Tag: academy-awards

The 97th Academy Awards will take place tomorrow night, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre in LA honoring movies released in 2024.

The nominees in the major categories are as follows:

Best Picture –Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked

Actor in a Leading Role – Adrien Brody, The Brutalist; Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown; Colman Domingo, Sing Sing; Ralph Fiennes, Conclave; Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Actress in a Leading Role – Cynthia Erivo, Wicked; Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez; Mikey Madison, Anora; Demi Moore, The Substance; Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Actor in a Supporting Role – Yura Borisov, Anora; Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain; Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown; Guy Pearce, The Brutalist; Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Actress in a Supporting Role – Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown; Ariana Grande, Wicked; Felicity Jones, The Brutalist; Isabella Rossellini, Conclave; Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

AA Trivia

1. The initial AA presentations were held on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel before an audience of about 270 people.
2. Fifteen statuettes were awarded; the program ran a mere 15 minutes.
3. The origin of the nickname “Oscar” has been disputed, as multiple people have taken credit. In my opinion, the most credible source is Margaret Herrick, a librarian and former president of the Academy. Supposedly, in 1921 she remarked that the statuette “looked like my uncle Oscar.” This story was bolstered by a 1938 clipping from the Los Angeles Examiner in which Herrick related a story of her and her husband joking with each other using the phrase, “How’s your uncle Oscar?”
4. Before 1950 Oscars were considered to be the property of the recipient and several of them auctioned theirs off for various reasons for sums as high as $1.2 million in current dollars. In 1950 the Academy determined that the statuettes may be retained by the recipient, however, if he/she wants to sell it he/she is required to offer it to the Academy for $1 first.
5. Currently, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“AMPAS”) is composed of 9,905 voting members. For what it’s worth, despite its liberal reputation the AMPAS membership is not very diverse. According to a recent study conducted by the Los Angeles Times the active voting membership is 94% Caucasian, 77% male, and 54% over the age of 60.
6. The Academy Awards is the world’s longest-running awards show. It is televised and streamed live to billions of viewers worldwide.
7. The initial telecast was in 1953. NBC carried it until 1960 when ABC took over. ABC’s contract with AMPAS runs through 2028.
8. The viewership has varied widely from year to year due to various factors such as the presence or absence of blockbuster hits, but there has been a sharp decline in recent years. For many years the production routinely drew 30-40 million viewers, but the two most recent shows drew a mere 18.7 million and 19.5 million viewers, respectively. There are various reasons for this. Personally, I have found the shows to be humorless, dull and too long, and I no longer watch them.
9. The most awards by any movie are 11 by Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
10. The individual who won the most Oscars is the late Walt Disney who won 22 competitive Academy Awards and received four honorary awards for a total 26.
11. Katharine Hepburn won the most acting Academy Awards, four, (all for Best Actress).
12. Eleven actors and actresses have been nominated twice in the same year for different films.
13. The oldest actor to win an Oscar was Anthony Hopkins who won for The Father in 2020 at the age of 83.
14. The youngest was Tatum O’Neill who was 10 when she won for her performance in Paper Moon in 1974.
15. The Oscars have been hosted by many popular celebrities. The most was Bob Hope who did so 19 times. Other memorable hosts were Billy Crystal (nine times) and Johnny Carson (five times).  They added humor and entertainment value that has been missing in recent years.
16. AMPAS has made some curious choices for winners due to industry politics or weird, out of the mainstream, “taste.” In particular, there have been several Best Picture winners that defeated nominees, which over time have come to be considered superior and/or more popular with the public. These “winners” are now basically unknown to current movie fans, are rarely, if ever, shown on tv, and have been consigned to the dustbin of film history, whereas the “losers” are frequently seen on tv. For example, how many of you are familiar with Rebecca, which beat Grapes of Wrath in 1940, or How Green Was My Valley, which beat Citizen Kane in 1941, or Mrs. Miniver, which beat Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942, or Annie Hall, which beat Star Wars in 1977, or Ordinary People, which beat Raging Bull in 1980, or Dances with Wolves, which beat Goodfellas in 1990, or Shakespeare in Love, which beat Saving Private Ryan in 1998, or Coda, which beat West Side Story in 2021? I would venture to say, not many. On the other hand, I would guess most of you are very familiar with the aforementioned “losers.”

Conclusion

Even though the popularity of the AA production has waned in recent years many people still watch it for the Red Carpet, which features the many celebrities who attend in person. If the show gets too boring and dull there is always the DVR.