LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Celebrities have gathered and toasted the first Oscar winners of the award season at the film academy's sixth annual Governors Awards Saturday night.
Irish-born actress Maureen O'Hara, Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrire were presented honorary Oscars and American actor and activist Harry Belafonte accepted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center.
"The Governors Awards allow us to reflect upon not the year in film, but the achievements of a lifetime," Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said. "We're absolutely thrilled to honor these outstanding members of our global film-making community and look forward to celebrating with them in November."
"Toy Story" filmmaker, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter offered a heartfelt introduction for Miyazaki and presented him with an Oscar statuette, calling the Japanese animator "the most original filmmaker to ever work in our medium...They (Miyazaki's films) have moved me, they have inspired me, and they have helped shape me as a filmmaker."
Miyazaki, 73, is the second Japanese to win the Academy Honorary Award, after Akira Kurosawa in 1990.
No one could deny that every Miyazaki film is a masterpiece. They include such beloved titles as "Princess Mononoke", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Howl's Moving Castle", "The Wind Rises" and the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away" in 2003.
Accepting the trophy, Miyazaki said through a translator that he considered himself lucky, "my wife tells me that I am a very lucky man. I think I've been lucky because I've been able to participate in the last time you could make films with paper, pencil and film." He added that another great reward at that night was "I got to meet Maureen O'Hara today."
O'Hara, 94, was introduced by Liam Neeson and Clint Eastwood, both confessed to having a crush on the Irish-born beauty. The northern Ireland-born Neeson described her as "one of the true legends of cinema" and "one of the most adventurous women who ever lived." "We love you, Maureen," he said on behalf of Ireland.
Carrire, who has been nominated for three Academy Awards for writing, accepted his Oscar from "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" director Philip Kaufman. The French screenwriter lauded the many directors he has collaborated with over his five decades in film, saying he felt "they are all here with us tonight...when I'm working, I hear their voices."
Chris Rock and Susan Sarandon introduced Belafonte, a music artist, actor and activist whose accomplishments range from beloved standards like "Day-O", organizing the multi-artist benefit song "We Are the World", to changing the world alongside his friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He was also selected for his vocal participation in the civil rights movement and his work on behalf of UNICEF, the Advancement Project and the Institute for Policy Studies. Rock and Sarandon presented the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to him for his decades of activism for social justice.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established the Governors Awards in 2009 to celebrate the annual winners of its honorary awards.
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