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Academy Award
File:Academy Award Oscar.jpg
DescriptionExcellence in cinematic achievements
CountryUnited States
Presented byAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
First awarded1929
Websitehttp://www.oscars.org/

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are, probably, the most prominent and the most watched film awards ceremony in the world. Awarded annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since 1929 in Los Angeles,[1] it recognizes excellence in many aspects of motion picture making, such as acting, directing and screenwriting.

Academy Awards are granted by the AMPAS, a professional honorary organization, which as of 2007 had a voting membership of 5,830. Actors, with a membership of 1,311, make up the largest voting bloc at 22 percent. The votes have been tabulated and certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and its predecessor Price Waterhouse for 72 years, since close to the awards' inception.[2]

Most recently, the 79th Academy Awards ceremony took place on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and was produced by Laura Ziskin and hosted by day-time television talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. The 80th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at the same venue. It will be hosted by Comedy Central's The Daily Show host, Jon Stewart, who also hosted the ceremony in 2006.

The Oscar

The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. 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.[3] MGM’s art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on scroll.[4] Then sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbons' design in clay, and Alex Smith cast the statue in tin and copper and then gold-plated it over a composition of 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. Approximately 40 Oscars are made each year in Chicago, Illinois by the manufacturer, R.S. Owens. If they fail to meet strict quality control standards, the statuettes are cut in half and melted down.[5]

The root of the name "Oscar" is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, bandleader Harmon Oscar Nelson.[6] Another claimed origin is that of the Academy’s Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in 1931 and made reference of the statuette reminding her of her Uncle Oscar. Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick’s naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'" (Levy 2003). Both Oscar and Academy Award are registered trademarks of the Academy, fiercely protected through litigation and threats thereof.

As of the most recent ceremony held in 2007, a total of 2,671 Oscars have been awarded.[7] 290 different actors have won an acting Oscar (including Honorary awards and Juvenile awards). Of these, 144 are still alive today.

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 $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 (Levy 2003).

This rule is highly controversial, since it implies that the winner does not own the award.[8] The case of Michael Todd's grandson trying to sell Todd's Oscar statuette illustrates that there are many 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 some Oscar sales transactions have been successful, the buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury.

Academy membership

All members must be invited to join. Invitation comes from 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. Though winning an Academy Award usually results in an invitation to join, membership is not automatic.

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; though the membership had been growing until 2003, stricter policies have kept its size steady since then.[9]

Academy membership is divided into 15 Branches, representing different disciplines in motion pictures. Members whose work does not fall within one of the Branches may belong to a group known as "Members At Large."

Nominations

Today, 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.[10] 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 on 24 fps or 48 fps progressive scan digital film print with native resolution not less than 1280x720.

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.[11]

As of the 79th Annual Academy Awards, 847 members (past and present) of the Screen Actors Guild have been nominated for an Oscar (in all categories).

Awards night

File:Oscar deriv.png

The major awards are given out 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. 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 bowtie, and musical performers typically 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 has for several years claimed that the award show has a billion viewers internationally, but this has so far not been confirmed by any independent sources. Neither has the Academy explained how it has reached this figure.

The Academy Awards is the only awards ceremony televised live across the United States excluding Alaska and Hawaii; the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys are broadcast live in the East Coast, but they are on tape delay in the West Coast.

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 reassumed the broadcasts. ABC once again took over broadcast duties in 1976; it has contracted to do so through the year 2014.[12]

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. The earlier date is also to advantage of ABC, as it currently usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period. The Awards show holds the distinction of having won the most Emmys in history, with 38 wins and 167 nominations.[13]

On March 30, 1981, the awards ceremony was postponed for one day after the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and others in Washington, D.C. In 2007, the awards event itself was designated a National Special Security Event by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Movie studios are strictly prohibited from advertising movies during the broadcast.

