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"The Oscar" redirects here. For the film, see The Oscar (film).
Academy Award
File:Oscar statuette.jpg
An Academy Award statuette
DescriptionExcellence in cinematic achievements
CountryUnited States
Presented byAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
First awardedMay 16, 1929
WebsiteOscars.org

The Academy Award (informally known as the Oscar) is an accolade by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)[1] to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world and is televised live in more than 200 countries annually. It is also the oldest award ceremony in the media; its equivalents, the Grammy Awards (for music), Emmy Awards (for television), and Tony Awards (for theatre) are modeled after the Academy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself was conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss Louis B. Mayer.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of the 1927–1928 film season. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. deMille. The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best in film for 2009, was held on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, with actors Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting the ceremony.[2]

History

The first awards were presented on May 16, 1929, at a private brunch at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post Academy Awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel.[3] The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other personalities of the filmmaking industry of the time for their works during the 1927–1928 period.

Winners had been announced three months earlier of their triumphs; 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 pm on the night of the awards.[3] This method was used until the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began; as a result, the Academy has used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners since 1941.[3] Since 2002, the awards have been broadcast from the Kodak Theatre.

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, Emil Jannings received the award for two movies in which he starred during that period. Since the fourth ceremony, the system changed, and the professionals were honored for a specific performance in a single film. As of the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony held in 2010, a total of 2,789 Oscars have been given for 1,825 awards.[4] A total of 302 actors have won Oscars in competitive acting categories or been awarded Honorary or Juvenile Awards.

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.

Oscar statuette

Design

Although there are seven other types of awards presented by the Academy (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, the Scientific and Engineering Award, the Technical Achievement Award, the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, and the Student Academy Award), 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 each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.[5]

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.[6] In need of a model for his statuette Gibbons was introduced by his then wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director and actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Reluctant at first, Fernández 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[7] 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,[8] approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago, Illinois by manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company.[9]

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.[10]

Naming

The root of the name Oscar is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson;[11] one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards[12] and to Bette Davis's receipt of the award in 1936.[13] Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. 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).[14] Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'".[15] The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.[16] Another legend reports that the Norwegian-American Eleanor Lilleberg, executive secretary to Louis B. Mayer, saw the first statuette and exclaimed, "It looks like King Oscar II!".[17] At the end of the day she asked, "What should we do with Oscar, put him in the vault?" and the name stuck.

Ownership of Oscar statuettes

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.[18]

While the Oscar is under the ownership of the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market.[19] The case of Michael Todd's grandson trying to sell Todd's Oscar statuette illustrates that there are some who do not agree with this idea. When Todd's grandson attempted to sell Todd's Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector, the Academy won the legal battle by getting a permanent injunction. Although Oscar sales transactions have been successful, some buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury.[20]

Nomination

Since 2004, Academy Award nomination results have been announced to the public in late January. Prior to 2004, nomination results were announced publicly in early February.

Voters

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,835 as of 2007.[21]

Actors constitute the largest voting bloc, numbering 1,311 members (22 percent) of the Academy's composition. Votes have been certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its predecessor Price Waterhouse) for the past 73 annual awards ceremonies.[22]

All AMPAS members must be invited to join by the Board of Governors, on behalf of Academy Branch Executive Committees. Membership eligibility may be achieved by a competitive nomination or a member may submit a name based on other significant contribution to the field of motion pictures.

New membership proposals are considered annually. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although as recently as 2007 press releases have announced the names of those who have been invited to join. The 2007 release also stated that it has just under 6,000 voting members. While the membership had been growing, stricter policies have kept its size steady since then.[23]

Rules

Currently, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film must open in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify (except for the Best Foreign Language Film).[24] For example, the 2010 Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker, was actually first released in 2008, but did not qualify for the 2009 awards as it did not play its Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles until mid-2009, thus qualifying for the 2010 awards.

Rule 2 states that a film must be feature-length, defined as a minimum of 40 minutes, except for short subject awards, and it must exist either on a 35 mm or 70 mm film print or in 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format with native resolution not less than 1280x720.

Producers must submit an Official Screen Credits online form before the deadline; in case it is not submitted by the defined deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards in any year. The form includes the production credits for all related categories. Then, each form is checked and put in a Reminder List of Eligible Releases.

