The Governors Awards have been perceived in several different ways since it was announced they would be their own thing. At first there were grumblings that these awards, the dreaded honorary Oscars, were being shoved aside to make way for the shortening of the cumbersome Oscar telecast – you know, that wonderfully old annual ceremony we all love to hate but wouldn’t miss for the world? But it doesn’t look like that is how the Governor Awards are turning out.
It seems that they’ve become something respectable in their own right, like the AFI tributes and the Kennedy Center Honors. Honestly, this, in a way, is the most respectable thing the Academy now does, along with all of their preservation efforts and regular screenings. The only big trouble spot for them is the slippery Oscar race and subsequent conclusion. There is where the questionable activities all come into the play – the campaigning, the popularity contest, the furious fans protesting the eventual outcome.
Meanwhile, the other thing they’ve become is a way for contenders to showcase themselves to actual Academy members, who do come out of hiding every once in a while. The Oscar luncheon is also useful for the meet and greet but it always comes a wee bit late to have any real impact. But who knew such an opportunity would present itself so early in the season?
While people like Anne Thompson, Scott Feinberg, Steve Pond and the even The Academy itself were tweeting out goings on, everyone once in a while a contender pic would sail through – Woody Harrelson, Viola Davis, Glenn Close, the cast of the Artist – you name it, they were there.
The biggest boost, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger, was Oprah’s boost for The Help, one of the most successful and well liked films of the year – and the rare women-driven film to be, hopefully, in the Oscar hunt for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Screenplay, Costume, etc.
When it was time for the tribute to Winfrey, who received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Her friends John Travolta and Die Hard producer Lawrence Gordon each told funny stories about Winfrey’s love of parties and penchant for tequila. Then her former newsroom colleague Maria Shriver introduced a Barnard College student named Ayanna Hall, one of the beneficiaries of Winfrey’s scholarship program. As Hall talked about not being able to afford the tuition for a private high school she hoped to attend, Winfrey wiped away tears from her eyes. Hall invited Winfrey to the stage, at which point Winfrey delivered a riveting 12-minute speech with no script and no notes. The most memorable moment was when the woman who many people argue won Barack Obama the presidency singled out The Help as a movie that affected her recently. “When I saw The Help, that is my story. My grandmother was a maid, her mother was a maid, her mother before her was a slave. My mother was a maid. My grandmother’s greatest dream for me was that I would grow up in a family and have a career where she used to say, ‘I hope you get some good white folks. I hope you get some good white folks like I have. I have good white folks.’ And the only picture I have of my grandmother is of her holding a white child in her maid’s uniform. So the journey from Kosciusko, Mississippi, where nobody ever even imagined it possible that you could be anything other than a maid who had some good white folks who would give you clothes and would let you take food home on the holidays, it’s unimaginable that I would be standing before you, voted by the Board of Governors.” At that moment I glanced over at the table where the cast of The Help was sitting, and Octavia Spencer had tears streaming down her face. From a political point of view, it was the best thing anyone involved in that movie could have asked for. But more than that, for the entire room, it was a truly inspirational moment in a truly special night.
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