Governors Awards Delivers Emotional Tribute to Quincy Jones

The Academy’s annual Governors Awards is often a favorite event for Hollywood insiders, as it allows industry icons who have been otherwise overlooked for Oscars to finally get their due. The event, which is not televised, has a warm and leisurely pace, giving the honorees and those who are honoring them time to properly look back on their careers, and thank the many people who got them to that stage.

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This year’s gala, held on Sunday, Nov. 17 in a packed ballroom in Hollywood, was more emotional than most years because Quincy Jones , the iconic music producer whose film scores include In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Wiz, and The Color Purple, passed away just two weeks before the event was set to take place. His family took the stage to accept the award in his honor, delivering a touching tribute. “In some ways it was a difficult decision for our family to be here tonight,” said his daughter Rashida Jones onstage. “But we felt we wanted to celebrate his beautiful life and career.”

Jones and her siblings took the stage after a powerful performance of “Maybe God Is Tryin’ To Tell You Somethin’” from The Color Purple by Jennifer Hudson . Jones read from a draft of the acceptance speech her father had been working on for the event, before adding her own ending to it. “The real thread in his music is that his music is all infused with his love,” she said onstage. “That was his real legacy – love.”

Along with honoring Quincy Jones’s legacy, the Governors Awards also bestowed honorary Oscars to casting director Juliet Taylor , writer/director Richard Curtis, and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The night had many emotional moments – several attendees, including Selena Gomez and Kerry Washington , shed tears during Rashida Jones’ speech—but there were also plenty of lighter moments earlier in the night as well.

The Governors Awards not only honor industry icons, but also serve as a popular awards campaign stop during the peak of the Oscar race. This year’s collection of Oscar hopefuls includes big names like Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, and Jennifer Lopez, along with some of the season’s biggest breakouts like Mikey Madison, Paul Mescal, Margaret Qualley , and Lily-Rose Depp .

Colman Domingo , who stars in Sing Sing , opened up the evening by introducing the highlights of each honoree’s career. He included a comedic bit about leaving his resume in case there was an opening for a Bond villain role. He introduced Kidman – in the race this year for Babygirl – who summarized Taylor’s prolific work as a casting director on films like Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, Schindler’s List, The Birdcage , and Sleepless in Seattle.

Taylor credited Woody Allen for taking a chance on her, and working with her on dozens of his films. “Working with him was a casting director’s dream,” she said. “I could feel free to throw out the most outlandish ideas and Woody would just raise his eyebrows. And if he had an idea that I didn’t take to I could say ‘Oh Woody that’s a terrible idea,’ and he would just laugh.”

Daniel Craig – who this year starred in Queer – took the stage to speak about his Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The siblings were actually following in Barbara’s father’s footsteps: Albert ”Cubby” Broccoli accepted the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1982 Academy Awards. Wilson and Broccoli have overseen the Bond franchise since 1995. “When you start at the top of the game, it might seem like there’s not much further to go. But you quickly realize with these two, the top was just the start of it,” said Craig.

In her acceptance speech, Broccoli said that she was in the room when her father accepted his Oscar, describing him as her North star. “Thank you for acknowledging producers at a time when career producers are undervalued and not appreciated, when producer credits are being handed out on productions like party favors – at a time when we’re needed more than ever,” she added.

Hugh Grant , introducing British screenwriting and director Richard Curtis, brought his signature charm and humor to the stage, which a speech that started out by revealing that Curtis did not want to cast him in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral . His gentle roast of his longtime collaborator—they also worked together on Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary and Love Actually —highlighted Curtis’ dedication to philanthropic work as the co-founder of Comic Relief UK and USA. Curtis,, whose fundraising over 40 years has helped raise more than $2 billion and supported over 170 million people, was honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

In his speech, Grant encouraged productions to take an active step by hiring an impact producer, which is a specialist hired to implement strategic plans for social impact campaigns. “I think too often we stop just before the final lap of the race,” he told the industry crowd. “An impact producer can help your film do more than move people. It can actually save and change real lives,”

The night ended with Jamie Foxx giving audiences a look back at Jones’s incredible career, including how he helped Foxx when the actor was preparing for Ray . Jones, who was the first Black composer to be nominated in the best original song category, collaborated with such greats as Frank Sinatra, Steven Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey throughout his career.

His daughter Rashida, her voice sometimes wavering as she accepted the award, ended her speech by encouraging others to walk in Quincy Jones’s footsteps. “He loved life, and he often said, ‘Live every day like it’s your last, and one day you’ll be right,’ And you did that. You lived the biggest, best, most beautiful life of love,” she said. “So in honor of our dad, we hope you’ll do the same: live with love, lead with love, bring love to everything you do.”