Los Angeles, Nov 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Academy Awards started their presentations a wee bit early. They presented a few Academy Awards to Actress Lauren Bacall, B-movie king Roger Corman and noted cinematographer Gordon Willis. The actual ceremony is due in March, which will be televised live also. In a breakaway from Television, this early award ceremony was not televised.

Along with the awards, there was a lively yet a non-formal dinner party in the Grand Ballroom above the Kodak Theatre in the honor of the awardees. The venue is the same room where the annual post-Academy Awards Governors Ball is held.

Along with these three awardees, producer John Calley was also honored with the Irving J. Thalberg Memorial Award, in recognition of his career accomplishments, which include “Catch-22,” “The Remains of the Day” and “The Da Vinci Code.”

Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Morgan Freeman and Steven Spielberg the noted celebrities amongst the 600 specially invited guests at the inaugural Governors Awards event to honor the early Oscar winners.

“We’re gathered here together, all artists, celebrating excellence without any television cameras — isn’t it great?” said veteran producer Norman Jewison. Warren Beatty agreed: “It’s so much better … that nobody’s worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching us or 29.2,” he said.