Geena Davis Will Receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) said it will present David Lynch, Wes Studi and Lina Wertmüller with Honorary Awards at AMPAS’ 11th annual Governors Awards, scheduled for Sunday, October 27. At the same ceremony, Geena Davis will be given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, AMPAS said.
“These Governors Awards given by the Academy each year recognize individuals who have devoted themselves to a lifetime of artistic accomplishment and brought outstanding contributions to our industry, and beyond,” said AMPAS President John Bailey in a prepared statement. “It is with great pleasure that we announce this year’s recipients.”
David Lynch directing Laura Elena Harring in Mulholland Dr.
Courtesy AMPAS
David Lynch is a three-time Oscar nominee as director for The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr. His latest work is the 18-hour Showtime series Twin Peaks: The Return, which aired in 2017.
Wes Studi, a Cherokee-American actor, is known for playing Native American characters, for appearing in Dances with Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and Avatar and for starring in and producing The Only Good Indian.
Italian auteur Lina Wertmüller was widely celebrated for writing and directing Swept Away in 1974 before becoming the first woman ever to receive an Oscar nomination as director, for her 1975 feature Seven Beauties. (The next woman nominated was Jane Campion for 1993’s The Piano.)
Geena Davis is already an Oscar-winning actress for her performance in 1988’s The Accidental Tourist, but is receiving the Jean Hersholt award for her advocacy for gender equality in media. As examples, the Academy cited her work as founder and chair of the nonprofit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, her appointment as Special Envoy for Women and Girls in Information and Communication Technologies for the United Nations International Telecommunication Union in 2012, and her work as chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women.
AMPAS Honorary Awards “honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.” The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award goes to “an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”
AMPAS: www.oscars.org
