Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks to Receive Honorary Oscars at 2023 Governors Awards

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made its annual announcement of honorary Oscars to be awarded at the 2023 Governors Awards, and they will result in beloved performer Angela Bassett finally taking home her first statuette. Joining her will be 96-year-old EGOT champion and legendary comedy director Mel Brooks, and film editor Carol Littleton. Finally, the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter will also receive 2023’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. All four awards will be presented at the Governors Awards on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023 in Los Angeles.

“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” said Academy President Janet Yang in a statement. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her. A pillar of the independent film community, Michelle Satter has played a vital role in the careers of countless filmmakers around the world.”

All eyes in particular will be on the 64-year-old Angela Bassett, a two-time Oscar nominee and seven-time Emmy nominee who was considered a favorite in the 2023 awards to potentially take home the Best Supporting Actress award after being nominated for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That award ultimately went to Jamie Lee Curtis as part of a deluge of Everything Everywhere All at Once wins, but the Academy clearly wanted to see Bassett recognized here. In her more than 40-year career, she turned heads as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It?, and has appeared in historically important films such as Boyz N the Hood, Malcolm X and even How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The nomination for Wakanda Forever made her the first actor from a Marvel Studios film to receive an Oscar nomination.

Comedy legend Mel Brooks, the director of the likes of Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs, really needs no introduction. He’s already an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony winner), one of only 18 in the world, so awarding him another honorary Oscar feels almost unnecessary. Ever since co-creating the series Get Smart in the 1960s, Brooks has been pushing buttons and boundaries in Hollywood, cranking out classics such as The Producers, Young Frankenstein and The History of the World, Part 1, which was recently revived as a streaming series on Hulu.

Carol Littleton, meanwhile, has had a film editing career of almost 50 years, and earned an Oscar nomination for best film editing back in 1982 for a little film called E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In the years since, she edited films that included The Manchurian Candidate and The Big Chill, and has served as the vice president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, and the Board of Directors of American Cinema Editors.

The deserving candidates will all be presented with their Oscar statuettes at the awards ceremony on Nov. 18, 2023.