Dolly Parton will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governors Awards, bringing her … More
Every year, in addition to giving away Academy Awards during the televised Oscars ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also bestows a very select few artists and industry figures with honorary trophies. These are some of the most sought-after prizes in the business, as they don’t require the traditional type of campaigning that many actors, musicians, writers, and directors go through each year.
One of the upcoming recipients, who was just announced, will finally become an Oscar winner after decades of coming close to earning an award — and inch one step closer to the hugely-coveted EGOT status.
Dolly Parton to Her First Oscar
Dolly Parton is set to collect the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the upcoming Governors Awards. The ceremony takes place in November, and it precedes the Oscars by several months.
Parton will earn her first Academy Award, though not in a competitive category. Many who care about things like EGOT runs believe that prizes like the Jean Hersholt trophy still count toward an entertainer’s roundup of wins, though such thoughts can be controversial.
Parton has been nominated for Oscars in the past. She has twice competed for Best Original Song, first in the early 1980s for “9 to 5,” from the movie of the same name, and then in the mid-2000s with “Travelin’ Thru,” which she wrote and performed for Transamerica.
Dolly Parton Nears EGOT Status
Parton has already won 10 Grammys out of a total of 55 nominations throughout the decades. She also became a first-time Emmy winner at the primetime ceremony in 2021, when she won Outstanding Television Movie for Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square, a Netflix original.
That means that if the singer-songwriter is looking to complete her EGOT — which stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, the four biggest prizes in the entertainment space — she only needs that last letter. Parton has touched Broadway in the past, as the remaking of 9 to 5 earned her a Best Original Score nomination at the Tonys, but she didn’t come out on top.
Dolly Parton’s Upcoming Broadway Musical
Dolly: A True Original Musical is set to premiere in Nashville soon before likely heading to the Great White Way in New York City in 2026 — and the project could also earn her a Tony Award nomination, and perhaps her first win.
Parton is one of a number of superstars who are only missing a Tony Award in the pursuit of an EGOT. She joins stars like Adele, Cher, Eminem, John Williams, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Lady Gaga. The latter pop icon won her first Emmy — a Sports Emmy, at that — earlier in 2025.
