Anna Dutka The Oscar’s Biography

The golden statuettegolden statuettegolden statuette of the Oscar is the ultimate trophytrophy trophy in the film industryfilm industryfilm industry. Actors, directors, producers, special effect specialists, and all other people involved in the production of movies dream of their names being called from the stage in the Hollywood's Dolby Theatre™. They want to be able to thank all their co‑workers and family members for their contributioncontribution contribution to this success. All the nomineesnominees [nominee]nominees have their acceptance speechesacceptance speeches [acceptance speech]acceptance speeches ready well before the ceremony, although only one of them in each category will have a chance to deliverdeliverdeliver it to the world. It’s a fashion show, sometimes an occasion to make an important statementmake an important statementmake an important statement, and always a night to remembernight to remembernight to remember for all those involved.

Cedric Gibbons is the designer and George Stanley the sculptor responsible for the creation of the statuette. It was initially known as the Academy Award of Merit, but the name was changed to Oscar in 1939. There are a few theories about the origin of the name, but it is still unclear why that one was chosen. The statuette is a representation of a crusadercrusader crusader standing on top of a reel of filmreel of filmreel of film. The reel has five spokesspokes [spoke]spokes, each representing one of the five original branches of the Academy: writers, actors, directors, producers, and technicians. The knight supports himself on a sword.

The first Academy Award ceremony was heldceremony was held [ceremony is held]ceremony was held on 16Indeks górny th^th May 1929, and 270 guests were invited to attend. They had to pay $5 for the tickets and during the banquet, awards were presented in 12 categories. Over the years, many categories have been added and some significantsignificant significant firsts happened. For example in 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win the Oscar for Supporting Actress. In 2002, Halle Berry was the first one to win Lead Actress. Parasite was the first foreign language film to win for Best Picture. In 1953, the ceremony was first televisedtelevised [televise]televised and broadcastbroadcast [broadcast]broadcast live. The youngest ever actress to be awarded the Oscar was Tatum O'Neal for Supporting Actress. It was in 1974 and she was only 10 at the time.

During the II World War years, the Academy showed its contribution to the nation’s efforts by producing the statuettes from painted plasterplaster plaster rather than using gold‑covered bronze. After the war, when materials became available again, all winners were given the regular Oscars. In 1989, the traditional line read from the stage was changed from “And the winner is…” to “And the Oscar goes to…”.

For a film to be nominated, it has to meet certain criteriameet certain criteriameet certain criteria. Basically, it has to be screenedscreened [screen]screened in a theatre in the Los Angeles county for at least one week in the year of the nomination. Foreign language films are excluded from this ruleexcluded from this rule [exclude from the rule]excluded from this rule. The nominees are voted for by the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy has different branches corresponding to various sections of film production and the members of the sections vote for nominees in their categories.

Why is the Oscar such a desireddesireddesired award? It is so difficult to make movies which are appreciatedappreciated [appreciate]appreciated not only by the audiences but also by the members of the Academy. If you manage to get through the nomination process and then win against other nominees, you have really accomplishedaccomplished [accomplish]accomplished something that is no mean featno mean featno mean feat. The Oscars is the largest and the most watched award ceremony in the world, so the prestigeprestige prestige that goes with it is unlikely to fadefade fade any time soon.

1 Źródło: Anna Dutka, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.