Charlie Chaplin

A film preservationist/historian (Kevin Brownlow), will receive the Governors Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the first time in its history.

British-born Brownlow was selected for his “wide and devoted chronicling of the cinematic parade,” the Academy Board of Governors said.

Brownlow is also a filmmaker, documentarian, author and a whole lot of other things, but he came to international attention in 1968 with the definitive work on the motion picture silent era, The Parade’s Gone By.

Brownlow “devoted his life to preserving and celebrating the silent era and the artists who made the films.  He is universally recognized as the silent film historian,” George Eastman House film archive curator, Caroline Frick said.

In the 1970s, Browlow began restoring silent film classics and magnificent documentaries, including the surpassing The Unknown Chaplin, and the 13-part Hollywood.

Brownlow, now 72 is the first of his profession to be honored by the Academy because he was so much more than his overflowing resumé, he also began an interest in early film as an artistic treasure and as a movement to appreciate, save and restore (with the most caring and creative minds) American cinema.

This Saturday, the American film industry will be able to thank Mr Brownlow properly where the Academy is creating a modest production over a most important event.