Glenn Close is one of our greatest actresses, but she has been a perennial bridesmaid at the Oscars, amassing an 0-8 track record. Close will finally become an Oscar winner, albeit an honorary one, at the 17th Governors Awards on Sunday, Nov. 15. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is presenting the awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood in partnership with Rolex.
The academy’s Board of Governors also voted to present Academy Honorary Awards to director Ridley Scott and animator Floyd Norman and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler.
Like Close, Scott has yet to win a competitive Oscar. He has gone 0-4 on Oscar night. Vachon and Koffler also lost in their only Oscar nod, as producers (along with David Hinojosa) of best picture nominee Past Lives.
While no one who is primarily from the world of music is being honored this year, all of these honorees have some connection to music. Scott received a Grammy nod for best compilation soundtrack for visual media in 2009 (in tandem with Kathy Nelson) for his work on American Gangster, which included such prized songs as Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street” and Public Enemy’s “Can’t Truss It.” Close won her third Tony Award for best lead actress in a musical for her role in the revival of Sunset Boulevard. She also received an Oscar nod for her role in The Big Chill. The Motown-saturated soundtrack made the top 20 on the Billboard 200.
“The academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to present this year’s Governors Awards to five remarkable individuals whose groundbreaking work has forever shaped the art of filmmaking,” academy president Lynette Howell Taylor said in a statement. “Throughout her extraordinary body of work, Glenn Close’s unparalleled emotional range has brought to life some of the most complex characters in cinema. Floyd Norman is the legendary animator who has broken barriers and inspired generations of artists over his remarkable career. Sir Ridley Scott is a true visionary whose decades-long legacy has left an immeasurable impact on global cinema and culture. Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler play a central role in American independent cinema, championing bold, ambitious and distinctive storytelling.”
The Honorary Award is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences in any discipline, or for outstanding service to the academy.”
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is presented to a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.
Last year’s honorees were Dolly Parton (the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award) and Debbie Allen, Tom Cruise and production designer Wynn Thomas (Academy Honorary Awards). The awards were presented on Nov. 16, 2025.
Here are thumbnail sketches of this year’s honorees.
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Glenn Close
Age: 79
Notes: Close’s acting career spans over five decades, with more than 100 film credits. She has earned eight Oscar nominations, beginning with her feature film debut in The World According to Garp and has received further nominations for The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs, The Wife and Hillbilly Elegy. Her other film credits include Jagged Edge, Reversal of Fortune, Hamlet, 101 Dalmatians, Mars Attacks!, Air Force One, The Stepford Wives and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
Close has won three Tonys and three Primetime Emmys. She has received three Grammy nods – best audio book, narration and storytelling recording (in tandem with Jeremy Irons) for The Real Thing original cast recording; and best album for children for The Emperor and the Nightingale (1988) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1989).
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Ridley Scott
Age: 88
Notes: Scott has received Oscar nominations for directing Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, as well as a Best Picture nomination for The Martian. Across a career spanning nearly six decades, he has also directed such films as Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Black Rain, G.I. Jane, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Prometheus, All the Money in the World, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, Napoleon and the upcoming feature The Dog Stars. In 2024, Scott, who was born in England in 1937, was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the British film industry.
Scott has received one Grammy nod – best compilation soundtrack for visual media in 2009 (in tandem with Kathy Nelson) for American Gangster.
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Floyd Norman
Age: 90
Notes: An animator and storyboard artist, Norman began his 65-year career at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1956, becoming the studio’s first Black animator. His first Disney feature film was Sleeping Beauty, and he contributed to such classic feature films as The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book and Robin Hood, as well as the short films Donald in Mathmagic Land, Goliath II and Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. Norman’s other notable film credits include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc.
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Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler
Ages: 63 and 60, respectively
Notes: Vachon and Koffler founded the New York-based independent production company Killer Films in 1995. Together, they have produced such films as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, One Hour Photo, Camp, The Company, The Notorious Bettie Page, May December and Materialists. Vachon and Koffler earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture for Past Lives in 2024. Their productions at Killer Films also include Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Happiness, Boys Don’t Cry, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There, Still Alice, Carol, First Reformed, Vox Lux, The World to Come, Zola and A Different Man.
