LOS ANGELES – Glenn Close will finally hold an Oscar and deliver an acceptance speech Sunday night after coming close to winning eight times without taking home the prize.
Often cited among the greatest actors never to win a competitive Oscar, the 79-year-old Close will receive an honorary Academy Award honoring a remarkable five-decade career. The ceremony will take place at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood, the same complex that hosts the Academy Awards.
Ridley Scott will also receive an honorary Oscar. The 88-year-old filmmaker behind “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator” has combined blockbuster appeal with critical acclaim throughout his career. Yet he has never won, despite four nominations, including best director bids for “Thelma & Louise” and “Black Hawk Down.” Scott will not attend and will accept the honor in a recorded video.
Disney animator Floyd Norman and Killer Films producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler will also be recognized.
Close’s eight nominations tie her with Peter O’Toole for the record number of Oscar nominations by an actor who has never won.
Her first nomination came in 1983 for “The World According to Garp.” She later earned recognition for her acclaimed performance as a rabbit-slaying stalker in the 1987 blockbuster “Fatal Attraction.” Her most recent nomination was for 2020’s “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“I got my first Oscar nomination 43 years ago,” Close told The Associated Press this week. “So it’s been a life, you know? And it’s overwhelming.”
Over the course of her career, she has won nearly every other major entertainment honor, including three Emmys, three Tonys and three Golden Globes.
The Governors Awards frequently honor artists whose extraordinary careers have not brought them a competitive Oscar. Tom Cruise, who received an award last year, is one example.
The event takes its name from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Unlike competitive Oscars, the honors are selected by a committee rather than by the full Academy. The lifetime achievement awards were once presented during the Academy Awards, but since 2009 they have been given at a separate, nontelevised ceremony.
In addition to colleagues and other industry luminaries connected to the honorees, the event increasingly draws young stars as it has become an unofficial launch point for Hollywood’s awards-season campaigning.
Norman, 91, started his 65-year career in 1956, becoming the first Black animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. His work contributed to films including “Sleeping Beauty,” “101 Dalmatians” and “The Jungle Book.” He went on to work on later hits such as “Mulan,” “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Norman told AP this week. “It’s mind-boggling. I’m certainly grateful and thankful. It’s the last thing I could ever have expected in a long, long career.”
Vachon and Koffler will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which honors “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”
They are the first female producing team and the first independent producers to receive the award.
Vachon and Koffler co-founded the New York-based independent production company Killer Films in 1995. Their producing credits include “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “One Hour Photo” and “May December.” Both received best picture Oscar nominations for “Past Lives” in 2024.
Other Killer Films productions include “Velvet Goldmine,” “Happiness,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Far from Heaven” and “Carol.”
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