At 97, American director Mel Brooks received an honorary Oscar on Tuesday for his entire body of work, more than half a century after winning his only Oscar for the film The producersin which he ridiculed Hitler.
During the evening of the Governors Awards, which each year honor four beloved industry veterans, Mel Brook joked that he was remorseful about the fate of his previous Oscar, received for best original screenplay. ” I really miss him. I should never have sold it”he said. “I will not sell this one, I swear to God”he said.
Became a master of Hollywood comedy cinema, notably cultivating bad taste while denouncing racial bigotry in other films, such as The sheriff is in jailMel Brooks is one of the few to have won the biggest awards in American entertainment.
The Governors Awards are organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and generally celebrate figures from the film industry who have not received an award at the Oscars. Editor Carol Littleton was also rewarded on Tuesday, as was Sundance festival star Michelle Satter.
A tribute to Hollywood’s black pioneers
Twice nominated for the Oscars, Angela Bassett, 64, known in particular for her incarnation of Tina Turner in the biopic on the star, released in 1993, What’s Love Got to Do With Itand Queen Ramonda, in the 2022 superhero sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Foreveralso received an honorary Oscar.
Eclectic, the actress has played in action films, such as The White House fall And Mission: Impossible: Falloutthe horror series American Horror Story and even lent her voice to Michelle Obama in The simpsons.
Recalling that she was only the second black actress to win an honorary Oscar, after Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett paid tribute to other black pioneers in Hollywood, such as Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar for Gone with the wind in 1940. It would be another half century before Hattie McDaniel would be followed by actress Whoopi Goldberg. “My wish is that we leave this industry more enriched, forward-thinking and inclusive than we found it”said Angela Bassett.