WATCH: Spike Lee, Gena Rowlands, Debbie Reynolds Receive Honorary Oscars at Governors Awards

Often the Governors Awards are a bit overshadowed with a slew of current year Oscar contenders acting like politicians scrounging up votes but we can’t forget the real reason they exist and that’s to honor people within the film industry who have made a real impact on cinema and movie making through their art or through their humanitarian efforts.

This year, two-time Oscar-nominee Spike Lee (Original Screenplay, Do the Right Thing – 1989; Documentary Feature, 4 Little Girls – 1997) and two-time Oscar nominee Gena Rowlands (Best Actress, A Woman Under the Influence – 1974; Best Actress, Gloria – 1980) are now Oscar winners. Oscar nominee Debbie Reynolds (Best Actress, The Unsinkable Molly Brown – 1964) was rewarded with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her efforts in maintaining some of Hollywood’s most cherished and iconic costumes, including the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz as well as decades of charitable work for children and as President of The Thalians, an organization for the treatment of mental health at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles.

Here are Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes honoring Spike Lee:

Here is Gena Rowlands accepting her honor:

Meryl Streep presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Debbie Reynolds, who could not attend, but gives a beautiful speech via telephone. Her granddaughter Billie Lourd (Scream Queens) accepts on her behalf:

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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