Meet James Ivory-the oldest Oscar winner and know the story behind his unusual attire on the red carpet!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In Career , Interesting Facts

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James Ivory-the oldest winner of the Oscar

American director, producer, and screenwriter, James Ivory this year’s Oscar became the oldest to win the golden statuette.

He picked up the award for the best-adapted screenplay for ‘Call Me by your name’. It is a delicate romance story directed by Luca Guadagnino.

James was extremely overwhelmed and touched by the award. He had been nominated on 4 occasions before but this was the first Oscar that he had won.

In his acceptance speech, an emotional James said:

“I’ll make it as fast as I can’,

he started his speech thus. James firstly thanked the author, Andre Aciman for the lovely story. He said:

“Whether straight or gay or somewhere in between, we’ve all gone through first love and come out the other side intact.”

James is 89 now and he was born in the year 1928 when Oscar was only 11 months old. James did not forget to acknowledge the late Ismail Merchant who died in 2005 and with whom James had done many works. He said that the ‘work with him had led me to this award’.

The unique red carpet walk

James was not the only oldest celebrity to receive the award, but he also had the most unusual red carpet walk. He was seen wearing a Timothee Chalamet hand-painted shirt.

When James walked the red carpet before the start of the Oscar, he was seen wearing a shirt on which was painted the face of the film’s star-Timothee Chalamet.

This unusual outfit was described by Time as ‘the best part of the Oscars red carpet’. Indiewire called it ‘iconic’.

The story behind the unique custom-made shirt of James Ivory

The shirt was hand-painted by Bristol-based British artist Andrew Mania. But he gave credit to James for daring to wear this unique outfit to the Oscars.

He said:

“It’s quite a brave thing to wear something so different – especially to the Oscars. It’s quite a unique look,”

Andrew Mania added:

“All of the attention since the Oscars has been overwhelming, I feel like a rabbit in headlights.”

Timothee, 22 had helped James to climb the stage to accept the award at last month’s BAFTA film award function.

Timothee Chalamet helping James Ivory on the way to receiving his Adapted Screenplay BAFTA 😍 #throwbackthursday #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/wdeMY3phL2
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) March 1, 2018

The idea of making such a shirt came to Andrew after he saw the movie Call Me By Your Name in November 2017. In the last scene, Elio (Timothee’s character) is seen wearing a shirt with a Matisse-inspired face on it.

Andrew said:

“I wanted that Matisse shirt so much that I decided to paint my own one – as it seemed the easiest solution,”

He talked about the shirt to one of his friends who knew James. When James came to know about such a shirt, he said that he wanted it.

He liked the picture sent to him by Andrew and thus he managed to get the one-of-its-kind shirt. James also said that if he is nominated for the Oscars, he would wear the shirt.

Andrew adored James and was happy that he got an opportunity to dress him for the Oscars. He also said:

“Seeing James win was quite an emotional moment – especially with my shirt on!”

Andrew also has received a lot of orders for the shirts with Timothee Chalamet’s face on it.

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