American singer, Dolly Parton to receive the 2025 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the annual Governors Awards.
Country music icon Dolly Parton will be honored with the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars’ annual Governors Awards on November 16. With this recognition, Parton joins a distinguished list of music legends such as Frank Sinatra (1970), Quincy Jones (1994), Harry Belafonte (2014), and Debbie Reynolds (2015) who have received this special award for their outstanding humanitarian contributions.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors also voted to present Honorary Awards to Debbie Allen, Tom Cruise, and Wynn Thomas. These four Oscar statuettes will be presented at the Academy’s 16th Governors Awards event on Sunday, November 16, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood.
“This year’s Governors Awards will celebrate four legendary individuals whose extraordinary careers and commitment to our filmmaking community continue to leave a lasting impact,” Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement. “The Academy’s board of governors is honored to recognize these brilliant artists.”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recognizes Dolly Parton for her decades-long dedication to philanthropy and charitable causes. The country music legend has made a lasting impact through initiatives like the Dollywood Foundation, established in 1988 to uplift and educate children in her native East Tennessee. Her most celebrated effort, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, launched in 1995 in honor of her father, has distributed over 285 million free books to children worldwide, growing into a beloved global literacy movement and remaining the hallmark project of the Dollywood Foundation.
Recently, in Feb 2025, Australian children’s music group, The Wiggles, teamed up with singer, Dolly Parton for groundbreaking double singles, ‘Friends!’ and ‘Counting 1 to 5.’