In late December ballots and copies of the Reminder List of Eligible Releases are mailed to around 6000 active members. For most categories, members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees only in their respective categories (i.e. only directors vote for directors, writers for writers, actors for actors, etc.); there are some exceptions though in the case of certain categories, like Foreign Film, Documentary and Animated Feature Film in which movies are selected by special screening committees made up of member from all branches. In the special case of Best Picture, all voting members are eligible to select the nominees for that category. Foreign films must include English subtitles, and each country can only submit one film per year.[25]

The members of the various branches nominate those in their respective fields while all members may submit nominees for Best Picture. The winners are then determined by a second round of voting in which all members are then allowed to vote in most categories, including Best Picture.[26]

Ceremony

Telecast

31st Academy Awards Presentations, Pantages Theater, Hollywood, 1959
81st Academy Awards Presentations, Hollywood and Highland, Hollywood, 2009

The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in February or March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. It is the culmination of the film awards season, which usually begins during November or December of the previous year. This is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie dress is the most common outfit for men, although fashion may dictate not wearing a bow-tie, and musical performers sometimes do not adhere to this. (The artists who recorded the nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television broadcast).

The Academy Awards is televised live across the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, the United Kingdom, and gathers millions of viewers elsewhere throughout the world.[27] The 2007 ceremony was watched by more than 40 million Americans.[28] Other awards ceremonies (such as the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys) are broadcast live in the East Coast but are on tape delay in the West Coast and might not air on the same day outside North America (if the awards are even televised). The Academy has for several years claimed that the award show has up to a billion viewers internationally, but this has so far not been confirmed by any independent sources. The Awards show was first televised on NBC in 1953. NBC continued to broadcast the event until 1960 when the ABC Network took over, televising the festivities through 1970, after which NBC resumed the broadcasts. ABC once again took over broadcast duties in 1976; it is under contract to do so through the year 2014.[29]

After more than sixty years of being held in late March or early April, the ceremonies were moved up to late February or early March starting in 2004 to help disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar season in the film industry. Another reason was because of the growing TV ratings success of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, which would cut into the Academy Awards audience. The earlier date is also to the advantage of ABC, as it now usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period. (Some years, the ceremony is moved into early March in deference to the Winter Olympics.) Advertising is somewhat restricted, however, as traditionally no movie studios or competitors of official Academy Award sponsors may advertise during the telecast. The Awards show holds the distinction of having won the most Emmys in history, with 47 wins and 195 nominations.[30]

After many years of being held on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/6:00 p.m Pacific, in 1999 the ceremonies were moved to Sundays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern/5:30 p.m. Pacific.[31] The reasons given for the move were that more viewers would tune in on Sundays, that Los Angeles rush-hour traffic jams could be avoided, and that an earlier start time would allow viewers on the East Coast to go to bed earlier.[32] For many years the film industry had opposed a Sunday broadcast because it would cut into the weekend box office.[33]

On March 30, 1981, the awards ceremony was postponed for one day after the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and others in Washington DC.

In 1993 an In Memoriam section was introduced,[34] honoring those who had made a significant contribution to cinema who had died in the preceding 12 months. This section has led to some criticism for omission of notable persons such as Leonard Schrader and Malcolm Arnold in 2007[35] and Gene Barry, Farrah Fawcett, Henry Gibson, Gale Storm, and Bea Arthur in 2010.[34] The list of names chosen to be included in the Memoriam segment is compiled by a small committee of the Academy and not the producers of the show.[36]

Since 2002, celebrities have been seen arriving at the Academy Awards in hybrid vehicles;[37] during the telecast of the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, Leonardo DiCaprio and former vice president Al Gore announced that ecologically intelligent practices had been integrated into the planning and execution of the Oscar presentation and several related events.[37][38]

In 2010, the organizers of the Academy Awards announced that winners' acceptance speeches must not run past 45 seconds. This, according to organizer Bill Mechanic, was to ensure the elimination of what he termed "the single most hated thing on the show" - overly long and embarrassing displays of emotion.[39]

Past ceremonies and ratings

The following is a listing of all Academy Awards ceremonies and ratings since 1929.[40][41][42]

