Award-winning actress Viola Davis and film editor/sound designer Walter Murch were presented with honorary degrees by the American Film Institute Friday for their impact on the industry.
Davis and Murch received Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees “for contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image,” according to AFI.
“Viola Davis and Walter Murch — both masters of their craft — symbolize the standard of excellence AFI was founded to celebrate,” Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO, said in a statement when the honors were announced in June. “Their contributions to the art form have inspired audiences around the world — as they will inspire this year’s graduates of the AFI Conservatory.”
The honorary degrees were conferred Friday during the AFI Conservatory’s commencement ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Davis is a rare EGOT winner, having scored an Emmy Award for “How to Get Away with Murder,” a Grammy for her recorded memoir “Finding Me,” an Oscar for “Fences” and Tony Awards for “Fences” and “King Hedley II.”
While accepting the degree Friday, Davis said, “You have the power to come home to that one thing that made you want to do this. To be healers, to be alchemists, to buck the system, to see life just a little bit different, and therefore you don’t just leave something for people. You leave something in them.”
Murch won an Oscar for his work on “Apocalypse Now,” then won two for “The English Patient,” scoring a rare double win for both sound and film editing.
“When thinking about the future, it occasionally pays to be unreasonably bold,” Murch told the AFI graduates while accepting his degree.
Previous AFI honorary degree recipients include Mel Brooks, Robert Altman, Carol Burnett, Maya Angelou, Jodie Foster, Angela Lansbury, Spike Lee, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson, John Williams and Quentin Tarantino.