The Board of Governors voted to award honorary Oscars to producer and director Roger Corman, cinematographer Gordon Willis and to actress Lauren Bacall.
Corman is a king of low-budget "B movies" who made "It Conquered the World" (1956) and "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960).
Corman is probably best known for his filmings of various Edgar Allan Poe stories at American International Pictures, mostly in collaboration with writer/scenarist Richard Matheson, including House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962) The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). All but Premature Burial starred Vincent Price. After the film version of The Raven was completed, he reportedly realized he still had some shooting days left before the sets were torn down and so made another film, The Terror (1963) on the spot with the remaining cast, crew and sets.
A number of noted film directors worked with Corman, usually early in their careers, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Donald G. Jackson, Gale Anne Hurd, Carl Colpaert, Joe Dante, James Cameron, John Sayles, Monte Hellman, Paul Bartel, George Armitage, Jonathan Kaplan, George Hickenlooper, Curtis Hanson, and Jack Hill.
Many have said that Corman's influence taught them some of the ins-and-outs of filmmaking.
In the extras for the DVD of The Terminator, director James Cameron refers to his work for Corman as, "I trained at the Roger Corman Film School." The British director Nicolas Roeg served as the cinematographer on The Masque of the Red Death.
Willis has been a cinematographer on more than 30 films, and was nominated for two Oscars.
His films credits include All the President's Men, The Godfather, The Godfather part II and part III, and some Woody Allen's as Annie Hall, Manatthan, Zelig and Broadway Danny Rose.
The honorary Oscars that Bacall, Corman and Willis will receive are to honor "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement" or service to the motion picture academy.
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