Academy Award

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. The Awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a professional honorary organization, which as of 2003 had a voting membership of 5,816. Actors (with a membership of 1,311) make up the largest voting bloc. The votes have been tabulated and certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for 72 years, since close to the awards' inception.[1] They are intended for the films and persons the Academy believes have the top achievements of the year.[2] The 78th Academy Awards was the most recent ceremony, and the next ceremony, the 79th Academy Awards,will take place on February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, produced by Laura Ziskin and will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.The nominees will be announced on January 23, 2007, 5:38 a.m. PST (1:38 p.m. UTC), at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The annual Oscar presentation has been held since 1929.[3]

[edit] 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 inches (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes, signifying the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers and Technicians.[4] MGM’s art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy[5] by printing the design on scroll. 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 (Levy 2003). The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base.[6] (Levy 2003)

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.[7] 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 (Levy 2003). 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).

However it came to be, both Oscar and Academy Award are registered trademarks of the Academy, and are fiercely protected by the Academy through litigation and threats thereof. The Academy's domain name is oscars.org and the official Web site for the Awards is at oscar.com.

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 then the Academy keeps the statuette.[8] Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six figure sums. (Levy 2003)

[edit] Membership

Academy membership may be obtained by a competitive nomination (however, the nominee must be invited to join) or a member may submit a name. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although past press releases have announced the names of those who have been invited to join. If a person not yet a member is nominated in more than one category in a single year, he/she must choose which branch to join when he/she accepts membership.[2]

[edit] Nominations

Today, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film has to open in the previous calendar year (from midnight January 1 to midnight December 31) in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify.[9] Rule 2 states that a film must be "feature-length" (defined as at least 40 minutes) to qualify for an award (except for Short Subject awards, of course). It must also exist either on a 35mm or 70mm film print OR on a 24fps or 48fps progressive scan digital film print with a native resolution no lower than 1280x720.

The members of the various branches nominate those in their respective fields (actors are nominated by the actors' branch, etc.) 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 all categories.[10]

[edit] Awards night

The major awards are given out at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in 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. It is estimated that over one billion people watch the Academy Awards either live or recorded each year (Levy 2003).

The Awards show was first televised on NBC in 1953. NBC broadcast them until 1960 when the ABC Network took over the broadcasting job until 1971 when NBC reassumed the broadcast. ABC again took over broadcast duties in 1976 and is under contract to do so through the year 2014.[11]

After more than fifty 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 of advantage to ABC, as it usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period.

The awards event itself is a National Special Security Event by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

[edit] Awards

Image:BobHopegettingOscar.jpg

[edit] Academy Award of Merit

[edit] Current Awards

Some awards are for a film as a whole, some are for an aspect of a film.

• Best Picture – 1928 to present
• Best Director – 1928 to present
• Best Leading Actor – 1928 to present
• Best Leading Actress – 1928 to present
• Best Supporting Actor – 1936 to present
• Best Supporting Actress – 1936 to present
• Best Original Screenplay – 1940 to present
• Best Adapted Screenplay – 1928 to present
• Best Animated Feature – 2001 to present
• Best Art Direction – 1928 to present (also called Interior or Set Decoration)
• Best Cinematography – 1928 to present
• Best Costume Design – 1948 to present
• Best Documentary Feature
• Best Documentary Short Subject
• Best Film Editing – 1935 to present
• Best Foreign Language Film – 1947 to present
• Best Makeup – 1981 to present
• Best Original Song – 1934 to present
• Best Original Score – 1934 to present
• Best Animated Short Film – 1931 to present
• Best Live Action Short Film – 1931 to present
• Best Sound Mixing – 1930 to present
• Best Sound Editing – 1963 to present
• Best Visual Effects – 1939 to present

[edit] Retired Awards

• Best Assistant Director – 1933 to 1937
• Best Dance Direction – 1935 to 1937, 1962
• Best Engineering Effects – 1928 only
• Best Score -- Adaptation or Treatment
• Best Original Musical or Comedy Score
• Best Short Film - Color – 1936 and 1937
• Best Short Film - Live Action - 2 Reels – 1936 to 1956
• Best Short Film - Novelty – 1932 to 1935
• Best Original Story – 1928 to 1956
• Best Unique and Artistic Quality of Production – 1928 only

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.

[edit] Special Awards

These awards are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole.

[edit] Current Awards

• Academy Honorary Award – 1928 to present
• Academy Special Achievement Award
• Academy Award, Scientific or Technical – 1931 to present at three levels
• The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award – 1938 to present
• The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
• Gordon E. Sawyer Award

[edit] Retired Awards

• Academy Juvenile Award – 1934 to 1954

[edit] Criticism

The Academy Awards, especially in recent years, have been the target of a considerable amount of criticism and controversy.

