Academy Award Academy Award Oscar Award
Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances the comedian Bob Hope received five honorary Oscars for contributions to cinema and humanitarian work.
The Academy Awards commonly known as The Oscars are the most prominent film awards in the United States The Awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a professional honorary organization which as of had a voting membership of Actors with a membership of make up the largest voting bloc The most recent awards were the Academy Awards.
History
The Academy Awards were the brainchild of MGM executive Louis B Mayer in The industry was in need of a touch of a class and a public relations coup The awards served this purpose The awards were first given at a banquet in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May The evening included a banquet dancing and the presentation of awards The winners had been announced three months prior eliminating all suspense The whole presentation took five minutes as there were no speeches.
To qualify a film had to open in Los Angeles during the twelve months ending on July of the preceding year The and later awards have all been based on openings in the previous calendar year The awards were based on a month qualifying period The opened in Los Angeles clause allowed Charlie Chaplin to win his only voted Oscar for Limelight which was made in but did not open until The rules have changed since then so films more than two years old are not eligible.
Name
The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit Made of gold plated britannium it is inches cm tall and depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film The Academy Award statuette was allegedly nicknamed Oscar when Academy librarian Margaret Herrick saw it on a table and said it looks just like my uncle Oscar The nickname stuck and is used almost as commonly as Academy Award even by the Academy itself In fact the Academy's domain name is oscars org and the official website for the Academy Awards is at oscars com.
Awards night
The awards night itself 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 The ceremony and extravagant afterparties including the Academy's Governors Ball are televised around the world.
Nominations
The members of each branch determine the nominees in their respective category after which the entire membership votes for the winner in all categories The ballot itself contains just the title of a work not the persons involved for all categories except acting.
Less subjectively it is clear that movie studios spend large amounts of money on campaigning for their films Around nomination and voting time film trade publications are filled with ads headed For Your Consideration Miramax has been the most widely discussed and arguably successful studio to use this technique An award can give a film a huge boost at the box office and make an artist an industry power player overnight In the past few decades the advent of VHS and DVD have given Academy Awards a new level of importance as the attachment of a win or even nomination in a prominent category can dramatically increase sales and rentals The Academy has made a public effort to crack down on these campaigns but the results have been mixed Such influence is nothing new for example it is widely believed William Randolph Hearst ran a campaign to ensure that Citizen Kane a film regarded by many as the greatest of all time did not receive any Academy Award nominations The film ended up receiving only one trophy despite nominations in nine categories.
Rules
Academy Award rules are reviewed annually Recent rule changes include the following.