A Brief History of the Oscars

The Academy Awards, called The Oscars, is a flamboyant ceremony organized to honour the best achievements in filmmaking. Receiving an Oscar is considered the highest honour and the greatest recognition by actors and directors. The voting for the winners is open up to all members of the Academy. Some top categories are; Best Actor/Actress in a leading and a supporting role, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Costume Design, Best Music, Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Feature Film. All the category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, which is called as “Oscar”. It’s made of gold-plated britannium, it’s 34.3cm tall and weighs almost 4kg.

The origin of the name, Oscar, is disputed. The president of the Academy Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. Another claim is from Academy’s Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick. When she first saw the award, she said that the statue reminded her of her “Uncle Oscar”

The Oscars made the first debut in 1929. The ceremony was first broadcast on the radio in 1930. It was televised for the first time in 1953. It is seen live in more than 200 countries and broadcasted to billions of people around the world on the Internet. 

For the last 14 years, The Dolby Theatre has hosted the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. It seats more than 3,000 people. All of them walk the show’s red carpet to reach the venue. In the ceremony, there is a main host presenting the awards, the actors and the celebrities are chosen to announce the winner for each category. The show has glamorous onstage effects and unforgettable performances by popular singers. 

Lately, it has started to be tradition to give out gift bags to the presenters and performers and award nominees and winners. The value of these gifts can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. In 2014, the value was reported to be US $80,000. The bags have included vacation packages to Hawaii, Mexico, and Japan, a private dinner party for the recipient and friends at a restaurant, videophones, a four-night stay at a hotel, watches, bracelets, spa treatments and bottles of vodka.