Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to "creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production". The award is named for Irving Thalberg, head of the Production Division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who developed the company's reputation for sophisticated films. The trophy itself was originally a bust of Thalberg rather than the familiar Oscar statuette. However, it is still counted as an "Honorary Oscar". The bust of Thalberg was last used in 2018 when the award was presented to Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.^[1] When the award was next presented at the 15th Governors Awards to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson in 2024, the Oscar statuette was used instead.^[2]

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
Awarded for	creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.
Country	United States
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
First award	1938
Website	oscars.org

Alfred Hitchcock receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from Robert Wise (40th Academy Awards, 1967)

The award was established in 1937 and was first presented at the 10th Academy Awards, in March 1938. Since 2009, it has been presented at the separate Governors Awards rather than at the main Academy Awards ceremony.

The Award has been awarded 39 times to date. Katharine Hepburn made her only appearance at an Oscar ceremony to present the award to her long-time friend Lawrence Weingarten at the 46th Academy Awards ceremony in 1974.

List of recipients

Year Awarded	Honorees
1937		Darryl F. Zanuck (1)
1938		Hal B. Wallis
1939		David O. Selznick
1941		Walt Disney
1942		Sidney Franklin
1943		Hal B. Wallis
1944		Darryl F. Zanuck (2)
1946		Samuel Goldwyn
1948		Jerry Wald
1950		Darryl F. Zanuck (3)
1951		Arthur Freed
1952		Cecil B. DeMille
1953		George Stevens
1956		Buddy Adler
1958		Jack L. Warner
1961		Stanley Kramer
1963		Sam Spiegel
1965		William Wyler
1966		Robert Wise
1967		Alfred Hitchcock
1970		Ingmar Bergman
1973	–	Lawrence Weingarten
1975		Mervyn LeRoy
1976		Pandro S. Berman
1977	–	Walter Mirisch
1979	–	Ray Stark
1981		Albert R. Broccoli
1986		Steven Spielberg
1987		Billy Wilder
1990		David Brown
		Richard D. Zanuck
1991		George Lucas
1994		Clint Eastwood
1996		Saul Zaentz
1998		Norman Jewison
1999		Warren Beatty
2000		Dino De Laurentiis
2009	–	John Calley
2010		Francis Ford Coppola
2018		Kathleen Kennedy
		Frank Marshall
2024		Barbara Broccoli
		Michael G. Wilson

Other nominees

The 11th Academy Awards, where the award was won by Hal B. Wallis, marks the only occasion for which non-winning nominations were announced. The other nominees were: Samuel Goldwyn, Joe Pasternak, David O. Selznick, Hunt Stromberg, Walter Wanger, Darryl F. Zanuck.