The Governors Awards presentation is an annual award ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center, in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.[1] Three awards that signify lifetime achievement within the film industry – the Academy Honorary Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award – are presented at this ceremony. The first Governors Awards ceremony was held on November 14, 2009. Prior to this, these three awards were formally presented during the main Academy Awards ceremony, which now conducts a short mention and appearance of the awards recipients after displaying a montage of the Governors Awards presentation. In the years since, the awards have gained prominence as a major red-carpet destination and industry event.
The Academy Honorary Awards and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards are both Oscar statuettes, while the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is a small bust of Thalberg on a plinth.
The Academy Honorary Award is given for "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy". The Thalberg Award is given to "a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production".[3]
The board members of AMPAS had previously been concerned about awarding more than one or two Honorary Academy Awards each year for fear of lengthening the main Academy Awards presentation but, in most iterations of the Governors Awards to date, they have awarded three Honorary Academy Awards. So far in the history of the Governors Awards, the Hersholt Award and the Thalberg Award have always been given on separate years.
The smaller presentation of the Governors Awards was designed to invoke the feel of the early Academy Award ceremonies.[4] During the event, several notable colleagues of the awardees give them tributes before they make an acceptance speech. Though the event has not been televised, thus far, the Academy posted most of the speeches for the 2013 and 2014 events online.
Since its inception, the event has become a major red-carpet stop for many prospective Oscar hopefuls, including actors and filmmakers, and is, in some ways, the first major stop of the seasonal Awards Circuit.[5]
The Academy held its 7th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 14, 2015. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs gave a speech in support of France following the November 2015 Paris attacks the day before. The following awards were presented.[11]
On December 22, 2021, the AMPAS announced that due to COVID-19 pandemic-related concerns—involving the widespread surge of the Omicron variant in the United States—that it "made the decision to change plans for hosting the ceremony in person on January 15, 2022," with a new date to be announced.[19] The ceremony would afterwards be held on the newly scheduled date of March 25, 2022.[16][17][20]
The Academy planned to hold its 14th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 18, 2023.[25] However, on September 6 it was moved to January 9, 2024 due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.[26] The ceremony was hosted by comedian John Mulaney.[27]
