Quincy Jones, ‘James Bond’ Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, Richard Curtis, Juliet Taylor to Receive Honorary Oscars
Today, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that producer Quincy Jones and casting director Juliet Taylor. Screenwriter and director Richard Curtis will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will be given with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. All awards are now given as official Oscar statuettes and will be presented at the 15th annual ceremony on Sunday, November 17, in Los Angeles.
“The recipients of this year’s Governors Awards have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers, and the Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to recognize them with Oscars,” said Janet Yang, Academy President. “The selection of Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli is a testament to their success as producers of the fan-favorite Bond series and their contribution to the industry’s theatrical landscape. Richard Curtis is a brilliant comedic storyteller whose tremendous charitable efforts embody the meaning of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Quincy Jones’s artistic genius and relentless creativity have made him one of the most influential musical figures of all time. Juliet Taylor has cast iconic and beloved films and paved a new path for the field. Their profound love of cinema and indelible contribution to our art form make these five individuals truly deserving of these honors.”
Jones, a seven-time Oscar nominee and the first Black producer of a Best Picture nominee (1985’s The Color Purple) was the 1995 recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. His other six competitive nominations came in the music categories for The Color Purple, The Wiz (1978), For Love of Ivy (1968), Banning (1967) and In Cold Blood (1967). He became the first Black composer to be nominated for original song for the song “The Eyes of Love” from Banning.
Broccoli and Wilson are behind one of the highest grossing film franchises of all time with James Bond, including Casino Royale, Skyfall and No Time to Die in the Daniel Craig era of 007. They also serve as directors of the Broccoli Foundation, founded by Dana and Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli to support the arts, medicine, and education. Cubby Broccoli received the Thalberg Award in 1981. Barbara Broccoli is only the second woman to receive the Thalberg Award after Kathleen Kennedy was the recipient in 2018.
The now-retired Taylor’s 50-year career saw her casting Taxi Driver, Big, Schindler’s List, Mississippi Burning, The Grifters, and Sleepless in Seattle as well as every Woody Allen film up to 2016’s Cafe Society. Just this year the Academy’s Board of Governors added a new Oscar category for casting directors, the first new category in over 20 years. It goes into effect in two years.
Curtis was Oscar-nominated in Original Screenplay for the 1994 comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, which was also nominated for Best Picture and also wrote and directed the 2003 classic Love Actually as well as scripted the hits Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill. He’s also the co-founder of Comic Relief UK and USA, and his fundraising work over 40 years has helped raise more than $2 billion and supported over 170 million people. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty History and helped produce the Live 8 concerts.
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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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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