Los Angeles (AFP)
Vibrant pleas to improve the position of women behind and in front of the cameras marked Sunday the presentation of Oscars of Honor in Hollywood, the Italian director Lina Wertmüller even calling to feminize the name of the award in "Anna".
Awarded at the age of 91, the filmmaker received her 42 year award after being the first woman selected for an Oscar for "Best Director" for her film "Pasqualino" (Seven Beauties).
Lina Wertmuller, renowned for her satires of Italian society and morals, was accompanied by two other Italian film legends Sophia Loren and Isabella Rossellini, who translated her call to feminize the name of the prestigious award.
"She would like the prize to be called + Anna + All the women here, please shout: + we want Anna, an Oscar for the female +", launched Isabella Rossellini in front of a crowd of stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Quentin Tarantino, Eddie Murphy, Scarlett Johansson or Jennifer Lopez.
The official name of the prize awarded since 1929 by the Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences is "Academy Award of Merit". But it is nicknamed "Oscar" because, according to the legend, a documentalist of the Academy, Margaret Herrick, estimating that the golden statuette resembled his uncle Oscar, had thus baptized it.
Also awarded, the American actress Geena Davis, 63, received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an Oscar awarded irregularly by the Academy to reward an individual "whose humanitarian action has done honor to the film industry ".
The actress founded the Institute of Gender in Media in 2004 to combat inequalities and stereotypes of women in film and television.
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for "Traveler in spite of himself" in 1988, "is a passionate advocate for gender equality," the Academy said in June, announcing the winners 'honor.
- "Proud and up to date" -
On Sunday, Thelma's drunken Thelma of Freedom "Thelma and Louise" explained how much this film had decided her fight for gender equality in the cinema.
"It made me understand how we give women few opportunities to come out of a movie by feeling proud and up to par with female characters," Geena Davis said, calling on filmmakers to feminize characters in their lives. current projects.
American actress and director Olivia Wilde told AFP that Geena Davis "was 20 years ahead of #TimesUp", anti-harassment and anti-sex discrimination movement alongside #MeToo after the accusations in October 2017 against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
American actor Cherokee Wes Studi also received an honorary Oscar, a first for a Native American actor.
"I would just like to say: it's time," said the 71-year-old actor, who performed well in "Dance with the Wolves", "The Last of the Mohicans", "Heat" and "Avatar" .
In 2016, the #OscarsSoWhite movement drew attention to the need to promote diversity at the Oscars.
Wes Studi received his award nearly fifty years after Marlon Brando refused to receive in 1973 the Best Actor Oscar for his role in "The Godfather" in protest of the treatment of the Amerindians by the film industry .
- David Lynch finally rewarded -
The evening began with the presentation of an Oscar of honor to American director David Lynch, 73, considered one of the greatest American filmmakers of his generation.
Oscar-nominated multiple times but still unhappy in competition, David Lynch ("Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet", "Mulholland Drive", etc.) was finally awarded a statuette of honor, under the leadership of Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan. Both actors in several of his films, they have paid tribute to him by comparing him to "a man of the modern Renaissance".
The Oscars of Honor are awarded annually to reward an entire career. Since 2009, they are presented at a separate ceremony of the main ceremony to lighten the program.
© 2019 AFP