Groundbreaking film-maker David Lynch and Cherokee-American actor Wes Studi will receive honorary Oscar statuettes at the Governors Awards in October, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has said.
The honorary Oscars are awarded to recognise individuals who have made significant contributions to the industry but have not yet taken home Oscar gold.
Actress Geena Davis will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work advocating for gender equality in media as the founder of a non-profit organisation, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and the female-focused Bentonville Film Festival.
The 63-year-old has won an Oscar before, for her supporting performance in The Accidental Tourist, and was nominated for Thelma & Louise.
Lynch, 73, is a four-time Oscar nominee for The Elephant Man, in which he was nominated for what is now known as adapted screenplay and best director. His other nominations are for best director for Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.
Studi, 71, has never received an Oscar nomination, but has been part of a number of Oscar-nominated and winning films like Dances With Wolves, The Last Of The Mohicans, The New World and Geronimo: An American Legend.
Geena DavisDavid LynchWes StudiLina Wertmüller
These four filmmakers have transformed the film industry. This year, we celebrate them. #HonoraryOscars https://t.co/t5gV89q7jM
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) June 3, 2019
Director Lina Wertmuller will also receive an honorary award.
The 90-year-old is perhaps unfairly the least famous of the recipients, but broke enormous ground for women in the industry when she became the first woman to get a best director nomination for the film Seven Beauties in 1976. She lost out to John G Avildsen, who won for Rocky.
Only four other women have had a best director nomination: Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow and Greta Gerwig, and Bigelow is the only woman to win.
The film academy’s board of governors voted on this year’s recipients on Saturday, months earlier than usual to accommodate the shortened awards calendar this year.
The 11th annual ceremony will be held on October 27, a month earlier than usual, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood, steps away from where the Oscars will take place on February 9.