Several directors who have been acknowledged as masters (such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, and Martin Scorsese) have never won the Best Director award.

The Academy Awards have also often been criticised for being too 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, or Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth are often considered to have aged poorly and have little of the impact they did on their initial release.

In contrast, several nominees which have lost in the Best Picture category are regarded as masterpieces by many critics and filmmakers. The most obvious example is Citizen Kane (nominated for nine Oscars but winner of only one, Best Original Screenplay) which has since come to be regarded by film buffs, academics and filmmakers as one of the greatest films of all time.

There is also the syndrome where actors and actresses who came to prominence primarily in comedy films have to succeed in dramatic films in order to be seriously regarded by the Academy (only eleven or so actors have won Best Actor or Best Actress for playing a comedic role).

It has also often been suggested that the Academy is guilty of awarding a "sentimental Oscar" to actors with long careers who have not previously won. Other performances are sometimes seen as a compensation for an actor not winning in a previous year. A commonly cited example is Judi Dench's relatively brief appearance in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award, the year after she was unsuccessful in the Best Actress category for Mrs Brown.

There has also been criticism of the increasing influence of lobbying for specific films by the producers and companies behind those films, so that the awards tend to reflect the efforts of lobbying campaigns more than the merits of individual films.

The Academy's voting process has also been cited for many flaws, including the fact that assistants to Academy Members often vote on the official Oscar ballots.[12].

[edit] Actors who have won Best Actor or Best Actress in a comedic role

Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda)

Marie Dressler (Min and Bill)

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night)

James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story)

Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou)

Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl)

Diane Keaton (Annie Hall)

Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt (As Good as it Gets)

Cher (Moonstruck)

Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love)

[edit] The Kodak Theatre

The Kodak Theatre has been the home of the Academy Awards since 2002. This theatre has been the first permanent home of the awards. The Kodak Theatre is connected to the Hollywood Highland Center, which contains 640,000 square feet of space including retail, resturauants, nightclubs, and a six-screen movie theatre.

[edit] Academy Award statistics

• Academy Award statistics: Films receiving 10 or more nominations
• Academy Award statistics: Films receiving 8 or more awards
• Academy Award statistics: Films receiving awards for Best Picture, Directing, Actor, Actress and Writing
• Academy Award statistics: Films receiving 2 or more acting awards
• Academy Award statistics: Films receiving 3 or more acting nominations
• Academy Award statistics: Actors receiving 5 or more nominations
• Academy Award statistics: Actors receiving 2 or more awards
• Academy Award statistics: Directors receiving 3 or more nominations
• Academy Award statistics: People receiving 5 or more awards

[edit] See also

• List of Academy Awards ceremonies
• List of Academy Award winning movies - alphabetic

[edit] References

[edit] Trivia

• Only one Oscar-winning individual has also been a Nobel Laureate. George Bernard Shaw achieved this distinction in 1938 when he won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.
• Walt Disney holds the record for having the most Academy Awards: 22 won, and 4 honorary. He was also nominated for 64 Academy Awards during his lifetime.
• After Walt Disney, the two most nominated people in Academy Awards history are composer John Williams (45 nominations) and costume designer Edith Head (35 nominations).
• The oldest person ever to win an Oscar: Jessica Tandy (age 80) for Driving Miss Daisy.
• The oldest person ever to be nominated for an Oscar: Gloria Stuart (age 87) for Titanic.
• The youngest person ever to win an Oscar: Tatum O'Neal (age 10) for Paper Moon.
• The youngest person ever to be nominated for an Oscar: Justin Henry (age 8) for Kramer vs. Kramer.
• James Dean is the only actor to receive two posthumous acting nominations. Dean was killed in a traffic accident in 1955, but was nominated in 1956 for East of Eden and 1957 for Giant.
• Only sixteen actors have appeared in three or more Best Picture Oscar-winners: Ward Bond, John Cazale, Donald Crisp, Harry Davenport, Morgan Freeman, Clark Gable, John Gielgud, Hugh Griffith, Jack Hawkins, Bernard Hill, Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, Talia Shire, Joe Spinell, and Meryl Streep.

0nly one actor has ever appeared in three of the five best picture nominees in one year. John C. Reilly in 2002 appeared in "The Hours", "Gangs of New York" and "Chicago" the same year he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Chicago".

[edit] External links

• Oscars.org Official site
• Oscar.com Official ceremony site
• Oscar Watch
• The Oscar Guy
• The Academy Awards Database
• The Academy Awards at the Internet Movie Database
• The most-honored films nominated for Best Motion Picture
• (French) Les oscars : origines, catégories, chiffres, de la création à la fin des années 50

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