The Academy has selected its four honorary Oscar recipients for the 80th Academy Awards. Consisting of one actor, one writer/director, one director/documentarian, and one cinematographer, the list is both eclectic and diverse.

Sutherland has been a prominent actor since 1960s. Although he has never been nominated for an Oscar (in spite of a handful of opportunities that Academy didn’t take), he has 8 Golden Globe nominations (two nominations for film, six for television, two of the latter of which he won) along with a nomination from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA).

Burnett was a prominent film director of the 1970s and 1990s having won two Spirit Awards for To Sleep with Anger as writer and director, along with awards from Sundance, New York Film Critics Circle, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Varda is easily the most eclectic and most honored name on the list having won prizes from Berlinale, Cannes, Telluride, and Venice. She’s also been nominated five times for the French Cesar Awards, winning twice.

Roizman has been nominated five times for the Best Cinematography Oscar from 1972 through 1995, but never having won.

THE ACADEMY TO HONOR CHARLES BURNETT, OWEN ROIZMAN, DONALD SUTHERLAND AND AGNÈS VARDA WITH OSCARS® AT 2017 GOVERNORS AWARDS

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Tuesday night (September 5) to present Honorary Awards to writer-director Charles Burnett, cinematographer Owen Roizman, actor Donald Sutherland and director Agnès Varda. The four Oscar® statuettes will be presented at the Academy’s 9th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 11, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®.

“This year’s Governors Awards reflect the breadth of international, independent and mainstream filmmaking, and are tributes to four great artists whose work embodies the diversity of our shared humanity,” said Academy President John Bailey.

Born in Mississippi and raised in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, Burnett is an independent filmmaker whose work has been praised for its portrayal of the African-American experience. He wrote, directed, produced, photographed and edited his first feature film, “Killer of Sheep,” in 1977. His other features include “My Brother’s Wedding,” “To Sleep with Anger,” “The Glass Shield” and “Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation.” Burnett also has made several documentaries including “America Becoming” and “Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property,” and such short films as “The Horse” and “When It Rains.”

Roizman earned five Oscar nominations for his work on “The French Connection” (1971), “The Exorcist” (1973), “Network” (1976), “Tootsie” (1982) and “Wyatt Earp” (1994). He began his career shooting television commercials before making his debut feature film, “Stop,” in 1970. His other notable credits include “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Absence of Malice,” “True Confessions,” “The Addams Family” and “Grand Canyon.” Roizman represented the Cinematographers Branch on the Academy’s Board of Governors from 2002 to 2011.

With more than 140 film credits spanning six decades, Canadian-born Sutherland began his career with small roles in British and Italian films before his breakthrough in “The Dirty Dozen” (1967). Since then he has starred in such varied films as “M*A*S*H,” “Klute,” “Don’t Look Now,” “The Day of the Locust,” “1900,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Ordinary People,” “Cold Mountain,” “The Italian Job,” “Pride & Prejudice” and “The Hunger Games” series.

Belgian-born Varda has been called the mother of the French New Wave. Her first feature, “La Pointe Courte” (1956) – which she wrote and directed with no formal training – is considered to be the film that inspired the movement. Varda has experimented with all forms of filmmaking from shorts to documentaries to narrative feature films during her more than 60-year career, including such works as the New Wave classic “Cleo from 5 to 7,” “Le Bonheur,” “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” “Vagabond,” “Jacquot,” “The Gleaners and I,” her autobiographical documentary “The Beaches of Agnès,” and her most recent work, “Faces Places.”

The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”