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Who
Votes? As of
2007, 5,830 industry professionals accounted for the voting membership.
Actors make up the largest voting block, with a membership total of 1,311.
I want to join! Academy membership can only be obtained
by a competitive nomination or a member nomination.
It’s
not an Oscar!
The official name of the golden statue is the Academy Award of Merit.
Then Why is it called an Oscar? Bette Davis claims she
named the statuette after her first husband, bandleader Harmon Oscar
Nelson.
What
is that thing?
The statuette depicts an Art Deco stylized knight holding a crusader’s
sword standing on a reel of 35mm film with five spokes, which is supposed
to signify the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers,
Directors, Producers and Technicians.
You
can’t buy an Oscar! 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 an Academy Award
winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the
statuette. Academy Awards earned prior to this agreement have been sold in
public auctions for six figure price-tags.
Does
my film qualify?
A movie has to 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,
California.
Most
Nominated:
Walt Disney holds the record with 22 wins, and 4 honorary. He was
nominated for 64 Academy Awards in all. Composers John Williams and Alfred
Newman have 45 nominations each.
Oldest:
80-year-old Jessica Tandy won for Driving Miss Daisy. 87-year-old Gloria
Stuart was nominated for Titanic.
Youngest:
10-year-old Tatum O’Neal won for Paper Moon. 8-year-old Justin Henry was
nominated for Kramer vs. Kramer.
Longest
Standing Ovation: Charlie Chaplin in 1972.
Fun
Facts:
Movie
studios are strictly prohibited from advertising movies during the
broadcast. Isn’t that ironic?
In
1981, the Academy Awards were delayed for one day, due to the shooting of
President Ronald Reagan.
Citizen
Kane was
nominated for nine Oscars but only won one (Best Original Screenplay).
James
Dean was killed in a traffic accident in 1955, but was nominated in 1956
for East of Eden and in 1957 for Giant.
The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
is the only Fantasy film to win Best Picture.
Movies
that won all 5 top awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best
Actress, and Best Screenplay): It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Silence of the Lambs.
Bad Best Pictures: The following Best Picture winners have a
rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes: The Greatest Show on Earth (38%),
Cimarron (36%), The Broadway Melody (42%), and Cavalcade (55%).
The
Very First Oscar Winner
The very first person to receive an Academy Award didn't attend the first
Academy Awards ceremony. Emil Jannings, the winner for Best Actor in the
1927-28 Academy Awards, had decided to go back to his home in Germany before
the ceremony. Before he left for his trip, Jannings was handed the very
first Academy Award.
The
Only Oscar to Win an Oscar
Oscar Hammerstein II won the Oscar for his song, "The Last Time I Saw
Paris," in the movie Lady Be Good (1941).
X-Rated
Midnight Cowboy (1969), the winner of the Academy Award for Best
Picture, is the only X-rated movie to win an Oscar.
Brother
and Sister
Ethel and Lionel Barrymore are the only brother and sister to ever win
Academy Awards for acting. Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar for Best Actor in A Free Soul
(1931). Ethel Barrymore won an Oscar for Best Actress in None But the Lonely Heart
(1944).
First
Color Movie to Win Best Picture
Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first movie filmed in color to
win the Best Picture award.
Posthumous
Nominations
There have been a number of people nominated for Academy Awards after
their death. However, the first person to be nominated posthumously and
actually win was screenwriter Sidney Howard for Gone With the Wind
(1939). James Dean, on the other hand, has been the only actor to be
nominated twice after death; once for Best Actor in East of Eden
(1955) and again the following year for Best Actor in Giant (1956).
Wordless
Winners
Three actors have won Academy Awards for playing characters that utter not
a single word throughout the entire film. Jane Wyman won the Best Actress
award for her portrayal of Belinda, a deaf mute, in Johnny Belinda
(1948). Sir John Mills played the mute village idiot in Ryan's Daughter
(1970), for which he won the Best Supporting Actor award. Most recently,
Holly Hunter won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of the mute Ada
McGrath in The Piano (1993).
The
Host With the Most
The list of hosts for the Academy Awards ceremony is dotted with such
prestigious names as Will Rogers, Frank Capra, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire,
Jack Lemmon, and David Letterman. However, one man has dominated Academy
Award history; Bob Hope hosted a womping eighteen Academy Award
ceremonies. Billy Crystal, who has hosted the ceremonies eight times,
ranks second as the host with the most. Johnny Carson comes in third after
hosting five Academy Award ceremonies.
