Academy Award

Academy Award
85th Academy Awards
An Academy Award statuette.
Awarded for	Excellence in cinematic achievements
Country	United States
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
First awarded	1929
Official website	www.oscars.org

The Academy Awards, now officially known as The Oscars, are a set of awards given annually for excellence of cinematic achievements. The Oscar statuette is officially named the Academy Award of Merit and is one of nine types of Academy Awards. Organized and overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are given each year at a formal ceremony. The AMPAS was originally conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio executive Louis B. Mayer as a professional honorary organization to help improve the film industry’s image and help mediate labor disputes. The awards themselves were later initiated by the Academy as awards "of merit for distinctive achievement" in the industry.

The awards were first given in 1929 at a ceremony created for the awards, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. Over the years that the award has been given, the categories presented have changed; currently Oscars are given in more than a dozen categories, and include films of various types. As one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world, the Academy Awards ceremony is televised live in more than 100 countries annually. It is also the oldest award ceremony in the media; its equivalents, the Grammy Awards (for music), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theatre), are modeled after the Academy Awards.

The 85th Academy Awards were held on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

History

The first awards were presented on May 16, 1929, at a private brunch at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post Academy Awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other personalities of the filmmaking industry of the time for their works during the 1927–1928 period.

Winners had been announced three months earlier; however, that was changed in the second ceremony of the Academy Awards in 1930. Since then and during the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11 pm on the night of the awards. This method was used until the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began; as a result, the Academy has since 1941 used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners.

For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. For example, the 2nd Academy Awards presented on April 3, 1930, recognized films that were released between August 1, 1928 and July 31, 1929. Starting with the 7th Academy Awards, held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.

The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier; this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. The honored professionals were awarded for all the work done in a certain category for the qualifying period; for example, Jannings received the award for two movies in which he starred during that period. Since the fourth ceremony, the system changed, and professionals were honored for a specific performance in a single film. As of the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony held in 2011, a total of 2,809 Oscars have been given for 1,853 awards. A total of 302 actors have won Oscars in competitive acting categories or have been awarded Honorary or Juvenile Awards.

The 1939 film Beau Geste is the only movie that features as many as four Academy Award winners for Best Actor in a Leading Role ( Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Susan Hayward, Broderick Crawford) prior to any of the actors receiving the Best Actor Award.

At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27, 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced. Until then, foreign-language films were honored with the Special Achievement Award.

Oscar statuette

Design

Although there are eight other types of annual awards presented by the Academy (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, the Academy Scientific and Technical Award, the Academy Award for Technical Achievement, the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, and the Student Academy Award) plus two awards that are not presented annually (the Special Achievement Award in the form of an Oscar statuette and the Honorary Award that may or may not be in the form of an Oscar statuette), the best known one is the Academy Award of Merit more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. 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.

In 1928, MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director and actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Reluctant at first, Fernández was finally convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the "Oscar". Then, sculptor George Stanley (who also did the Muse Fountain at the Hollywood Bowl) 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. Since 1983, approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago by Illinois 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 origin of the name Oscar is disputed. 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. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that the Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette's reminding her of her "Uncle Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce). Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'". The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It may also have been named after the famous Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. In 1882, when disembarking in New York to begin his "Grand Tour" of America, Wilde was asked by a customs officer whether he had anything to declare and reputedly replied "I have nothing to declare but my genius."

Ownership of Oscar statuettes

Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six-figure sums. In December 2011, Orson Welles' sole 1941 Oscar for Citizen Kane ( Best Original Screenplay) was put up for auction, after his heirs won a 2004 court decision that Welles did not sign any agreement to return the statue to the Academy.

While the Oscar is owned by the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market. Michael Todd's grandson tried to sell Todd's Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector in 1989, but the Academy won the legal battle by getting a permanent injunction. Although some Oscar sales transactions have been successful, some buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury.

Nomination

Since 2004, Academy Award nomination results have been announced to the public in late January. Prior to that, the results were announced in early February.

Voters

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,783 as of 2012.

Academy membership is divided into different branches, with each representing a different discipline in film production. Actors constitute the largest voting bloc, numbering 1,311 members (22 percent) 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 by 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.

In May 2011, the Academy sent a letter advising its 6,000 or so voting members that an online system for Oscar voting will be implemented in 2013.

Rules

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 (except for the Best Foreign Language Film). For example, the 2009 Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker, was actually first released in 2008, but did not qualify for the 2008 awards as it did not play its Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles until mid-2009, thus qualifying for the 2009 awards.

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.

Producers must submit an Official Screen Credits online form before the deadline; in case it is not submitted by the defined deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards in any year. The form includes the production credits for all related categories. Then, each form is checked and put in a Reminder List of Eligible Releases.

