Governors Awards: Academy to honor Angelina Jolie with humanitarian prize

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will honor actress Angelina Jolie with its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a coveted honor given to people “whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”

The academy also announced Thursday that it would give special honorary awards to Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and veteran costume designer Piero Tosi.

Once part of the annual Oscar telecast, the Governors Awards are now a separate event. The fifth-annual ceremony will occur on Nov. 16 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center.

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“The Governors Awards pay tribute to individuals who’ve made indelible contributions in their respective fields,” Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the academy’s new president, said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited for this year’s honorees and look forward to bringing their peers and colleagues together to celebrate their extraordinary achievements.”

Jolie is the only one of the four honorees ever to have won an Oscar, for her supporting actress performance in 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted.” The “Changeling” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” star is about to start directing the film adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s book “Unbroken.”

The 38-year-old actress has been named a goodwill ambassador by the the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and has worked for a variety of social justice causes. She has traveled extensively to call attention to the plight of refugees, work she began soon after filming 2001’s “Lara Craft: Tomb Raider” in Cambodia.

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The 87-year-old Lansbury has three nominations with no statuettes, for 1944’s “Gaslight,” 1945’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and 1962’s “The Manchurian Candidate.”

The 68-year-old Martin, who is well known for his early television and comedy work and has hosted the Oscars on three occasions, became a fixture in family films such as “Parenthood” and “Father of the Bride.” His movie credits include “The Jerk,” “Roxanne” and “L.A. Story.”

Tosi, 86, worked with Italian director Luchino Visconti (and was nominated for his costumes in the director’s “The Leopard,” “Ludwig” and “Death in Venice”) and also was nominated for his costume designs for “La Cage aux Folles” and “La Traviata.”

Lansbury, Martin and Tosi are being honored for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the academy.”

The academy did not announce a recipient for the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given to a creative producer “whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”

Last year, the academy honored DreamWorks Animation executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, veteran stuntman Hal Needham, documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and arts advocate George Stevens Jr.

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