Ceremony Date Best Picture winner Length of broadcast Number of viewers Rating Host(s)
1st Academy Awards May 16, 1929 Wings No Broadcast 15 min -- -- Douglas Fairbanks, William C. deMille
2nd Academy Awards April 3, 1930 The Broadway Melody Radio -- -- William C. deMille
3rd Academy Awards November 5, 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front -- -- -- Conrad Nagel
4th Academy Awards November 10, 1931 Cimarron -- -- -- Lawrence Grant
5th Academy Awards November 18, 1932 Grand Hotel -- -- -- Lionel Barrymore, Conrad Nagel
6th Academy Awards March 16, 1934 Cavalcade -- -- -- Will Rogers
7th Academy Awards February 27, 1935 It Happened One Night -- -- -- Irvin S. Cobb
8th Academy Awards March 5, 1936 Template:Film version year -- -- -- Frank Capra
9th Academy Awards March 4, 1937 The Great Ziegfeld -- -- -- George Jessel
10th Academy Awards March 10, 1938 The Life of Emile Zola -- -- -- Bob Burns
11th Academy Awards February 23, 1939 You Can't Take It With You -- -- -- No Host
12th Academy Awards February 29, 1940 Gone with the Wind -- -- -- Bob Hope
13th Academy Awards February 27, 1941 Template:Film version year -- -- -- Bob Hope
14th Academy Awards February 26, 1942 How Green Was My Valley -- -- -- No Host
15th Academy Awards March 4, 1943 Mrs. Miniver -- -- -- Bob Hope
16th Academy Awards March 2, 1944 Casablanca -- -- -- Jack Benny
17th Academy Awards March 15, 1945 Going My Way -- -- -- Bob Hope, John Cromwell
18th Academy Awards March 7, 1946 The Lost Weekend -- -- -- Bob Hope, James Stewart
19th Academy Awards March 13, 1947 The Best Years of Our Lives -- -- -- Jack Benny
20th Academy Awards March 20, 1948 Gentleman's Agreement -- -- -- Agnes Moorehead, Dick Powell
21st Academy Awards March 24, 1949 Template:Film version year -- -- -- Robert Montgomery
22nd Academy Awards March 23, 1950 Template:Film version year -- -- -- Paul Douglas
23rd Academy Awards March 29, 1951 All About Eve -- -- -- Fred Astaire
24th Academy Awards March 20, 1952 An American in Paris -- -- -- Danny Kaye
25th Academy Awards March 19, 1953 The Greatest Show on Earth -- 40 million -- Bob Hope, Conrad Nagel
26th Academy Awards March 25, 1954 From Here to Eternity -- 43 million -- Donald O'Connor, Fredric March
27th Academy Awards March 30, 1955 On the Waterfront -- -- -- Bob Hope, Thelma Ritter
28th Academy Awards March 21, 1956 Marty -- -- -- Jerry Lewis, Claudette Colbert, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
29th Academy Awards March 27, 1957 Around the World in 80 Days -- -- -- Jerry Lewis, Celeste Holm
30th Academy Awards March 26, 1958 The Bridge on the River Kwai -- -- -- Bob Hope, David Niven, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Rosalind Russell
31st Academy Awards April 6, 1959 Gigi -- -- -- Bob Hope, David Niven, Tony Randall, Mort Sahl, Laurence Olivier, Jerry Lewis
32nd Academy Awards April 4, 1960 Ben-Hur 1 hour, 40 minutes -- -- Bob Hope
33rd Academy Awards April 17, 1961 The Apartment -- -- -- Bob Hope
34th Academy Awards April 9, 1962 West Side Story 2 hours, 10 minutes -- -- Bob Hope
35th Academy Awards April 8, 1963 Lawrence of Arabia -- -- -- Frank Sinatra
36th Academy Awards April 13, 1964 Tom Jones -- -- -- Jack Lemmon
37th Academy Awards April 5, 1965 My Fair Lady -- -- -- Bob Hope
38th Academy Awards April 18, 1966 The Sound of Music -- -- -- Bob Hope
39th Academy Awards April 10, 1967 A Man for All Seasons 2 hours, 31 minutes -- -- Bob Hope
40th Academy Awards April 10, 1968 In the Heat of the Night -- -- -- Bob Hope
41st Academy Awards April 14, 1969 Oliver! -- -- -- No Host
42nd Academy Awards April 7, 1970 Midnight Cowboy 2 hours, 25 minutes -- 43.4% No Host
43rd Academy Awards April 15, 1971 Patton -- -- -- No Host
44th Academy Awards April 10, 1972 The French Connection -- -- -- Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jack Lemmon
45th Academy Awards March 27, 1973 The Godfather 2 hours, 38 minutes -- -- Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson
46th Academy Awards April 2, 1974 The Sting 3 hours, 23 minutes -- -- John Huston, Burt Reynolds, David Niven, Diana Ross
