The annual Governor’s Awards, the place honorary awards are introduced by The Academy of Movement Image Arts & Sciences, are normally a celebration. This yr’s fifteenth version was a cheerful event too, but it surely was muted by the truth that one of many honorees, Quincy Jones, died on Nov. 3, simply two weeks earlier than the awards have been introduced on Sunday, Nov. 17, on the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood.
Jones’ daughter, actress Rashida Jones, spoke for the household in accepting the award. “In some methods it was a troublesome resolution for our household to be right here tonight however we felt like we needed to have a good time his lovely life and profession,” she stated. “His music has actually outlined a whole century of tradition – jazz, disco, movie, pop, hip-hop, however the true thread in his music is that his music is all infused along with his love.”
This yr’s different honorees, voted on by the Academy’s board of governors and introduced in June, have been casting director Juliet Taylor; filmmaker and philanthropist Richard Curtis (the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award); and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, finest identified for the James Bond franchise (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award).
Jones’ award was introduced “for his inventive genius, relentless creativity and trailblazing legacy in movie music.” Curtis was honored “for his extraordinary charitable work that has reworked lives around the globe.” Taylor was cited “for her expansive physique of labor and indelible affect on the sector of movie casting.” Wilson and Broccoli have been honored “for his or her persistently prime quality, excessive influence movement image manufacturing.”
The occasion was produced by Jennifer Fox for the sixth yr in a row. Rickey Minor was music director.
Listed below are eight highlights from the 2024 Governor’s Awards.
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Jennifer Hudson Takes Us to Church
Jennifer Hudson led a 12-member gospel choir on a rousing model of “Possibly God Is Tryin’ to Inform You One thing’,” a music from the 1985 movie The Coloration Purple, for which Jones acquired three of his seven profession Oscar nominations. Left unsaid was that Hudson’s profession and EGOT standing could be unimaginable with out Jones’ trailblazing efforts earlier than she was even born.
(Hudson carried out Lesley Gore’s Jones-produced hit “You Don’t Personal Me” at a ninetieth birthday live performance for Jones on the Hollywood Bowl in July 2023.)
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Jamie Foxx Informed How Jones Helped Him Play Ray Charles
After Jamie Foxx was forged to play Ray Charles within the 2004 biopic Ray, he referred to as Jones, who had been associates with Charles since they have been youngsters, to see if he may present any pointers. Jones invited him to his home and dug via bins to discover a cassette of a classic Charles efficiency – which Foxx discovered useful as soon as he was in a position to find a cassette participant. Foxx gained an Oscar for his portrayal.
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A Daughter’s Tribute
Rashida Jones stated “Our father handed away two weeks in the past as we speak. 4 of the seven of [Jones’ children] are right here and our lovely household within the viewers and he has so many associates on this room – nicely, really in all probability in each room if I’m being trustworthy as a result of wherever he went he made connections with everybody. He had this pure reward with individuals. He knew how one can keep current, keep curious and keep loving.”
Jones additionally urged individuals within the viewers to discover Jones’ music, and never simply the well-known movie scores and triumphs with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra.
“There’s a whole universe ready in his seven many years of music and whilst you pay attention, hear how he imbued love into each single second of music he made. That was his actual legacy. He liked life. He usually stated ‘Reside on daily basis prefer it’s your final and sooner or later you’ll be proper.’”
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In Jones’ Personal Phrases
Rashida Jones stated her father “actually, actually, actually supposed on being right here with us tonight.” She added the “he final month we now have been engaged on a speech. And so right here it’s in its personal phrases.”
The spotlight of Quincy Jones’ remarks was this look again at how a lot the movie business has modified. “We’ve come a great distance in our business. Once I was a younger movie composer you didn’t even see faces of coloration working within the studio system. I’m so, so pleased with the truth that my identify and contributions may be included in that evolution as we speak. I’m past grateful to compose greater than 35 scores.”
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Proof of Q’s Enduring Affect
Even earlier than this system started, there was proof of Jones’ enduring affect. Over the audio system we heard such pop hits as Janet Jackson’s “Once I Consider You” and Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know.” Jones didn’t produce both of these data – Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis produced Jackson’s smash; Narada Michael Walden produced Houston’s – however they might be the primary to acknowledge how a lot they have been influenced by Q’s sound and elegance on these hits.
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Richard Curtis Invokes a Hit by Queen & David Bowie
It took an Englishman, Richard Curtis, to be the primary one to touch upon the latest U.S. presidential election. “It’s been a really unusual fortnight,” he stated. “To everybody who’s been unhappy,” he provided a music in step with the present temper – Queen and David Bowie’s 1981 hit “Underneath Stress.” He instructed that he was an excellent one to recommend a music as a result of his films are “so usually glued collectively by pop songs.”
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Prospering within the Household Enterprise
Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli acquired the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, 43 years after their father, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, acquired the glory. The offspring have stored the James Bond franchise alive and related in a a lot totally different time than when the franchise first launched in 1962. All three of the Bond songs to win Oscars for finest authentic music – Adele’s “Skyfall,” Sam Smith‘s “Writing’s on the Wall” and Billie Eilish‘s “No Time to Die” – have come below Wilson and Broccoli’s watch. Daniel Craig, who has starred within the final 5 Bond movies, introduced the award to Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
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Tweaking the Governor’s Awards
Richard Curtis and certainly one of his prime stars, Hugh Grant, who displayed a mock prickly relationship, had a bit enjoyable with the Governor’s Awards and whether or not they need to or shouldn’t depend as an Oscar.
Grant, who grew to become a global star within the 1994 movie 4 Weddings and a Funeral, which Curtis wrote, and had one other massive hit within the 2003 ensemble piece Love Really, which Curtis each wrote and directed, stated “Would we name it an Oscar? It’s form of an Oscar. It’s a better-than-nothing Oscar.”
Curtis roughly agreed when he accepted his award. “It’s the Oscar for individuals who by no means made a movie ok to win an Oscar.”
