The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically at the Academy Awards ceremonies to "Creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production." The award is named for Irving Thalberg, legendary head of the Production Division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who developed the company's reputation for sophisticated films. The trophy for award recipients is in the form of a bust of Thalberg rather than the familiar "Oscar" statuette.

For this award, the year shown is the year when the award was actually presented. Recipients of the Thalberg Award include:

• 1938 - Darryl F. Zanuck
• 1939 - Hal B. Wallis
  Other nominees (The only year for which they were announced)
• Samuel Goldwyn
• Joe Pasternak
• David O. Selznick
• Hunt Stromberg
• Walter Wanger
• Darryl F. Zanuck
• 1940 - David O. Selznick
• 1941 - none
• 1942 - Walt Disney
• 1943 - Sidney Franklin
• 1944 - Hal B. Wallis
• 1945 - Darryl F. Zanuck
• 1946 - none
• 1947 - Samuel Goldwyn
• 1948 - none
• 1949 - Jerry Wald
• 1950 - none
• 1951 - Darryl F. Zanuck
• 1952 - Arthur Freed
• 1953 - Cecil B. DeMille
• 1954 - George Stevens
• 1955 - none
• 1956 - none
• 1957 - Buddy Adler
• 1958 - none
• 1959 - Jack L. Warner
• 1960 - none
• 1961 - none
• 1962 - Stanley Kramer
• 1963 - none
• 1964 - Sam Spiegel
• 1965 - none
• 1966 - William Wyler
• 1967 - Robert Wise
• 1968 - Alfred Hitchcock
• 1969 - none
• 1970 - none
• 1971 - Ingmar Bergman
• 1972 - none
• 1973 - none
• 1974 - Lawrence Weingarten
• 1975 - none
• 1976 - Mervyn LeRoy
• 1977 - Pandro S. Berman
• 1978 - Walter Mirisch
• 1979 - none
• 1980 - Ray Stark
• 1981 - none
• 1982 - Albert R. Broccoli
• 1983 - none
• 1984 - none
• 1985 - none
• 1986 - Steven Spielberg
• 1987 - none
• 1988 - Billy Wilder
• 1989 - none
• 1990 - none
• 1991 - David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
• 1992 - George Lucas
• 1993 - none
• 1994 - none
• 1995 - Clint Eastwood
• 1996 - none
• 1997 - Saul Zaentz
• 1998 - none
• 1999 - Norman Jewison
• 2000 - Warren Beatty
• 2001 - Dino De Laurentiis
• 2002 - none
• 2003 - none
• 2004 - none
• 2005 - none
• 2006 - none
• 2007 - none
• 2008 - none