47th Academy Awards April 8, 1975 The Godfather Part II 3 hours, 20 minutes -- -- Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra
48th Academy Awards March 29, 1976 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 3 hours, 12 minutes -- -- Goldie Hawn, Gene Kelly, Walter Matthau, George Segal, Robert Shaw
49th Academy Awards March 28, 1977 Rocky 3 hours, 38 minutes -- -- Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Richard Pryor
50th Academy Awards April 3, 1978 Annie Hall 3 hours, 30 minutes 39.73 million 31.1% Bob Hope
51st Academy Awards April 9, 1979 The Deer Hunter 3 hours, 25 minutes -- -- Johnny Carson
52nd Academy Awards April 14, 1980 Kramer vs. Kramer 3 hours, 12 minutes -- -- Johnny Carson
53rd Academy Awards March 31, 1981 Ordinary People 3 hours, 13 minutes -- -- Johnny Carson
54th Academy Awards March 29, 1982 Chariots of Fire 3 hours, 24 minutes -- -- Johnny Carson
55th Academy Awards April 11, 1983 Gandhi 3 hours, 15 minutes -- -- Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau
56th Academy Awards April 9, 1984 Terms of Endearment 3 hours, 42 minutes -- 38.0 Johnny Carson
57th Academy Awards March 25, 1985 Amadeus 3 hours, 10 minutes -- -- Jack Lemmon
58th Academy Awards March 24, 1986 Out of Africa 3 hours, 2 minutes 38.65 million 25.71 Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams
59th Academy Awards March 30, 1987 Platoon 3 hours, 19 minutes 39.72 million 25.94 Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, Paul Hogan
60th Academy Awards April 11, 1988 The Last Emperor 3 hours, 33 minutes 42.04 million 27.80 Chevy Chase
61st Academy Awards March 27, 1989 Rain Man 3 hours, 19 minutes 42.77 million 28.41 None
62nd Academy Awards March 26, 1990 Driving Miss Daisy 3 hours, 37 minutes 40.22 million 26.42 Billy Crystal
63rd Academy Awards March 25, 1991 Dances with Wolves 3 hours, 35 minutes 42.79 million 28.06 Billy Crystal
64th Academy Awards March 30, 1992 The Silence of the Lambs 3 hours, 33 minutes 44.44 million 29.84 Billy Crystal
65th Academy Awards March 29, 1993 Unforgiven 3 hours, 30 minutes 45.84 million 32.85 Billy Crystal
66th Academy Awards March 21, 1994 Schindler's List 3 hours, 18 minutes 46.26 million 31.86 Whoopi Goldberg
67th Academy Awards March 27, 1995 Forrest Gump 3 hours, 35 minutes 48.87 million 33.47 David Letterman
68th Academy Awards March 25, 1996 Braveheart 3 hours, 38 minutes 44.81 million 30.48 Whoopi Goldberg
69th Academy Awards March 24, 1997 The English Patient 3 hours, 34 minutes 40.83 million 25.83 Billy Crystal
70th Academy Awards March 23, 1998 Titanic 3 hours, 47 minutes 57.25 million 35.32 Billy Crystal
71st Academy Awards March 21, 1999 Saving Private Ryan 4 hours, 2 minutes 45.63 million 28.51 Whoopi Goldberg
72nd Academy Awards March 26, 2000 American Beauty 2 hours, 2 minutes 46.53 million 29.64 Billy Crystal
73rd Academy Awards March 25, 2001 Gladiator 3 hours, 23 minutes 42.93 million 25.86 Steve Martin
74th Academy Awards March 24, 2002 A Beautiful Mind 4 hours, 23 minutes 40.54 million 25.13 Whoopi Goldberg
75th Academy Awards March 23, 2003 Chicago 3 hours, 30 minutes 33.04 million 20.58 Steve Martin
76th Academy Awards February 29, 2004 The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King		 3 hours, 44 minutes 43.56 million 26.68 Billy Crystal
77th Academy Awards February 27, 2005 Million Dollar Baby 3 hours, 14 minutes 42.16 million 25.29 Chris Rock
78th Academy Awards March 5, 2006 Crash 3 hours, 33 minutes 38.64 million 22.91 Jon Stewart
79th Academy Awards February 25, 2007 The Departed 3 hours, 51 minutes 39.92 million 23.65 Ellen DeGeneres
80th Academy Awards February 24, 2008 No Country for Old Men 3 hours, 21 minutes 31.76 million 18.66 Jon Stewart
81st Academy Awards February 22, 2009 Slumdog Millionaire 3 hours, 30 minutes 36.94 million 21.68 Hugh Jackman
82nd Academy Awards March 7, 2010 The Hurt Locker 3 hours, 37 minutes 41.62 million 24.75 Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin

