Oscars 101
by Brooke Biggins
Every year, the Oscars generates all kinds of talk. People are curious to see which movie will win an award or if this will be the year Leonardo DiCaprio finally gets his trophy. The Oscars award is considered one of the highest honors a film or actor can receive. The process of being nominated and getting votes is quite interesting. The long history of the event began in the 1920s.
The Academy started in 1927, when the MGM studio chief, Louis B. Mayer, and his guests decided they wanted to create an organization to benefit the film industry. A proposal was given to found the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The idea was well accepted, articles were presented, officers were elected and Douglas Fairbanks became president. It wasn’t until May 16, 1929, that the very first Academy Awards ceremony was held. It totaled 270 attendees.
The revealing of the winners was done differently than what we know today. The recipients of the awards were announced three months earlier, so they were not a secret. During the second year of the Academy it was decided to keep the winners undisclosed and provide reporters with the list to be published after the ceremony. Results were revealed this way until 1940 when the Los Angeles Times decided to publish the winners before the ceremony, ruining the suspense for the guests. Thus began the sealed envelope method, which is still used today.
The Academy gradually began adding categories to the ballot for voting. The show started to be broadcast on television and eventually reached international viewers.
For a movie or actor to acquire a nomination, the name has to be submitted for the Academy Awards’ committee consideration. Nominees for each category are voted on by the members. Only actors can vote to nominate other actors and only directors vote to nominate other directors. Once the nominations are announced and made public, the voting begins. There are no more than five nominations per category, except for the Best Picture award, which can have anywhere from five to ten. The voting is done by active Academy members. The voting is carried out in secrecy.
There are rules that must be followed in order for a motion picture to be eligible for voting. The motion picture has to be over 40 minutes long, and it has to first be released as a theatrical movie. You can watch the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 28, to see who the winners will be this year.
(sources: Oscars.org, ibtimes.com)
