Lucasfilm boss and all-around Star Wars connoisseur Kathleen Kennedy is set to become the first woman to receive the coveted Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
The board of governors voted Tuesday night to honor Kennedy and her producing partner/real-life husband Frank Marshall at the 10th annual Governors Awards, which are due to take place on Sunday, November 18th. Among those honorees shortlisted for an Oscar are renown publicist Marvin Levy, composer Lalo Schifrin, and actress Cicely Tyson.
Per The Academy, these awards are designed to honor “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy,” with The Thalberg Award, in particular, being handed out to those creative producers “whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”
And you can’t say Kathleen Kennedy isn’t worthy of such praise.
Since founding the Kennedy/Marshall Company in 1991, the creative duo has scored Best Picture nominations for The Sixth Sense (1999), Seabiscuit (2003), Munich (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Their cinematic résumé can also be traced back to Amblin Productions, which began life under the watchful eye of Steven Spielberg during the early 1980s.
And Kennedy? She’s since gone on to become president of Lucasfilm, and looks set to hold that post for many more years to come, despite rumors to the contrary. That means she’s enjoyed an active role in The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi and the middling Solo: A Star Wars Story, and will now be recognized for her exceptional contribution to the industry.
Or so says Academy President John Bailey:
Choosing the honorees for its awards each year is the happiest of all the board of governors’ work. And this year, its selection of five iconic artists was made with universal acclaim by the Academy’s 54 spirited governors.
The 10th annual Governors Awards are due to take place on Sunday, November 18th, and we’ll have all the coverage as Kathleen Kennedy steps up to receive this most prestigious accolade.
