The golden envelopes won’t open until March 26, but Oscar is already shining for two honorary recipients.
Warren Beatty has been named the recipient for the Irving G. Thalberg Award for career achievement in film. The award, named after former MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, who died of pneumonia at age 37, honors outstanding film producers. Beatty is the only person to be nominated for producer, director, writer and actor at the same time twice, for 1978’s “Heaven Can Wait” and 1981’s “Reds.” Four of the films he has produced have been nominated for Best Picture — “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Reds” and “Bugsy.”
An Honorary Academy Award will also be given to Polish director Andrzej Wajda, who introduced films that depict the effects of war, including “A Generation” (1957), “Kanal” (1957) and “Ashes and Diamonds” (1958). He later made romantic films, comedies, epics and dramas, but returned to the battlefield numerous times. His controversial film “Man of Iron” (1981), chronicling the solidarity movement in Poland, was submitted to the Academy for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film. The Polish government unsuccessfully tried to withdraw the film, and it was eventually nominated.
MORE AWARDS: The Producers Guild of America has announced the list of nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Theatrical Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award.
The Golden Laurel hopefuls are: Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks for “American Beauty;” Michael Stipe, Sandy Stern, Steve Golin and Vincent Landay for “Being John Malkovich;” Richard N. Gladstein for “The Cider House Rules;” Armyan Bernstein, John Ketcham and Norman Jewison for “The Hurricane;” and Michael Mann and Jan Pieter Brugge for “The Insider.”
The awards ceremony will take place at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on Mar. 2.
