Oscar/Academy Award (Motion-Picture Award)

⇒ Academy Award, in full Academy Award of Merit, by name Oscar, any of a number of awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., to recognize achievement in the film industry.

⇒ The awards were first presented in 1929, and winners receive a gold-plated statuette commonly called Oscar. At present winners are chosen from 24 categories.

⇒ The academy also presents scientific and technical awards, special achievement awards, honorary awards, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (for excellence in producing), and the Gordon E. Sawyer Award (for technological contributions), although these are not necessarily awarded annually.

⇒ Only members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may nominate and vote for candidates for the Oscars. The academy is divided into various branches of film production, and the nominees in each award category are chosen by the members of the corresponding branch; thus, writers nominate writers, directors nominate directors, and so forth. The entire academy membership nominates the candidates for best picture and votes to determine the winners in most of the categories.

⇒ Most prestigious award in World Cinema “Oscar” is given in a grand ceremony held each year in Kodak Theatre of Hollywood (Los Angeles, USA) in the month of February.

⇒ The academy was founded in 1927, the awards committee was only one of several that had been formed by the new organization.

⇒ In May 1928 the academy approved the committee’s suggestions to present Academy Awards of Merit in 12 categories.

⇒ The first awards covered films that had been released between August 1, 1927, and July 31, 1928. The awards were presented on May 16, 1929, in a ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

⇒ By the time of the second annual awards ceremony, on April 3, 1930 (honouring films from the second half of 1928 and from 1929), the number of categories was reduced to seven.

⇒ The Academy Awards were first televised in the United States in 1953, and since 1969 they have been broadcast internationally. By the late 20th century, the ceremony had become a major happening, viewed by millions.

⇒ Notable hosts over the years included Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal. Red-carpet interviews also became an integral part of the event, with much attention focused on the attendees’ ensembles.

⇒ The design for the award statuette-aknight standing on a reel of film and holding a sword is credited to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) art director Cedric Gibbons. Sculptor George Stanley was commissioned to create the original statuette based on Gibbons’s design.

⇒ For many years the statuettes were cast in bronze, with 24-karat gold plating. During World War II the statuettes were made of plaster because of metal shortages. They are now made of gold-plated britannium.

⇒ The design, however, has remained unchanged, with the exception of the pedestal base, the height of which was increased in 1945. The statuette stands 13.5 inches (34.3 cm) tall and weighs 8.5 pounds (3.8 kg).

⇒ George Bernard Shaw was the first person to get “Nobel Prize” (for Literature in 1925) and “Oscar” (for Best Screenplay in 1938) both.

⇒ Bob Dylan is the second person so far to get “Oscar” (for ‘Things Have Changed’ as the best original song in 2000) and “Nobel Prize” (for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” in 2016).

⇒ Mother India (Mehboob Khan’s film) was the first Indian film to get nomination in the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category in 1957.

⇒ ‘Mother India’ came close to winning the Academy Award, but lost to ‘Nights of Cabiria’ by a single vote.

⇒ Bhanu Athaiya is the first Indian to get Oscar for Costume Designing in Richard Attenborough’s internationally acclaimed film “Gandhi”.

⇒ Satyajit Ray was the first Indian to get Honorary Academy Award (Oscar Life Time Achievement Award) in 1992 for his outstanding contribution in the cinema.

⇒ Gulzar became the first Indian Lyricist to receive an Academy Award for penning “Jai Ho” (in 2009).

⇒ Famous Music Director A.R. Rehman received Oscar for “Best Original Score” and jointly received the award with Gulzar for “Best Original Song” in “Slumdog Millionaire” (Director: Danney Boyle) in 2009.

⇒ Resul Pookutty received the Academy Award in 2009 for “Best Sound Mixing” in the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

Follow on Facebook page – Click Here

Google News join in – Click Here

Read More Asia News – Click Here

Read More Sports News – Click Here

Read More Crypto News – Click Here