the Motion Picture Academy’s annual Governors Awards.
But he died two weeks earlier than Sunday’s ceremony, so it was left to his daughter Rashida Jones to ship his phrases.
“He has so many pals on this room — nicely, truly, most likely in each room, if I’m being sincere,” Jones mentioned, standing on stage with three of his brothers. Reading her father’s speech, which outlined his dream of making movie music and making “society and the world a extra understanding and welcoming place for all of us to exist,” Jones was typically overcome with emotion.
“In some methods, it was a tough determination for our household to be right here tonight, however we felt we needed to have a good time her stunning life and profession,” she mentioned, after a presentation that included an introduction by Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson to the leads a dozen gospel singers. “He infused love into each single second of the music he made. That was his true legacy.
Jennifer Hudson performs on the 2024 Governors Awards.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
It was probably the most emotionally charged second throughout the Governors Awards ceremony, a night that options the honorary Oscars that had been as soon as a part of the televised Academy Awards and in addition serves as a marketing campaign cease for contenders making an attempt to seize what publicists name “face time” with the academy. voters.
On the latter entrance, the studios and streamers behind high-profile awards season contenders like “Anora,” “The Substance” and “Emilia Pérez” have put aside $1,000 per ticket to attend the ceremony.
Jones, one of the crucial influential forces in fashionable American music, has earned seven Oscar nominations in his lengthy profession, principally for his work on soundtracks and songs, although he additionally obtained credit score as a producer on Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of “The Color”. Viola.” Jones obtained the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995making this his second honorary Oscar.
“Nickel Boys” actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor was among the many Oscar contenders in attendance on the 2024 Governors Awards.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Richard Curtis, writer of the beloved romantic comedies “Four Weddings at a Funeral” and “Noting Hill,” co-wrote the primary “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and wrote and directed the polarizing “Love Actually,” a movie that’s grew to become successful. vacation perennial, this 12 months it gained the Hersholt Award.
The academy paid tribute to Curtis for his tireless charitable work as co-founder of Comic Relief, producer of Red Nose Day and for his efforts to finish world poverty via teams reminiscent of Make Poverty History.
Hugh Grant, who starred in “Four Weddings,” “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually,” launched Curtis, utilizing his dry wit to recall the start of their artistic collaboration in “Four Weddings.”
“I went to the audition and, frankly, I used to be fairly good, and it was nice as a result of the director, Mike Newell, appreciated me, and he needed me, and the producer appreciated me and needed me, and folks needed the cash. The solely one that did not need me, and in reality had such a direct and violent aversion in the direction of me that he did every part in his energy to forestall me from getting the half, was the author. And it’s this donkey that we honor tonight,” Grant mentioned.
Hugh Grant, on stage, provides Richard Curtis, on display, his honorary Oscar.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“Shall we name him Oscar?” Grant mirrored, concluding his speech. “It’s a type of Oscar. It’s an Oscar higher than nothing.” Turning to Curtis, Grant added that he hoped they might work collectively yet one more time, maybe on “Four Funerals and a Wedding.”
In accepting the award, Curtis good-naturedly reciprocated the feelings of Grant’s presentation.
“I used to be so intrigued by how Hugh would remodel his infamously unsatisfying character to current me with this award, and he did nothing,” Curtis mentioned. “He has by no means been in a position to act a lot and would most likely be past his means.”
He inspired anybody within the viewers who had been unhappy over the previous two weeks to maintain believing. Noting that folks typically consider his movies as being held collectively by pop songs, Curtis cited the Queen and David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure,” saying that “in darkish instances, the catalyst that may in the end make the distinction for many amongst folks it will not be violence, it will not be aggression, however love.”
Nicole Kidman hugs honoree Juliet Taylor on the Governors Awards.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Casting director Juliet Taylor obtained an honorary Oscar for a profession spanning fifty years. Taylor began with “The Exorcist,” discovering Linda Blair. With greater than 100 credit, he starred within the forged of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Schindler’s List,” Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” James L. Brooks’ “Terms of Endearment,” “Sleepless Sleep” love” by Nora Ephron and 43 movies for Woody Allen, together with the Oscar-winning greatest movie “Annie Hall”.
He cited Allen because the “director who actually modified my life along with his loyalty and assist.”
“Working with him was each casting director’s dream as a result of he was so open and so humble,” Taylor mentioned, accepting the Oscar after a speech by Nicole Kidman. “I may be at liberty to throw out the wildest concepts, and Woody would simply elevate his eyebrows and say, ‘Uh-huh.’ And if he had an concept I did not like, I may say, “Oh, Woody, that is a horrible concept.” And he simply laughed.
Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, producers of the James Bond movies, settle for an honorary Oscar from the newest actor to play the function, Daniel Craig.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
James Bond collection producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael J. Wilson have obtained the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, celebrating the producers’ work. The two half-brothers produced 9 Bond movies, beginning with 1995’s “GoldenEye,” via their EON Productions. (The half-brothers’ father, producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, predeceased them.)
“I’m deeply grateful and deeply moved as a result of I noticed my father settle for this award in 1981,” Broccoli mentioned. “A rustic boy who made his technique to Hollywood, this award was his most prized possession. My father was and at all times might be my guiding star. Thank you, Dad, for giving me the most effective life conceivable.”
