The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that actor and martial artist Jackie Chan will receive a Honorary Oscar at upcoming Governor Awards, along with film editor Anne V. Coates, casting director Lynn Stalmaster and documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. The Academy’s 8th Annual Governors Awards will take place on Saturday, November 12th at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, the site of the annual Oscar ceremony.
Known for his work in kung fu movies such as The Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow as well as the Rush Hour series, and the Kung Fu Panda series. The legendary Jackie Chan first came to America from Hong Kong to start a career in Hollywood as a stunt man, and worked his way to a pop-culture icon with a net worth of $350 million. With over 150 movies under his belt Jackie Chan has proven himself worthy of a lifetime achievement award, and the Academy agrees.
Coates has had a legendary career in her own right, winning an Academy Award for editing David Lean’s seminal Lawrence of Arabia. She has also edited past classics including Becket (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and The Elephant Man (1981). More recently, she has contributed to films including Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998) and Erin Brockovich (2000) and last year’s blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey.
Stalmaster is an accomplished casting director of the cinema as well as the stage and television screen. He applied his talents to more than 200 feature films, including such classics as Inherit the Wind, In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate, Fiddler on the Roof, Harold and Maude, Deliverance, Coming Home, Tootsie and The Right Stuff. He also helped introduce to the world the likes of Jon Voight, Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Reeve and John Travolta.
Wiseman is an extraordinarily prolific documentarian whose career began in the late 1960s and still thriving today. He has made a film nearly every year since most recently last year’s critically acclaimed In Jackson Heights which won the Best Non-Fiction Award at the 2015 New York Film Critics Circle. Other recent highlights include National Gallery (2014) and At Berkeley (2013).