Since 2002 movie stars have been seen arriving at the Academy Awards in hybrid vehicles;[14] 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.[15]

Venues

The 1st Academy Awards were presented at a banquet dinner at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. Subsequent banquet ceremonies in the 1930s and early 40s were held in Los Angeles at either The Ambassador Hotel or the Biltmore Hotel.

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 the Academy's then-headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.[16]

From 1950 to 1960, the awards were presented at Hollywood's Pantages Theater. The Oscars then moved to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California in 1961. By 1968, the Academy decided to move the ceremonies back to Los Angeles, this time at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Center. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion hosted 20 consecutive Oscar ceremonies until 1988, when the Academy started to alternate between the Music Center and the Shrine Auditorium.

In 2002, Hollywood's Kodak Theater became the first permanent home of the awards. It is connected to the Hollywood & Highland Center, which contains 640,000 square feet (59,000 m²) of space including retail, restaurants, nightclubs, other establishments and a six-screen cinema. In fact, the Grand Staircase columns at the Kodak Theater showcase every movie that has won the Best Picture title since the first Academy Awards in 1928.

Criticism

The Academy Awards have also often been criticized for being overly conservative. Critics have noted that many Best Picture Academy Award winners in the past have not stood the test of time. Several of these films, such as Around the World in 80 Days, Grand Hotel and Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth are often considered to have aged poorly and to have little of the impact they had on their initial release.[17][18][19] Several films that currently have wide critical approval were not named Best Picture.[20] The most obvious example is Citizen Kane, which received glowing critical reviews and was nominated for nine Oscars but winner of only one (Best Original Screenplay). This film has since come to be regarded by many as one of the greatest American films of all time. The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for seven awards, but failed to win a single one, despite being consistently ranked as one of the greatest movies of all time by IMDB.

It has been suggested that actors are at a disadvantage in comedic roles, as few acting awards have been given for performances in films that could be considered primarily comedic. Notable examples of actors who have received Oscars for comedic roles are Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets, Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda and Jessica Lange in Tootsie. This was joked upon at the 2007 awards by Jack Black, John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell.[21][22] It has also been suggested that actors occasionally win awards that are given more in commemoration of a career or past performances than in honor of the role for which the actor is nominated. One example is Judi Dench's brief eight minute screen time appearance in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won the 1998 Best Supporting Actress award, one year after she was unsuccessful in the Best Actress category for Mrs. Brown. Another is Martin Scorsese's Best Director award for The Departed (2006), after he had gone several years being nominated for, but failing to win, Academy Awards for his work in many highly acclaimed films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

Studios also lobby heavily for their films to be considered, leading to the complaint that nominations and awards may be largely a result of this lobbying rather than the quality of the material.[23]

A point of contention is the lack of consideration of non-English language films for categories other than Best Foreign Language Film: very few foreign films have been nominated for any other categories, regardless of artistic merit. As of 2007, only eight foreign language films have been nominated for Best Picture: Grand Illusion (French, 1938); Z (French, 1969); The Emigrants (Swedish, 1972); Cries and Whispers (Swedish, 1973); Il Postino (Italian/Spanish, 1995); Life Is Beautiful (Italian, 1998); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Chinese Mandarin, 2000); and Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese, 2006). None of these won Best Picture, though Z, Life Is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon all won Best Foreign Language Film, and Life is Beautiful also won Best Actor for Roberto Benigni. (As for the others, Grand Illusion predated the Best Foreign Language Film category; Letters from Iwo Jima was ineligible because it was produced in the U.S.; Cries and Whispers and Il Postino were not nominated; The Emigrants was nominated the year before but did not win.) On the other hand, Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico, 2006) won three Oscars even though it wasn't nominated for Best Picture and it lost Best Foreign Language Film; Sophia Loren also won her Best Actress Oscar for a foreign-language performance in Two Women (Italian, 1960). In addition, The Motorcycle Diaries (in Spanish and Quechua, 2004) won for Best Original Song ("Al otro lado del río") despite being an international co-production between seven different countries, none of which were able to submit it for Best Foreign Language Film consideration.

