Academy Awards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Oscars" and "The Oscar" redirect here. For the film, see The Oscar (film). For other uses of the
word "Oscar", see Oscar (disambiguation).
Academy Awards
86th Academy Awards
Cate Blanchett's Oscar for playing Katharine
Hepburn in The Aviator in 2004
Awarded for Excellence in cinematic achievements
Country United States
Presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences
First awarded May 16, 1929
Official website oscars.org
The Academy Awards, commonly known as The Oscars, (rebranded as The Oscars in
2013)
[1]
is an annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film
industry. Winners are awarded the statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is
much better known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS).
[2][3]
The awards ceremony was first televised in 1953 and is now seen live in more than 200
countries.
[4]
The Oscars is also the oldest entertainment awards ceremony; its equivalents,
the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theatre, and the Grammy Awards for
music and recording, are modeled after the Academy Awards.
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony was held on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Los
Angeles, later than usual as to not clash with the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
[5]
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Oscar statuette
3 Nomination
4 Ceremony
5 Awards ceremonies
6 Venues
7 Merit categories
8 Special categories
9 Critical reception and review
10 Associated events
11 Presenter and performer gifts
12 TV ratings and ad prices
13 See also
14 Notes
15 References
16 External links
History[edit]
The first Academy Awards were presented on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner at
the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post Academy
Awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel.
[6]
The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony
was $5 ($69 as of 2014),
[7]
. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and
other personalities of the film-making industry of the time for their works during the 192728
period; the ceremony ran for 15 minutes.
Winners had been announced to media three months earlier; however, that was changed in the
second ceremony of the Academy Awards in 1930. Since then and during the first decade, the
results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards.
[6]
This
method was used until the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony
began; as a result, the Academy has since 1941 used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of
the winners.
[6]
The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last
Command and The Way of All Flesh. He had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the
Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier; this made him the first Academy Award winner in
history. The honored professionals were awarded for all the work done in a certain category for
the qualifying period; for example, Jannings received the award for two movies in which he
starred during that period and Janet Gaynor later won a single Oscar for performances in three
films. Since the fourth ceremony, the system changed, and professionals were honored for a
specific performance in a single film. For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned
two calendar years.
At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27, 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was
introduced. Until then, foreign-language films were honored with the Special Achievement
Award.
As of the 86th Academy Awards ceremony held in 2014, a total of 2,809 Oscars have been
given away.
[8]
Oscar statuette[edit]
Although there are seven other types of annual awards presented by the Academy (the Irving
G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Gordon E. Sawyer
Award, the Academy Scientific and Technical Award, the Academy Award for Technical
Achievement, the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, and the Student Academy Award)
plus two awards that are not presented annually (the Special Achievement Award in the form of
an Oscar statuette and the Honorary Award that may or may not be in the form of an Oscar
statuette), the best known one is the Academy Award of Merit more popularly known as the
Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall,
weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding
a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the
original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
[9]
In 1928, MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised
the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll.
[10]
In need of a model for his
statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wifeDolores del Ro to Mexican film director and
actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernndez. Reluctant at first, Fernndez was finally convinced to pose
nude to create what today is known as the "Oscar". Then, sculptor George Stanley (who also
did the Muse Fountain
[11]
at the Hollywood Bowl) sculpted Gibbons's design in clay and Sachin
Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The
only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original
Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which
also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy
Awards statuettes. Since 1983,
[12]
approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago by
Illinois manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company.
[13]
The awards weigh 8.5 pounds (3.9 kg) each
and take between three to four weeks to manufacture each statue.
[14]
In support of the American effort in World War II, the statuettes were made of plaster and were
traded in for gold ones after the war had ended.
[15]
Naming[edit]
The origin of the name Oscar is disputed. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named
the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson;
[16]
one of the earliest
mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to aTime magazine article about the 1934 6th
Academy Awards.
[17]
Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early
as 1932.
[18]
Another claimed origin is that the Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick,
first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette's reminding her of her "Uncle
Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce).
[19]
Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present
during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately
dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'".
[20]
The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939
by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Ownership of Oscar statuettes[edit]
Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither
winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the
Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the
statuette. Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions
and private deals for six-figure sums.
[21]
In December 2011, Orson Welles' 1941 Oscar
for Citizen Kane(Best Original Screenplay) was put up for auction, after his heirs won a 2004
court decision contending that Welles did not sign any agreement to return the statue to the
Academy.
[22]
On December 20, 2011, it sold in an online auction for US$861,542.
[23]
In 1992, Harold Russell needed money for his wife's medical expenses. In a controversial
decision, he consigned his 1946 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for "The Best Years of Our
Lives" to Herman Darvick Autograph Auctions, and on August 6, 1992, in New York City, the
Oscar sold to a private collector for $60,500. Russell defended his action, saying, "I don't know
why anybody would be critical. My wife's health is much more important than sentimental
reasons. The movie will be here, even if Oscar isn't." Harold Russell is the only Academy Award
winning actor to ever sell an Oscar.
While the Oscar is owned by the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market.
[24]
Michael
Todd's grandson tried to sell Todd's Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector in 1989, but the
Academy won the legal battle by getting a permanent injunction. Although some Oscar sales
transactions have been successful, some buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to
the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury.
[25]
Nomination[edit]
Since 2004, Academy Award nomination results have been announced to the public in late
January. Prior to that, the results were announced in early February.
Voters[edit]
