2018 Honorary Oscar Award for composer Lalo Schifrin

The selection process is very straightforward. Members of the board of governors put forth suggestions, with each of the top choices then voted on individually. Honourees must receive support from at least half of those on the board. The usual limit is three honourees. For a fourth to be named, he or she needs to garner two-thirds of the votes. Since the academy shifted the honorary kudos from the telecast to a separate non-televised ceremony nine years ago, they have celebrated 34 people.

In a press release on Tuesday, September 4^th, The Academy stated:

Born and raised in Argentina, Schifrin studied classical music and jazz in France before beginning to compose for film in Buenos Aires in the mid-1950s.  He has written scores for more than 100 films, including “The Cincinnati Kid,” “Bullitt,” “Dirty Harry,” “Enter the Dragon” and “Rush Hour.”  His memorable theme for the television series “Mission: Impossible” has been a hallmark of the recent film series.  He has received six Oscar® nominations, for the original scores for “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “The Fox” (1968), “Voyage of the Damned” (1976) and “The Amityville Horror” (1979), the original song “People Alone” from “The Competition” (1980) and the adaptation score for “The Sting II” (1983).

For fans of Schifrin this all makes for wonderful news. However, in a cruel turn of events, Schifrin’s long standing music publicist, the lovely Beth Krakower this week sadly succumb to her brave battle against cancer. She died just the following day of the announcement at the age of just 46. 

Beth will be sadly missed by everyone in the soundtrack business.