Tyler Perry attending the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 4, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. Credit: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/Cover Images
Tyler Perry will be presented with the honour during the Oscars ceremony on 25 April.
Tyler Perry will be honoured with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars in April.
The actor, writer, and studio boss is being recognised for his philanthropic efforts and work for social justice and civil rights alongside the Motion Picture And Television Fund (MPTF), the first organisation to receive the honour.
Both awards will be presented at the 93rd annual Academy Awards – the first time the honour has been handed out at the Oscars ceremony since Jerry Lewis was recognised in 2009. The honorary Oscars have been presented at the Governors Awards in November ever since, but last year’s event was scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last time two separate Hersholt Awards were presented in the same year was in 1993 when Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn were honoured.
“There has been such widespread generosity in our industry that limiting the Hersholt Humanitarian Award to one recipient, this year in particular, was impossible. So, we are breaking with tradition and giving two awards to honor that spirit,” Academy president David Rubin said in a statement. “Tyler’s cultural influence extends far beyond his work as a filmmaker. He has quietly and steadily focused on humanitarian and social justice causes from the beginning of his career, caring for people who are most often ignored.
“The work of the MPTF is more vital than ever, and the organization has gone above and beyond to help our community. The sheer number of individuals and families – from every corner of our industry’s workforce – aided during the pandemic and over the last 100 years is nothing short of extraordinary.”
The 93rd Oscars will be held on 25 April.
—Reuters
