Directors Francis Ford Coppola and Jean-Luc Godard, actor Eli Wallach and historian Kevin Brownlow are this year’s recipients of the Governor’s Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Coppola will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the academy said Wednesday, with Godard, Wallach and Brownlow receiving honorary Oscars. The prizes will be given at a dinner Nov. 13.
Coppola, the 71-year-old director of the “Godfather” trilogy, is already a five-time Oscar winner. Through his American Zoetrope studio, which he established in 1969, he has produced more than 30 films, including “The Black Stallion,” ”The Outsiders” and “Lost in Translation,” which earned his daughter Sofia an Academy Award nomination for best director.
Godard, 79, is a key figure in the French New Wave who wrote about films before making shorts of his own. His 1960 feature debut, the crime drama “Breathless,” is a hugely influential example of the movement.
He’s credited with helping shape contemporary directors such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino.
Wallach, 94, is a longtime character actor who has appeared in “The Magnificent Seven,” ”The Misfits” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” He’s also in Oliver Stone’s upcoming “Wall Street” sequel, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”
Brownlow, 72, an author and documentarian, is considered the pre-eminent historian of the silent film era and a preservationist.
The Thalberg award, which is a bust of the film executive, goes to “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production,” according to the academy.
Honorary Oscars are given for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the academy.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More