The Academy Honorary Awards are often a way to rewrite Oscar history. This year the Academy will do just that by giving Glenn Close her first Oscar.C
The Academy Honorary Awards are often a way to rewrite Oscar history. This year the Academy will do just that by giving Glenn Close her first Oscar.
Close will be honored at the Academy’s 17th Governors Awards event on November 15, along with director Ridley Scott, animator Floyd Norman, and producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler.
With eight career noms, Close is tied with Peter O’Toole as the actor who’s gotten the most nominations without any competitive wins. (O’Toole, in 2003, was also given an honorary Oscar.) Close has been nominated for her performances in The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs, The Wife, and Hillbilly Elegy. She will next be seen in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, out in November.
Like Close, Scott has never won an Oscar, though he’s been nominated for directing Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down; he also got a best-picture nomination for The Martian. The prolific director’s filmography over six decades has also included Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Prometheus, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, and Napoleon. His next film, The Dog Stars, comes out later this year.
An animator and storyboard artist, Norman joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1956 and was the studio’s first Black animator. His first Disney feature film was Sleeping Beauty, and he also worked on The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and Robin Hood.
Vachon and Koffler will be given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which is “presented to a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.” They founded the New York–based independent production company Killer Films in 1995. The pair, considered titans in the indie space, previously earned an Oscar nomination in 2024 for Past Lives, which was nominated for best picture. Their other film credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch, One Hour Photo, May December, and Materialists.
The Governors Awards ceremony is always a star-studded event held during the peak of awards season, where Oscar contenders can mingle and campaign among many of Hollywood’s most notable storytellers. The event is also a lovely way to honor film history. Close has worked with many of the most influential filmmakers of the past few decades; she told Vanity Fair last year that World According to Garp director George Roy Hill once asked her to mention his name if she ever won an Oscar. She still considers him one of the people who most impacted her career. “Of course, if I ever do, I will,” she said. Looks like this fall, she’ll finally get the chance.
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