Glenn Close to Receive Honorary Academy Award
Other recipients this year are Disney animator Floyd Norman and director Ridley Scott.
Three-time Tony Award-winning stage and screen star Glenn Close will be honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Academy Honorary Award for her body of work in film.
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.”
Other recipients this year are Disney animator Floyd Norman and director Ridley Scott. The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which is presented to a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production, will go to producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler.
Awards will be presented at the Academy’s 17th Governors Awards event on Sunday, November 15, 2026, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood, in partnership with Rolex.
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,” "102 Dalmatians," “Mars Attacks!,” “Air Force One,” “The Stepford Wives,” “The Girl with All the Gifts,” “Four Good Days” and “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”
For her stage work, Close received "Best Actress in a Play" TONY AWARDS for her performances in "The Real Thing" and "Death and the Maiden." In 1995, she won her third Tony Award for her turn as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard," a role she reprised in the 2017 revival.
Upcoming screen projects include "The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping" and the British crime drama, "Up to No Good." Close is also set to appear alongside Jeremy Irons in "Encore," a comedy about two aging Broadway veterans.
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.”
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 was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the British film industry.
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.”
Photo credit: Andy Anderson