Oscar's
Name
The Oscar statuette's official name is the "Academy Award of
Merit." The name "Oscar" is actually a nickname that has
been around for decades with unclear beginnings. Though there are several
different stories that claim to tell the origin of the nickname
"Oscar," the most common attributes the nickname to a comment
made by Margaret Herrick. Herrick, as the story goes, worked as a
librarian at the Academy and upon first seeing the statuette, commented
that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar. No matter how the nickname
started, it became increasingly used to describe the statuette in the
1930s and was officially used by the Academy beginning in 1939.
A
Winner Who Was Never Nominated
The only Academy Award winner who won but was never officially nominated
was Hal Mohr for Best Cinematography for A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1935). Mohr was the first and only person to win via a write-in vote.
The
Phrase "And the winner is..." Is Discontinued
At the 61st Academy Awards, held in 1989, the Academy decided to replace
the trademark phrase "And the winner is..." with the phrase
"And the Oscar goes to..." Did you notice?
The
Streaker
During the Academy Awards ceremony held on April 2, 1974, a man named
Robert Opal ran across the stage naked, flashing the peace sign. David
Niven had been on stage to introduce the Best Picture category when the
streaker ran behind him. Thinking quickly on his feet, Niven remarked,
"The only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping
... and showing his shortcomings.”
A
20-Year Wait
In a strange turn of events, Charlie Chaplin's movie Limelight,
which was produced in 1952, won an Academy Award in 1972 -- twenty years
after its first release. According to the Academy's rules at the time, a
movie could not be considered for an Academy Award until it had played in
Los Angeles. When Limelight finally played at a theater in Los
Angeles in 1972, it became eligible for an award.
Those
That Refused
The Academy Awards are one of the highest honors one can receive in the
movie business; yet three people have refused the honor. The very first
person to refuse an Oscar was Dudley Nichols. Nichols, who had won Best
Screenplay for The Informer (1935), boycotted the Academy Awards
ceremony because of ongoing conflicts between the Academy and the Writer's
Guild. For his dramatic portrayal of the World War II general in Patton
(1970), George C. Scott won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Scott refused
the honor, stating that the awards ceremony was a "a two-hour meat
parade." Marlon Brando also refused his award for Best Actor for The
Godfather (1972). Brando, who said he refused the award because of the
discrimination toward Native Americans by the U.S. and
Hollywood, sent a woman supposedly named, Sacheen Littlefeather, to collect
his award. It turned out later that the woman was really an actress named,
Maria Cruz.
The
Statuette
The Oscar statuette stands 13 1/2 inches tall and weights 8 1/2 pounds. It
depicts a knight, holding a sword, standing on a reel of film which has five
spokes, representing the five original branches of the Academy (actors,
directors, producers, technicians, and writers). In 1949, the Academy
started to number the statuettes, starting with number 501.
Postponements
Contrary to the old adage, "the show must go on," the Academy
Awards ceremonies have been postponed three times. In 1938, the ceremony was
delayed a week because of flooding in Los Angeles. In 1968, the Academy
Awards ceremony was pushed back two days because of Martin Luther King Jr.'s
funeral. The Academy Awards ceremony was pushed back a single day in 1981
because of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
The
Awards First Televised
On March 19, 1953, the Academy Awards ceremony was telecast for the first
time across the United States and Canada. Thirteen years later, on April 18,
1966, the Academy Awards were broadcast in color for the first time. Both of
these ceremonies were hosted by Bob Hope.
Plaster
Oscars
Rather than the usual metal Oscar statuettes, the Academy Awards handed out
plaster Oscars during World War II in support of the war effort. After the
war, the plaster Oscars could be traded in for traditional metal ones.
11
Nominations, 0 Wins
Two films tie for the record of the most Oscar nominations without a single
win. Both The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985)
received eleven Oscar nominations, but won not a single Academy Award.
Sisterly
Competition
Twice in Academy Awards history, two sisters have been nominated for the
same category during the same year. For the 1941 Academy Awards, sisters
Joan Fontaine (Suspicion) and Olivia de Havilland (Hold Back the
Dawn) were both nominated for the Best Actress award. Joan Fontaine won
the Oscar. Jealousy between the two sisters continued to escalate after this
and the two have been estranged for decades. At the 1966 Academy Awards, a
similar thing happened; sisters Lynn Redgrave (Georgy Girl) and
Vanessa Redgrave (Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment) were both
nominated for the Best Actress award. However, this time, neither of the
sisters won.
Resources:
Amazing
Academy Awards Facts
Academy
Awards Interesting Facts
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