Hayao Miyazaki, Maureen O'Hara Among Academy's 2014 Governors Award Recipients

Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki, actress Maureen O'Hara, actor Harry Belafonte, and screenwriter/filmmaker Jean-Claude Carriere are the recipients for the Academy's 2014 Governors Awards, which will be handed out on November 8th at Hollywood & Highland.

Miyazaki, O’Hara and Carriere will receive Honorary Awards while Belafonte will be honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

“The Governors Awards allow us to reflect upon not the year in film, but the achievements of a lifetime,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’re absolutely thrilled to honor these outstanding members of our global filmmaking community and look forward to celebrating with them in November.”

Miyazaki and Carriere earned Oscars previously in competitive categories. Miyazaki won in 2003 in the Best Animated Feature Film category for his film Spirited Away, while Carriere won in 1962 for his live action short, Happy Anniversary. This is contrasted with Belafonte and O'Hara, neither of whom have been nominated for Oscars over the course of their respective, legendary film careers. Belafonte has had a career spanning six decades, with roles in films as varied as the musical Carmen Jones (1954) and film noir classic Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). O'Hara, meanwhile, was a frequent collaborator with the legendary John Ford, appearing in several of his best-known films, from Best Picture winner How Green Was My Valley (1941) to romantic-comedy classic The Quiet Man (1952).

These are four fantastic choices for the awards. They might not be as mainstream as some previous recipients (last year alone had Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin, and Angelina Jolie), but they're all deserving in the contributions they've made to the medium of film. The Academy might not always get it right in the actual Oscar voting, but the Governors Awards are where they rarely, if ever, get it wrong.

Via: Entertainment Weekly

Credit: Jun Sato