Ridley Scott Will Accept Honorary Oscar Remotely After Medical Procedure

Ridley Scott will not be in the room when the Academy hands him his honorary Oscar on Sunday night. The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively that the 88-year-old director, who was tapped to receive the honor at the 17th annual Governors Awards in Hollywood, will accept remotely after undergoing a minor medical procedure last week and being advised not to fly while he heals.

Scott, based in London, turns 89 on Nov. 30. Sources tell THR the procedure was minor, but the no-fly guidance was firm enough to keep him off the plane. His family wasn't staying home, though. His wife, children and grandchildren are all making the trip to Los Angeles for the celebration.

The mechanics of the moment are already settled. Scott pre-taped his acceptance speech last week, and the recording will play during the ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom event, where the Academy (the body that votes the Oscars) gathers each November to distribute its career-achievement prizes outside the televised main show.

Who else is being honored on Sunday?

Scott is one of three honorary Oscar recipients this year:

• Glenn Close, the eight-time nominee, receives an honorary statuette for career achievement.
• Floyd Norman, the veteran animator, also receives an honorary Oscar.
• Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, the producing partners behind Killer Films, will be presented with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Academy's prize for producers.

That's the full slate for the 17th edition of the event, which has become a fixture of Oscar-season campaigning — a room full of Academy voters, and a night that regularly doubles as a launching pad for contenders.

What does the honor mean for a director who never won?

Here's the striking number behind Sunday's citation: Scott's works have collectively been nominated for 45 Oscars, winning nine — and he has never taken home a statuette himself. That includes seven acting nominations from his films and one acting win. The honorary Oscar closes that gap in the Academy's own accounting.

Scott was nearly 40 when he made his directorial debut with 1977's The Duellists, having spent his early career making high-end commercials in partnership with his brother Tony, who died in 2012. He has made up for lost time since. His films have collectively grossed some $5 billion, and he keeps working at a pace directors half his age don't sustain.

The filmography explains why the Academy moved now. He is behind two of the most significant science-fiction films ever made, 1979's Alien and 1982's Blade Runner, plus 1991's Thelma & Louise, which earned him a best director Oscar nomination. In 2000, Gladiator won the best picture Oscar — though Scott lost best director that year. His most recent best director nomination came for 2001's Black Hawk Down. The list continues with 2007's American Gangster, 2015's The Martian and last year's Gladiator 2.

He has also produced many of his own films — among them Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, The Martian (which brought him a personal best picture nomination) and Gladiator 2 — along with a raft of television series including The Good Wife, The Man in the High Castle, The Good Fight and Dope Thief.

The range is the argument for the award. The man who projects the image of the most masculine of males, and who has featured tough-guy characters in films like Blade Runner and Gladiator, is also the filmmaker behind genuinely feminist landmarks like Alien and Thelma & Louise.

Has BAFTA already recognized him?

Yes, twice. BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) gave Scott its Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award in 1994, shared with Tony, and followed with its Fellowship — the organization's highest honor — in 2018. The honorary Oscar gives the American Academy its own answer to that record.

For the Governors Awards itself, the absence changes the room but not the result. A pre-taped speech from a director approaching his ninth decade, surrounded in Los Angeles by three generations of family, while the healed recipient watches from London — that's the picture Sunday night. The statuette arrives either way, capping a 45-nomination, nine-win career that never once put the little gold man in Ridley Scott's hands. Until now.