Awards

File:BobHopegettingOscar.jpg
Although never even nominated for a competitive Oscar for any of his acting performances, comedian Bob Hope received five honorary Oscars for contributions to cinema and humanitarian work.

Academy Award of Merit

Current Awards

Retired Awards

In the first year of the awards, the Best Director category was split into separate Drama and Comedy categories. At times, the Best Original Score category has been split into separate Drama and Comedy/Musical categories. Today, the Best Original Score category is one category. From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design awards were split into separate categories for black and white and color films.

Newest Awards

The newest awards to be added to the list of available awards from the Academy are the awards for:

Proposed Awards

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

  • Best Casting: rejected in 1999
  • Best Stunt Coordination: rejected in 1999; rejected in 2005[24]
  • Best Title Design: rejected in 1999
  • a few cynics have suggested that an award for "Best Budget" should be added: arguably, motion-picture budgeting is an art form in itself, as is motion-picture accounting.

Special Awards

These awards are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole, but the actor/actress voted to receive the special award can turn down the offer.

Current Awards

Retired Award

Academy Award records

Film records

Acting records

Miscellaneous records

See also

References

  • Gail, K. & Piazza, J. (2002) The Academy Awards the Complete History of Oscar. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. ISBN 157912240X
  • Levy, Emanuel. (2003) All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. Continuum, New York. ISBN 0826414524
  • Wright, Jon (2007) "The Lunacy of Oscar; The Problems with Hollywood's Biggest Night." Thomas Publishing, Inc.

Footnotes

  1. ^ "About the Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  2. ^ Jackie Finlay (3 Mar 2006). "The men who are counting on Oscar". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  3. ^ "Oscar Statuette: Legacy". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  4. ^ "Academy to Commemorate Oscar Designer Cedric Gibbons" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 3 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  5. ^ "Oscar Statuette: Manufacturing, Shipping and Repairs". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  6. ^ "Bette Davis biography". The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  7. ^ "A Brief History of Oscar". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  8. ^ Lacey Rose (28 Feb 2005). "Psst! Wanna Buy An Oscar?". forbes. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  9. ^ "Academy Invites 115 to Become Members". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  10. ^ "Rule Two: Eligibility". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  11. ^ "Rule Five: Balloting and Nominations". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  12. ^ "ABC and Academy Extend Oscar Telecast Agreement" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 7 Feb 2005. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  13. ^ Paul Sheehan (2 Feb 2007). "Emmy Loves Oscar". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  14. ^ Kelly Carter (30 Mar 2003). "'Hybrid' cars were Oscars' politically correct ride". USATODAY. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  15. ^ "Academy Statement re: Green Initiative Announcement". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 25 Feb 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  16. ^ "Oscars Award Venues". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  17. ^ Douglas Pratt (22 June 2004). "Reviewed: Around the World in 80 Days". Movie City News. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  18. ^ "The Greatest Show on Earth". rottentomatoes. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  19. ^ Roger Ebert (21 Dec 1972). "Reviewed: The Poseidon Adventure". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2007-04-13. Ebert disliked the film and claims that it contains 'More clichés than Grand Hotel '.
  20. ^ Tim Dirks. "Academy Awards Mistakes and Omissions". filmsite.org. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  21. ^ Paul Clinton (1999). "Pulling for 'Shakespeare in Love'". CNN. Retrieved 2007-04-13. ...comedic roles rarely win.
  22. ^ Scott Bowles; Claudia Puig; Susan Wlosczcyna (2 Feb 2004). "Can the favorites go on to win?". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2007-04-13.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Rebecca Thomason (21 Feb 2003). "How Bafta moved with the times". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-04-13. Aggressive studio lobbying still appears the most powerful indicator of what movie's likely to luck out at the Oscars, not what the British Academy have deemed award-worthy.
  24. ^ Michael Hiltzik (4 Aug 2005). "One stunt they've been unable to pull off". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
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