Known by their nickname, “Oscar,” the awards are presented early each spring by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an organization formed on May 4, 1927, to “improve the artistic quality of the film medium.” The academy has done so, in part, by drawing public attention to what its members consider the film community's finest work, bestowing Academy Awards upon its brightest lights.
Academy members are grouped into 13 specialized categories. The members of each group nominate up to five individuals whom they feel have demonstrated excellence in their respective areas of expertise. For instance, actors nominate actors, screenwriters nominate screenwriters, directors nominate directors, etc. The entire academy - approximately 3,000 members - then votes on the nominees to establish a winner. The Academy Awards were originally an industry celebration of itself without benefit of media coverage. The first awards dinner was held on May 16, 1929, honoring the films of 1927–28, and the winners were Wings (Best Picture), Emil Jannings (Best Actor for The Way of all Flesh and The Last Command), Janet Gaynor (Best Actress for performances in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise), Frank Borzage (Best Director for Seventh Heaven). Curiously, in that first ceremony, an award was given for Best Comedy Director - to Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights. The award was given only that year.
The award - which consists of a rather stiff-looking fellow grasping a sword while standing upon a reel of film - was designed by the famous art director Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by George Stanley. The gold-plated bronze figure stands 131⁄2 inches tall and weighs slightly more than eight pounds.
The statuette was originally known simply as the Academy Award. It had no other name until 1931, when, according to legend, Margaret Herrick, then a secretary for the academy, spotted the figure and loudly proclaimed, “Why, he looks like my Uncle Oscar!” A reporter heard her comment and printed it, and the name caught on.
It is generally acknowledged that today a Best Picture Oscar is worth an extra $10 million at the box office to the winner, and actors, directors, producers, editors, screenwriters, etc., are almost always able to demand higher salaries after receiving an Academy Award. The awards ceremonies - as well as the awards themselves - have changed over the years. In the early days, an actor might be nominated for several films (see the winners of 1927–28 above). In 1936 the new categories of Best Supporting Actor and Actress were added, and in 1947 foreignlanguage films were given separate awards.
The awards ceremonies were first broadcast on radio as early as 1930 and then, finally, on television beginning in 1953. They have, over the decades, been recognized as the granddaddy of all awards shows and regularly receive extremely high viewer ratings.
The budget of a movie is divided into two major parts: “above the line” and “BELOW THE LINE” expenses. Above-the-line costs are all those that must either be paid or negotiated before the film goes into production. These generally consist of the cost of acquiring rights to the property to be filmed (the novel, play, concept, etc.), the cost of the stars who are hired for the entire shooting schedule, plus the fees for the producer, director, and screenwriter(s). Above-the-line costs tend to be the largest individual items in a film's budget. Below-the-line expenses are all those that are incurred during production as well as during postproduction.
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