David Lynch, the revered, idiosyncratic director and gloriously weirdo mind behind Eraserhead and Twin Peaks, has finally bagged an Oscar – an honorary one, but all the same, it’s kind of about time.
The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences announced that Lynch would receive an honorary Oscar at October’s Governors Awards, alongside Geena David, Wes Studi, Lina Wertmuller, and others.
Lynch has been nominated for the best director award three times and once for best adapted screenplay, for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001).
A statement from the Academy said the event will “recognise individuals who have devoted themselves to a lifetime of artistic accomplishment and brought outstanding contributions to our industry, and beyond.”
2017’s revival of Twin Peaks, which Lynch directed and co-created with Mark Frost, received widespread acclaim.
Back in March, Lynch announced that he was leading a new online filmmaking masterclass – teaching idea generation, translating ideas into narrative, and going beyond formulaic storytelling. “A desire for an idea is like putting a little piece of bait on a hook and lowering it into the water,” Lynch said in a trailer for the course. “You don’t know when they’re going to come, or what will trigger them; lo and behold, on a lucky day, bingo – you’ll catch an idea.”
A whole extra hour of the director’s Oscar-nominated Blue Velvet also emerged earlier this year – a 51-minute compilation of deleted scenes and alternate takes from the 1986 classic, assembled for a special edition Blu-ray release to mark its 25th anniversary.
Lynch then more recently starred in Flying Lotus’ “Fire is Coming” video – in the video, he narrates a scary story of a group of wolf-children, and things just get even more weird from there.
For someone with a pioneering, dappled oeuvre and expansive outlook like Lynch’s, someone who’s films have reinvented modern cinema in the most startling, dazzling ways, an honorary Oscar seems like a bit of a farce TBH. Justice for Fire Walk With Me!