thumb|[[Alfred Hitchcock receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from Robert Wise (40th Academy Awards, 1967)]]
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to "creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production". The award is named for Irving Thalberg, head of the Production Division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who developed the company's reputation for sophisticated films. The trophy itself was originally a bust of Thalberg rather than the familiar Oscar statuette. However, it is still counted as an "Honorary Oscar". The bust of Thalberg was last used in 2018 when the award was presented to Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. When the award was next presented at the 15th Governors Awards to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson in 2024, the Oscar statuette was used instead.
The award was established in 1937 and was first presented at the 10th Academy Awards, in March 1938. Since 2009, it has been presented at the separate Governors Awards rather than at the main Academy Awards ceremony.
The Award has been awarded 39 times to date. Katharine Hepburn made her only appearance at an Oscar ceremony to present the award to her long-time friend Lawrence Weingarten at the 46th Academy Awards ceremony in 1974.
List of recipients
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" |Year Awarded
! colspan="2" scope="col" class="unsortable" |Honorees
|-
! 1937
| 70px
| scope="row" | (1)
|-
! 1938
| 70px
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1939
| 70px|alt=David O. Selznick in 1934
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1941
| 70px|alt=Walt Disney in 1946
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1942
| 70px|alt=Sidney Franklin in 1920
| scope="row" | Sidney Franklin
|-
! 1943
| 70px
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1944
|70px
| scope="row" | (2)
|-
! 1946
| 70px|alt=Samuel Goldwyn in 1919
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1948
| 70px|Jerry Wald in 1947
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1950
| 70px
| scope="row" | (3)
|-
! 1951
| 70px|Arthur Freed in 1964
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1952
| 70px|alt=Cecil B. DeMille circa 1920
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1953
| 70px|alt=George Stevens in 1957
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1956
| 70px|alt=Buddy Adler in 1958
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1958
| 70px|alt=Jack Warner in 1955
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1961
| 70px|alt=Stanley Kramer circa 1955
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1963
| 70px|alt=Sam Spiegel in 1963
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1965
| 70px|alt=William Wyler circa 1945
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1966
| 70px|alt=Robert Wise in 1990
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1967
| 70px|alt=Alfred Hitchcock by Jack Mitchell, circa 1972
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1970
| 70px|alt=Ingmar Bergman in 1957
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1973
| –
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1975
| 70px|alt=Mervyn LeRoy in 1958
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1976
| 70px|alt=Pandro S. Berman in 1953
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1977
| –
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1979
| –
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1981
| 70px|alt=Albert R. Broccoli in 1976
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1986
| 70px|alt=Steven Spielberg in 2017
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1987
| 70px
| scope="row" |
|-
! rowspan="2" | 1990
| 70px|alt=David Brown in 2000
| scope="row" |
|-
| 70px|alt=Richard D. Zanuck in 1990
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1991
| 70px|alt=George Lucas in 2009
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1994
| 70px|alt=Clint Eastwood in 2010
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1996
|70px
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1998
| 70px|alt=Norman Jewison in 2012
| scope="row" |
|-
! 1999
| 70px|alt=Warren Beatty in 2001
| scope="row" |
|-
! 2000
| 70px|alt=Dino De Laurentiis in 2009
| scope="row" |
|-
! 2009
| –
| scope="row" |
|-
! 2010
| 70px|alt=Francis Ford Coppola in 2011
| scope="row" |
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2018
| 70px|alt=Kathleen Kennedy in 2015
| scope="row" |
|-
| 70px|alt=Frank Marshall in 2012
| scope="row" |
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2024
| 70px|alt=Broccoli in 2015
| scope="row" |
|-
| 70px|alt=Wilson (left) and Daniel Craig in 2006
| scope="row" |
|-
|}
Other nominees
The 11th Academy Awards, where the award was won by , marks the only occasion for which non-winning nominations were announced. The other nominees were: Samuel Goldwyn, Joe Pasternak, David O. Selznick, Hunt Stromberg, Walter Wanger, Darryl F. Zanuck.