ARTNEWSPRESS: The honorary Oscars were handed out at the Academy’s 11th Annual Governors Awards on 27 October at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Centre. The night kicked off with an honorary Oscar for David Lynch, the surrealist auteur who has been nominated three times for best director but never won.
Vanity Fair reported that the filmmaker kept his acceptance speech extremely brief and said, “To the Academy and everyone who helped me along the way, thanks.” Then he addressed his Oscar statuette, “You have a very nice face. Good night.”
Regarded as one of the greatest American filmmakers of his generation, Lynch is the enigmatic director of cult classics such as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, as well as television’s Twin Peaks.
He was introduced by Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan, who have both acted in several of his films. The pair paid tribute to Lynch as a “modern Renaissance man.” “David is a man who dares to invent and to create and challenge himself, every single day,” said Dern, according to Agence France-Presse.
The honorary Oscars are given “to honour extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
Besides Lynch, actor Wes Studi and Italian director-screenwriter Lina Wertmüller were also recognised. Geena Davis was felicitated with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. It is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”
It was previously reported that Lynch has been raising funds to direct his film adaptation of Alan Greenberg’s 1983 novel Love in Vain: The Life and Legends of Robert Johnson, reported NME. The story revolves around the Mississippi Delta blues musician Robert Johnson.
(With inputs from Agence France-Presse)
Watch Lynch’s speech here.
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