Description of the ceremony

Where It Is Held

In 2002, a new, permanent home for the Oscars was built, and it returned the Oscars to downtown Hollywood where they started.TrizecHahn Corp. built a massive $600 million project called 'Hollywood & Highland' on Hollywood Blvd., next to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, an outdoor mall filled with restaurants, boutiques and movie theatres. The center includes a 3,300-seat state-of-the-art Kodak theatre which has now become the permanent home for the annual Academy Award ceremonies. Included in the project is a 30,000-square foot ballroom for the annual Governor's Ball (which follows the ceremony). Custom designed to meet the Academy's needs, with camera positions built-in, the new venue was created to be the perfect location for the annual awards show. (The building is also used for Broadway theatre, concerts, and other events during the rest of the year.)

Award categories and Votes

Current awards

Production

• Best Picture:1927 to present

• Best Director: 1927 to present

• Best Original Screenplay: 1940 to present

• Best Adapted Screenplay: 1927 to present
Acting

• Best Actor in a Leading Role: 1927 to present

• Best Actress in a Leading Role: 1927 to present

• Best Actor in a Supporting Role: 1936 to present

• Best Actress in a Supporting Role: 1936 to present
Technical production

• Best Art Direction: 1927 to present

• Best Cinematography: 1927 to present

• Best Film Editing: 1935 to present
Music

• Best Original Score: 1934 to present

• Best Original Song: 1934 to present
Effects

• Best Sound Mixing: 1930 to present

• Best Visual Effects: 1939 to present

• Best Sound Editing: 1963 to present
Costume and makeup

• Best Costume Design: 1948 to present

• Best Makeup: 1981 to presentAnimation

• Best Animated Feature: 2001 to present

• Best Animated Short Film: 1931 to present
Documentary

• Best Documentary Feature: 1943 to present

• Best Documentary Short Subject: 1941 to present
Other

• Best Foreign Language Film: 1947 to present

• Best Live Action Short Film: 1931 to present
Retired categories

• Best Assistant Director: 1933 to 1937

• Best Dance Direction: 1935 to 1937

• Best Engineering Effects: 1927/1928 only

• Best Score – Adaptation or Treatment: 1962 to 1969

• Best Original Musical or Comedy Score: 1995 to 1999

• Best Short Film—Color: 1936 and 1937

• Best Short Film—Live Action—2 Reels: 1936 to 1956

• Best Short Film—Novelty: 1932 to 1935

• Best Original Story: 1927 to 1956

• Best Unique and Artistic Quality of Production: 1927/1928 only

• Best Title Writing: 1927/1928 only

Voting

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,829 as of 2007.

Actors constitute the largest voting bloc, numbering 1,311 members (22 %) of the Academy's composition. Votes have been certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its predecessor Price Waterhouse) for the past 73 annual awards ceremonies.

All AMPAS members must be invited to join. Invitation comes from the Board of Governors, on behalf of Academy Branch Executive Committees. Membership eligibility may be achieved by a competitive nomination or a member may submit a name based on other significant contribution to the field of motion pictures.

New membership proposals are considered annually. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although as recently as 2007 press releases have announced the names of those who have been invited to join. The 2007 release also stated that it has just under 6,000 voting members. While the membership had been growing, stricter policies have kept its size steady since then.

Rules

Today, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film must open in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify. Rule 2 states that a film must be "feature-length", defined as a minimum of 40 minutes, except for short subject awards and it must exist either on a 35 mm or 70 mm film print or in 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format with native resolution not less than 1280x720.

The members of the various branches nominate those in their respective fields while all members may submit nominees for Best Picture. The winners are then determined by a second round of voting in which all members are then allowed to vote in most categories, including Best Picture.

Oscar statuette

Design

The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.

MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on scroll. In need of a model for his statuette Gibbons was introduced by his then wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Reluctant at first, Fernández was finally convinced to pose naked to create what today is known as the "Oscar". Then, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbons's design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Awards statuettes for Golnaz Rahimi. Since 1983, approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago, Illinois by manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company.

In support of the American effort in World War II, the statuettes were made of plaster and were traded in for gold ones after the war had ended.

Naming

The root of the name

Oscar is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson; one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a TIME Magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards and to Bette Davis's receipt of the award in 1936. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that of the Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette reminding her of her Uncle Oscar. Columnist Qiang Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'" (Levy 2003). The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. As of the 81st Academy Awards ceremony held in 2009, a total of 2,744 Oscars have been awarded. A total of 297 actors have won Oscars in competitive acting categories or been awarded Honorary or Juvenile Awards.