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    Sutherland, Burnett, Roizman, Varda to get honorary Oscars

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    In this May 24, 2015, file photo, director Agnes Varda reacts as she walks on stage to be presented the honorary Palme d'Or award during the awards ceremony at the 68th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

    By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    Actor Donald Sutherland, writer-director Charles Burnett, cinematographer Owen Roizman and Belgian director Agnes Varda are getting honorary Oscars this year.

    The film academy said Wednesday that the four honorees will receive their Oscar statuettes at the ninth annual Governors Awards ceremony in November.

    "I'm just so pleased with these four very different kinds of people, their different crafts and the different kinds of films that they make," academy president John Bailey said in an interview. "This shows the best of the whole notion of what the academy and the governors of the academy espouse to do, which is honor many different kinds of filmmakers."

    The board of governors selected the honorees Tuesday night. None has previously won an Oscar, Bailey said.

    "One of the things that's so wonderful about these (recipients) is they can come from anywhere inside the filmmaking community," he said. "These are our awards. These are the people that we feel we want to single out."

    Burnett is an independent filmmaker whose work has been celebrated for its portrayals of the African-American experience. He wrote, directed, produced, shot and edited his first film, "Killer of Sheep," in 1977.

    Roizman has received five Academy Award nominations for his work on such films as "The French Connection," ''The Exorcist" and "Network." He also served as a governor of the academy's cinematography branch from 2002 to 2011.

    The 89-year-old Varda wrote and directed her first feature film in 1956 and released her latest film this year.

    "She made the first truly French new wave film in 1955," Bailey said. "It's only been in the last decade that really, internationally, people have understood what an important filmmaker she has been and continues to be."

    Sutherland has appeared in more than 140 films, including "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," ''Ordinary People" and "The Hunger Games" series.

    The private, untelevised Governors Awards gala is set for November 11 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom, just upstairs from the Dolby Theatre, where the 90th Academy Awards will be presented on March 4, 2018.

    Tags:Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAgnes VardaCharles BurnettDonald SutherlandOwen Roizman



    Chuck Woolery, host of “Love Connection” and “Scrabble,” dies at 83

    Sunday, November 24, 2024
    Chuck Woolery hosts a special premiere of the "$250,000 Game Show Spectacular" at the Las Vegas Hilton Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

    Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of "Wheel of Fortune," "Love Connection" and "Scrabble" who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83.

    Mark Young, Woolery's podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. "Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him," Young wrote.

    Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.

    In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV's "Love Connection," for which he coined the phrase, "We'll be back in two minutes and two seconds," a two-fingered signature dubbed the "2 and 2." In 1984, he hosted TV's "Scrabble," simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990.

    "Love Connection," which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then pick one for a date.

    A couple of weeks after the date, the guest would sit with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everybody about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest's choice, "Love Connection" would offer to pay for a second date.

    Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite set of lovebirds was a man aged 91 and a woman aged 87. "She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, 'I remember wagon trains.' The... Read More

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