The annual Governor’s Awards, where honorary awards are presented by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, are usually a celebration. This year’s 15th edition was a happy occasion too, but it was muted by the fact that one of the honorees, Quincy Jones, died on Nov. 3, just two weeks before the awards were presented on Sunday, Nov. 17, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood.
Jones’ daughter, actress Rashida Jones, spoke for the family in accepting the award. “In some ways it was a difficult decision for our family to be here tonight but we felt like we wanted to celebrate his beautiful life and career,” she said. “His music has literally defined an entire century of culture – jazz, disco, film, pop, hip-hop, but the real thread in his music is that his music is all infused with his love.”
This year’s other honorees, voted on by the Academy’s board of governors and announced in June, were casting director Juliet Taylor; filmmaker and philanthropist Richard Curtis (the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award); and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, best known for the James Bond franchise (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award).
Jones’ award was presented “for his artistic genius, relentless creativity and trailblazing legacy in film music.” Curtis was honored “for his extraordinary charitable work that has transformed lives around the world.” Taylor was cited “for her expansive body of work and indelible influence on the field of film casting.” Wilson and Broccoli were honored “for their consistently high quality, high impact motion picture production.”
The event was produced by Jennifer Fox for the sixth year in a row. Rickey Minor was music director.
Here are eight highlights from the 2024 Governor’s Awards.
Jennifer Hudson Takes Us to Church
Jennifer Hudson led a 12-member gospel choir on a rousing version of “Maybe God Is Tryin’ to Tell You Something’,” a song from the 1985 film The Color Purple, for which Jones received three of his seven career Oscar nominations. Left unsaid was that Hudson’s career and EGOT status would be unimaginable without Jones’ trailblazing efforts before she was even born.
(Hudson performed Lesley Gore’s Jones-produced hit “You Don’t Own Me” at a 90th birthday concert for Jones at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2023.)
Jamie Foxx Told How Jones Helped Him Play Ray Charles
After Jamie Foxx was cast to play Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray, he called Jones, who had been friends with Charles since they were teenagers, to see if he could provide any pointers. Jones invited him to his house and dug through boxes to find a cassette of a vintage Charles performance – which Foxx found helpful once he was able to locate a cassette player. Foxx won an Oscar for his portrayal.
A Daughter’s Tribute
Rashida Jones said “Our father passed away two weeks ago today. Four of the seven of [Jones’ children] are here and our beautiful family in the audience and he has so many friends in this room – well, actually probably in every room if I’m being honest because wherever he went he made connections with everyone. He had this natural gift with people. He knew how to stay present, stay curious and stay loving.”
Jones also urged people in the audience to explore Jones’ music, and not just the well-known film scores and triumphs with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra.
“There’s an entire universe waiting in his seven decades of music and while you listen, hear how he imbued love into every single second of music he made. That was his real legacy. He loved life. He often said ‘Live every day like it’s your last and one day you’ll be right.’”
In Jones’ Own Words
Rashida Jones said her father “really, really, really intended on being here with us tonight.” She added the “he last month we have been working on a speech. And so here it is in its own words.”
The highlight of Quincy Jones’ remarks was this look back at how much the film industry has changed. “We’ve come a long way in our industry. When I was a young film composer you didn’t even see faces of color working in the studio system. I’m so, so proud of the fact that my name and contributions can be included in that evolution today. I am beyond thankful to compose more than 35 scores.”
Proof of Q’s Enduring Influence
Even before the program began, there was proof of Jones’ enduring influence. Over the speakers we heard such pop hits as Janet Jackson’s “When I Think of You” and Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know.” Jones didn’t produce either of those records – Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis produced Jackson’s smash; Narada Michael Walden produced Houston’s – but they would be the first to acknowledge how much they were influenced by Q’s sound and style on those hits.
Richard Curtis Invokes a Hit by Queen & David Bowie
It took an Englishman, Richard Curtis, to be the first one to comment on the recent U.S. presidential election. “It’s been a very strange fortnight,” he said. “To everyone who’s been sad,” he offered a song in keeping with the current mood – Queen and David Bowie’s 1981 hit “Under Pressure.” He suggested that he was a good one to suggest a song because his movies are “so often glued together by pop songs.”
Prospering in the Family Business
Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, 43 years after their father, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, received the honor. The offspring have kept the James Bond franchise alive and relevant in a much different time than when the franchise first launched in 1962. All three of the Bond songs to win Oscars for best original song – Adele’s “Skyfall,” Sam Smith‘s “Writing’s on the Wall” and Billie Eilish‘s “No Time to Die” – have come under Wilson and Broccoli’s watch. Daniel Craig, who has starred in the last five Bond films, presented the award to Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Tweaking the Governor’s Awards
Richard Curtis and one of his top stars, Hugh Grant, who displayed a mock prickly relationship, had a little fun with the Governor’s Awards and whether they should or shouldn’t count as an Oscar.
Grant, who became an international star in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, which Curtis wrote, and had another big hit in the 2003 ensemble piece Love Actually, which Curtis both wrote and directed, said “Would we call it an Oscar? It’s kind of an Oscar. It’s a better-than-nothing Oscar.”
Curtis more or less agreed when he accepted his award. “It’s the Oscar for people who never made a film good enough to win an Oscar.”