Historically, the "Oscarcast" has pulled in a bigger haul when box-office hits are favored to win the Best Picture trophy. More than 57.25 million viewers tuned to the telecast in 1998, the year of Titanic, which generated close to US$600 million at the North American box office pre-Oscars.[43] The 76th Academy Awards ceremony in which The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (pre-telecast box office earnings of US$368 million) received 11 Awards including Best Picture drew 43.56 million viewers.[44] The most watched ceremony based on Nielsen ratings to date, however, was the 42nd Academy Awards (Best Picture Midnight Cowboy) which drew a 43.4% household rating on April 7, 1970.[45]

By contrast, ceremonies honoring films that have not performed well at the box office tend to show weaker ratings. The 78th Academy Awards which awarded low-budgeted, independent film Crash (with a pre-Oscar gross of US$53.4 million) generated an audience of 38.64 million with a household rating of 22.91%.[46] In 2008, the 80th Academy Awards telecast was watched by 31.76 million viewers on average with an 18.66% household rating, the lowest rated and least watched ceremony to date, in spite of celebrating 80 years of the Academy Awards.[47] The Best Picture winner of that particular ceremony was another low-budget, independently financed film (No Country for Old Men).

Venues

In 1929, the 1st Academy Awards were presented at a banquet dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. From 1930–1943, the awards were presented first at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, and later the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles from 1930 to 1943 .

Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood then hosted the awards from 1944 to 1946, followed by the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles from 1947 to 1948. The 21st Academy Awards in 1949 were held at the Academy Award Theater at what was the Academy's headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.[48]

From 1950 to 1960, the awards were presented at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. With the advent of television, the 1953–1957 awards took place simultaneously in Hollywood and New York first at the NBC International Theatre (1953) and then at the NBC Century Theatre (1954–1957), after which the ceremony took place solely in Los Angeles. The Oscars moved to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California in 1961. By 1969, the Academy decided to move the ceremonies back to Los Angeles, this time to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Music Center.

In 2002, Hollywood's Kodak Theatre became the permanent home of the award ceremonies.

Academy Awards of Merit

Current awards

In the first year of the awards, the Best Director award was split into two separate categories (Drama and Comedy). At times, the Best Original Score award has also been split into separate categories (Drama and Comedy/Musical). From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Art Direction, Cinematography, and Costume Design awards were likewise split into two separate categories (black-and-white films and color films).

Retired awards

Proposed awards

The Board of Governors meets each year and considers new awards. To date, the following proposed awards have not been approved:

  • Best Casting: rejected in 1999
  • Best Stunt Coordination: rejected in 1999; rejected in 2005[49]
  • Best Title Design: rejected in 1999

Special Academy Awards

These awards are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole, but the individual selected to receive the special award may decline the offer. They are not always presented on a consistent annual basis.

Current special awards

Retired special awards

Criticism

Due to the positive exposure and prestige of the ceremony, studios spend millions of dollars and hire publicists specifically to promote their films for the awards during Oscar season. This has generated accusations of the Academy Awards being influenced more by marketing than quality. Director William Friedkin, an Oscar winner and producer of the Academy Awards, expressed this sentiment at a conference in New York in 2009. He characterized the Academy Awards as "the greatest promotion scheme that any industry ever devised for itself".[50]

In addition, some winners critical of the Academy Awards have boycotted the ceremonies and refused to accept their Oscars. The first to do so was Dudley Nichols (Best Writing in 1935 for The Informer). Nichols boycotted the Eighth Academy Awards ceremony because of conflicts between the Academy and the Writer's Guild.[51] George C. Scott became the second person to refuse his award (Best Actor in 1970 for Patton), at the 43rd Academy Awards ceremony. Scott explained, "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it."[52][53][54] The third winner, Marlon Brando, refused his award (Best Actor in 1972 for The Godfather), citing the film industry's discrimination and mistreatment of Native Americans. At the 45th Academy Awards ceremony, Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to read a 15-page speech detailing Brando's criticisms.[51]

It has been observed that several of the Academy Award winners – particularly Best Picture – have not stood the test of time nor defeated worthier efforts. On They Shoot Pictures, Don't They's comprehensive database of the 1,000 most acclaimed films of all time, only eight of the first hundred ranked films have won the Best Picture award.[55] Tim Dirks, editor of AMC's filmsite.org, has written of the Academy Awards,

Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision, cultural influence, and innovative qualities of many films are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the 80s, moneymaking 'formula-made' blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure.[56]

Best Picture is not the only category to come under criticism. In his review of The Lives of Others, Nick Davis argued,

Generally speaking, if you drop the adjective "Best" and replace it with "Most," you come to a better understanding of what the Academy Awards are often about. "Most Editing" would be an apt label for the kinds of movies that win trophies for being so obviously "edited," particularly through action scenes or across multiple plot-strands, that even audiences who rarely think about film editing sit up and take notice. "Most Sound" and "Most Sound Effects" would explain the lingering fascination with explosions and submarine pings rather than subtler work connected to mood or character, and "Most Visual Effects" is even more self-explanatory. "Most Original Score" works if we parse "Most" not onto "Original" but onto "Score," since the compositions possessed of the greatest uniqueness and creativity rarely win or even get nominated, but movies crammed with music often do, even when the winning composer wrote almost none of it (see: Babel). Actors are often rewarded for doing the Most Acting, especially in the Supporting divisions, since "Most" connotes both the fussiness of one's thesping (just ask Renée Zellweger and Tim Robbins) and the awful-lotta screen time that nominees like Jamie Foxx, Jake Gyllenhaal, Cate Blanchett, and Natalie Portman tend to have over truly "supporting" actors.[57]

Acting prizes in certain years have been criticized for not recognizing superior performances so much as being awarded for sentimental reasons,[58] personal popularity,[59] atonement for past mistakes,[60] or presented as a "career honor" to recognize a distinguished nominee's entire body of work.[61]

Other major events surrounding the Academy Awards

Major events held annually leading up to the awards show include:

  • 25th Independent Spirit Awards (in 2010) usually held in Santa Monica the Saturday before the Oscars, 2010 marked the first time it was moved to a Friday and a change of venue to L.A. Live, the newly built recreation developed in Downtown Los Angeles
  • The 8th annual "Night Before" traditionally held at The Beverly Hills hotel (8 years running in 2010) known as "THE" party of the season, benefits the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation which pays for and runs a retirement home for SAG actors in San Fernando valley
  • Elton John's AIDS fundraiser viewing party airs the awards live at the nearby Pacific Design Center
  • The Governors' Ball is the official after party put on by the Academy that serves dinner and is held adjacent to the awards
  • The Vanity Fair after party (historically held at the former Morton's restaurant, now is at the Sunset Towers for the 2nd year)

See also

Template:Wikipedia-Books

2

References

  1. ^ "About the Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on April 7, 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  2. ^ "82nd Academy Awards and the Oscars". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c "History of the Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  4. ^ "A Brief History of the Oscar". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 30, 2008. Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  5. ^ "Oscar Statuette: Legacy". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  6. ^ "Academy to Commemorate Oscar Designer Cedric Gibbons" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. May 3, 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  7. ^ "Muse Fountain".
  8. ^ "Eladio Gonzalez sands and buffs Oscar #3453". The Big Picture. The Boston Globe. February 20, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2009.
  9. ^ Babwin, Don (January 27, 2009). "Oscar 3453 is 'born' in Chicago factory". Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 27, 2009.
  10. ^ "Oscar Statuette: Manufacturing, Shipping and Repairs". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  11. ^ "Bette Davis biography". The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  12. ^ "Cinema: Oscars". Time. March 26, 1934.
  13. ^ "The Oscars, 1936". Retrieved February 17, 2008.
  14. ^ "Oscar" in The Oxford English Dictionary, June 2008 Draft Revision.
  15. ^ Levy, Emanuel (2003) All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards Continuum, New York. ISBN 0-8264-1452-4
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Sources

  • Brokaw, Lauren (2010) Wanna see an Academy Awards invite? We got it along with all the major annual events surrounding the Oscars The Daily Truffle, Los Angeles. The Daily Truffle
  • Cotte, Oliver (2007). Secrets of Oscar-winning animation: Behind the scenes of 13 classic short animations. Focal Press. ISBN 978-0240520704.
  • Gail, K. and Piazza, J. (2002) The Academy Awards the Complete History of Oscar. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1-57912-240-X
  • Levy, Emanuel (2003) All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. Continuum, New York. ISBN 0-8264-1452-4
  • Wright, Jon (2007) The Lunacy of Oscar: The Problems with Hollywood's Biggest Night Thomas Publishing, Inc.
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