BREAKING NEWS: Coppola gets the 2001 Thalberg Award, and three more VERY surprising people land Honorary Oscars:

I'm keeping up my streak for predicting each year's Honorary Oscars, but this year, I have to admit, I'm surprised. I only got one, but it's a biggie.

First off, the estimable Francis Ford Coppola is being handed another award this year, but it's NOT an Oscar statuette (he already has five of those: one for co-writing the screenplay to Patton, one for co-producing The Godfather, and three for co-producing, directing, and co-writing The Godfather Part II). This year, he's being given the Irving J. Thalberg Award for excellence in producing films (and this includes producing, executive producing, or "presenting"). Do any of you have any complaints about this? Well, let's address them, shall we? Let's see--on his production resume we have: The Terror, THX-1138, American Graffiti, The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, The Escape Artist, Koyannisqatsi, Kagemusha, Hammett, Abel's Gance's Napoleon, The Outsiders, Rumblefish, Mishima, Barfly, The Godfather Part III, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Secret Garden, Mi Familia, The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, The Good Shephard, Tetro, and the upcoming Sophia Coppola film Somewhere, plus the nearing Walter Salles adaptation of On The Road. I know there are a lot of people complaining about his getting one more award for his mantle. But...uhhhh...yeah. I think that's well nigh enough good work to warrant a mention specifically for his efforts as a producer. If Eastwood and Beatty can get this award, after the number of statues they garnered, Coppola can, too. Good work, Academy. You're keeping your eyes open! Congratulations, Mr. Coppola.

Now we move to the surprising winners of this year's honorary awards! This is exciting. First off, we have Eli Wallach. Rarely, if ever, has the Academy deemed it necessary to give an Honorary Oscar to a character actor, even though there are countless ones who deserved it. This award lets Hollywood know that the doors are swinging wide open now for such accolades. Wallach debuted on the big screen as one of the top three billed actors for Elia Kazan's 1956 film Baby Doll (where he delivered a spirited, raunchy turn as the vengeful man trying to steal Carroll Baker's virginity away from husband Karl Malden). Then a fixture on Broadway as well as on live TV outlets like Playhouse 90 and Studio One, Wallach quickly went on to be a valuable player in such titles as The Magnificent Seven, The Misfits, How The West Was Won, Lord Jim, The Tiger Makes Out, Cinderella Liberty, Girlfriends, Winter Kills, The Executioner's Song, Nuts, The Two Jakes, The Godfather Part III, Article 99, Night and the City, The Hoax, and this year's The Ghost Writer and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Well into his 90s and the man is still working! Lessee...have I forgotten anything? Oh, yeah. A little, undemanding role as Tuco, the final title character in a tiny movie called The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. That alone makes the award well-deserved. We all know he deserved some huzzahs for THAT. Congratulations, Mr. Wallach.

Then we have perhaps the most undeservedly little-known of the new honorees in Kevin Brownlow, though to say that amongst film lovers is near blasphemy. I was hoping the Academy would recognize a documentary filmmaker this year, and though I was thinking they'd go another way with Albert Maysles, I'm still thankful they're recognizing the contributions Brownlow has made not only to documentaries, but to narrative film and film conservation as well. For his narrative work, I point primarily to It Happened Here, one of the 100 best films of the 1960s, which brilliantly films the supposed aftermath of WWII Britain if Hitler's armies had snatched victory away. If you haven't seen it, do so; save for maybe Stuart Cooper's debt-owing 1975 film Overlord, there's nothing like it. As for Brownlow's documentaries (seen largely on public broadcasting TV over the years), they've often gone hand-in-hand with his film conservation work: 1980's Hollywood, 1983's Unknown Chaplin, 1987's Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, 1993's D.W. Griffith: The Father of Film, 1995's Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, 1998's Universal Horror, 2000's Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces, 2004's Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic, and 2005's Garbo and I'm King Kong!: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper. Whew! What a knowledge the man has. But, for me, his work (alongside Francis Ford Coppola) in restoring Abel Gance's 1928 film Napoleon to full glory, and then bringing it around to theaters across the country, with Carmine Coppola's live orchestra as accompaniment, still stands as the one Brownlow feather that's affected my life more than any other. I can only hope that, at the ceremony, Brownlow and Coppola will mend fences and come to some agreement regarding the digital release of Gance's unspeakably great masterpiece. Congratulations, Mr. Brownlow.

And, finally....can you believe it? It was an admittedly outside chance--I said so right here. But the Academy could not ignore the fact that they've never even nominated Jean-Luc Godard for even one award. So this year, the man who both loves Hollywood and hates its capitalistic ways, has a very difficult choice ahead of him: whether to show up in Los Angeles to pick up his Honorary Oscar or give the whole affair a big FU. At any rate, the films' titles, let alone their innate brilliance and endless influence, speak of true mastery: Breathless, My Life To Live, Contempt, A Woman is a Woman, Band of Outsiders, Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, Masulin Feminin, Two or Three Things I Know About Her, Weekend, Sympathy for the Devil, Numero Deux, First Name: Carmen, Hail Mary, King Lear, Histoire(s) Du Cinema, JLG/JLG, Meeting Woody Allen, Nouvelle Vague, Forever Mozart, In Praise of Love, Notres Musique, and this year's Film Socialisme (supposedly his farewell as a filmmaker). I hope he shows up to the ceremony, but if he doesn't, I'll somehow be just as happy. And if he turns the honor down flat, I'll understand. Nevertheless, it's on the books, and he deserves the honor. Félicitation, M. Godard. Hollywood n'est pas aussi le mauvais, est-il lui ? L'attente… ne répondent pas à cela. Ahh, baise, avancent…

POST NOTE: As of Thursday, August 26th, the Academy has not yet been able to locate the more-elusive-than-usual Mr. Godard, in order to inform him of his win. Don't ya just love it?