Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Reza wrote:This is just the Academy pandering the black card. Nothing else. It makes them look good with Tyson becoming the first African-American actress to win an honorary award.

This is really gross; you sound like a Deplorable.

Yes, the only reason black people are given awards is to appease PC culture /eyeroll.

And, I will name a prestige film where Tyson got good notices for playing a key supporting role: Fried Green Tomatoes

Cicely Tyson is also nominated for a Primetime Emmy this year for Guest Actress in a Drama Series for “How to Get Away with Murder” so I imagine this news was very exciting for her to cap off another successful year in her career.

You could make a case that the scarcity of roles for an actress as highly regarded as Cicely Tyson is more an indictment of Hollywood's neglect of black actresses than any failing on her part.

Cicely Tyson is an excellent choice. She is one of my cinema heroes, always riveting no matter how small her part.

I still maintain my stance on Tyson. Surely a career award must encompass more than one great part. Apart from Sounder name one big screen "prestige" film where she received acclaim. Of course she was good in all her films but to get an honorary Oscar for her big screen films is a bit of a laugh considering the list is so slim.

A friend had this to say when he heard about Tyson's honorary win:

"But people like Marsha Mason, Ann-Margret, Bette Midler are still Oscarless. If their CVs aren’t up to standards, what about foreigners like Albert Finney, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Louis Trintignant, or a Bollywood star or even a homegrown star like Doris Day?"

By the way I totally get Tyson's legendary status which is through her performances on tv. She was nominated 13 times for an Emmy, winning the award thrice. Give her a special Emmy instead.

This is just the Academy pandering the black card. Nothing else. It makes them look good with Tyson becoming the first African-American actress to win an honorary award.

Reza wrote:

anonymous1980 wrote:Honorary Oscars will go to Cicely Tyson, composer Lalo Schifrin and publicist Marvin Levy and the Irving G. Thalberg award will go to Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

A bit of a strange choice giving it to Cicely Tyson for her "career in films" especially since apart from Sounder she made no other significant film for the big screen. Her contributions have mainly been in television and on stage.

The choice of Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall for the Thalberg is most deserved. As is the award for Lalo Schifrin.

This is ridiculous. Cicely Tyson is a legend and has been appearing in the background of prestige films for decades. To categorize her as primarily a “stage and TV” actress is just plain wrong.

An excellent choice. I know that Honorary Oscars do not count towards an EGOT, but she already has several Emmys as well as a Tony.

Not a eclectic as last year's choices but just as deserving.

Reza wrote:
A bit of a strange choice giving it to Cicely Tyson for her "career in films" especially since apart from Sounder she made no other significant film for the big screen. Her contributions have mainly been in television and on stage.

The choice of Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall for the Thalberg is most deserved. As is the award for Lalo Schifrin.

Cicely Tyson is not a "strange" choice. She is a beloved figure in the U.S. who has been cited as a potential honoree for several years. While Sounder was her only starring role on the big screen, she has always been a welcome presence in smaller roles.

Ironically Lalo Schifrin is still best known for his Mission: Impossible theme music written for televison fifty-two years ago. If it weren't for the success of the current film franchise which uses that theme music but whose scores are written by others, I doubt they would even know who he is.

anonymous1980 wrote:Honorary Oscars will go to Cicely Tyson, composer Lalo Schifrin and publicist Marvin Levy and the Irving G. Thalberg award will go to Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

A bit of a strange choice giving it to Cicely Tyson for her "career in films" especially since apart from Sounder she made no other significant film for the big screen. Her contributions have mainly been in television and on stage.

The choice of Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall for the Thalberg is most deserved. As is the award for Lalo Schifrin.

Honorary Oscars will go to Cicely Tyson, composer Lalo Schifrin and publicist Marvin Levy and the Irving G. Thalberg award will go to Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

OscarGuy wrote:As to not expecting people to travel, with the Academy's vast resources, they could easily send someone to these "far away" places with a camera crew to either film or stream live an acceptance by the honored individual. Granted, If they have their ceremony at 7pm pacific, that's 3am in France, so it wouldn't necessarily do any good to have that one live.

Don't think that's ever going to be a problem with foreigners since they hardly give the honorary award to them - I think Piero Tosi was the last one and he accepted in person.

Some of the homegrown stars keep refusing because they can't be bothered to go the distance.

Kathleen Kennedy is long overdue for a Thalberg. I think she, more than any other producer out there, is the most deserving. They haven't given the Thalberg award out since 2010. That's 7 years of nothing, a fairly long stretch for the Academy. They've given out five Hersholts since then (none in 3 years), and four Sawyers (two in 2011, and they just gave one last year).

You would think that, in the latest dubbed Year of the Woman that they would finally find time to recognize one of the most successful and prolific female producers in history.

As to not expecting people to travel, with the Academy's vast resources, they could easily send someone to these "far away" places with a camera crew to either film or stream live an acceptance by the honored individual. Granted, If they have their ceremony at 7pm pacific, that's 3am in France, so it wouldn't necessarily do any good to have that one live.

Something tells me that they will be giving Kevin Feige, the producer and head of Marvel Studios, the Irving J. Thalberg Memorial award if not this year, then within the next few years. He's relatively young, currently only 45 but they gave Spielberg the Thalberg when he was only 39 so there's precedent. My guess it that they will present this in the ceremony so there will be a huge chunk of it devoted to Marvel movie clips and they will get more of the fan boy audience.

Reza wrote:If they can give it to Godard knowing he will not come I don't see why they can't give it to her.

They didn't know he would he wouldn't fly to L.A. to accept it, which I would personally consider being either very naive and/or stupid of the Academy. Anyway, Godard said that he couldn't fly because he couldn't go that long without smoking. As a non-smoker that sounds like a fair enough excuse. The way you see people franticly lighting up when coming out of buildings can only make me believe that flying must be a nightmare for some smokers.

Doris Day still remains high on my wish list. If they can give it to Godard knowing he will not come I don't see why they can't give it to her. Surely they could present it to her in her home like they did Mary Pickford.

Liv Ullmann and von Sydow are also on my wish list.

These are virtually impossible to predict but we all have our wish lists.

My two main hopefuls for this year are Max von Sydow & Piper Laurie. I think Harrison Ford could be a possibility and whilst far from the worlds best actor he had started in numerous box office hits. A true bona-fide star.

I would love to see Brian de Palma, Paul Schrader, Catherine Deneuve & Gerard Depardieu be honoured but in the era of MeToo I think they would be unlikely. Maybe next year for one or two of them.