An honorary Oscar for director Mel Brooks and actress Angela Basset

At 97, American director Mel Brooks accepted an honorary Oscar on Tuesday for his entire body of work, more than half a century after winning his only Oscar for the film The Producers in which he ridiculed Hitler .

During a gala evening, Mel Brooks, who has also denounced racial bigotry in other films like The Sheriff's In Jail, joked that he was remorseful about the fate of his previous Oscar for the best original screenplay. "I really miss him. I should never have sold it,” he said. “I won’t sell this one, I swear to God,” he said.

A master of Hollywood comedy cinema, notably cultivating bad taste, Mel Brooks is one of the few to have won the greatest awards in American entertainment. He received his honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which each year honor four beloved industry veterans, many of whom did not receive awards at the Regular Oscars.

Twice Oscar-nominated Angela Bassett, 64, best known for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic of the same name in What's Love Got to Do With It and Queen Ramonda in the 2022 superhero sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, also received an honorary Oscar.

Eclectic, the actress has also starred in action films like The Fall of the White House and Mission Impossible: Fallout, the horror series American Horror Story and even lent her voice to Michelle Obama in The Simpsons. Noting that she was only the second black actress to win an honorary Oscar, after Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett paid tribute to other black Hollywood pioneers like Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar for Gone. the wind in 1940.

It would be another half century before McDaniel would be followed by actress Whoopi Goldberg. “My wish is that we leave this industry more enriched, forward-thinking and inclusive than we found it,” Angela Bassett said.