In late December ballots and copies of the Reminder List of Eligible Releases are mailed to around 6000 active members. For most categories, members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees only in their respective categories (i.e. only directors vote for directors, writers for writers, actors for actors, etc.). There are some exceptions in the case of certain categories, like Foreign Film, Documentary and Animated Feature Film, in which movies are selected by special screening committees made up of members from all branches. In the special case of Best Picture, all voting members are eligible to select the nominees for that category. Foreign films must include English subtitles, and each country can submit only one film per year.

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.

Ceremony

Telecast

The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in late February or early March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. It is the culmination of the film awards season, which usually begins during November or December of the previous year. This is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie dress is the most common outfit for men, although fashion may dictate not wearing a bow-tie, and musical performers sometimes do not adhere to this. (The artists who recorded the nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television broadcast).

The Academy Awards is televised live across the United States (excluding Hawaii; they aired live for the first time in Alaska in 2011), Canada, the United Kingdom, and gathers millions of viewers elsewhere throughout the world. The 2007 ceremony was watched by more than 40 million Americans. Other awards ceremonies (such as the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys) are broadcast live in the East Coast but are on tape delay in the West Coast and might not air on the same day outside North America (if the awards are even televised). The Academy has for several years claimed that the award show has up to a billion viewers internationally, but this has so far not been confirmed by any independent sources. The Awards show was first televised on NBC in 1953. NBC continued to broadcast the event until 1960 when the ABC Network took over, televising the festivities through 1970, after which NBC resumed the broadcasts. ABC once again took over broadcast duties in 1976; it is under contract to do so through the year 2020.

After more than 60 years of being held in late March or early April, the ceremonies were moved up to late February or early March starting in 2004 to help disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar season in the film industry. Another reason was because of the growing TV ratings success of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, which would cut into the Academy Awards audience. The earlier date is also to the advantage of ABC, as it now usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period. (Some years, the ceremony is moved into early March in deference to the Winter Olympics.) Advertising is somewhat restricted, however, as traditionally no movie studios or competitors of official Academy Award sponsors may advertise during the telecast. The Awards show holds the distinction of having won the most Emmys in history, with 47 wins and 195 nominations.

After many years of being held on Mondays at 9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 p.m Pacific, in 1999 the ceremonies were moved to Sundays at 8:30 pm Eastern/5:30 pm Pacific. The reasons given for the move were that more viewers would tune in on Sundays, that Los Angeles rush-hour traffic jams could be avoided, and that an earlier start time would allow viewers on the East Coast to go to bed earlier. For many years the film industry had opposed a Sunday broadcast because it would cut into the weekend box office.

On March 30, 1981, the awards ceremony was postponed for one day after the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and others in Washington, D.C.

In 1993, an In Memoriam segment was introduced, honoring those who had made a significant contribution to cinema who had died in the preceding 12 months, a selection compiled by a small committee of Academy members. This segment has drawn criticism over the years for the omission of some names.

In 2010, the organizers of the Academy Awards announced that winners' acceptance speeches must not run past 45 seconds. This, according to organizer Bill Mechanic, was to ensure the elimination of what he termed "the single most hated thing on the show" – overly long and embarrassing displays of emotion.

The Academy has also had recent discussions about moving the ceremony even further back into January, citing TV viewers' fatigue with the film industry's long awards season. But such an accelerated schedule would dramatically decrease the voting period for its members, to the point where some voters would only have time to view the contending films streamed on their computers (as opposed to traditionally receiving the films and ballots in the mail). Also, a January ceremony may have to compete with National Football League playoff games.

Awards ceremonies

The following is a listing of all Academy Awards ceremonies.

Ceremony	Date	Best Picture winner	Length of ceremony	Number of viewers	Rating	Host(s)	Venue
1st Academy Awards	May 16, 1929	Wings	139 !15 minutes	—	—	Douglas Fairbanks, William C. deMille	Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
2nd Academy Awards	April 3, 1930	broadway ! The Broadway Melody	110 !1 hour, 50 minutes	—	—	William C. deMille	Ambassador Hotel
3rd Academy Awards	November 5, 1930	All Quiet on the Western Front	133 !2 hours, 13 minutes	—	—	Conrad Nagel
4th Academy Awards	November 10, 1931	Cimarron	123 !2 hours, 3 minutes	—	—	Lawrence Grant	Biltmore Hotel
5th Academy Awards	November 18, 1932	Grand Hotel	112 !1 hour, 52 minutes	—	—	Lionel Barrymore, Conrad Nagel	Ambassador Hotel
6th Academy Awards	March 16, 1934	Cavalcade	110 !1 hour, 50 minutes	—	—	Will Rogers
7th Academy Awards	February 27, 1935	It Happened One Night	105 !1 hour, 45 minutes	—	—	Irvin S. Cobb	Biltmore Hotel
8th Academy Awards	March 5, 1936	Mutiny on the Bounty	132 !2 hours, 12 minutes	—	—	Frank Capra
9th Academy Awards	March 4, 1937	great z ! The Great Ziegfeld	176 !2 hours, 56 minutes	—	—	George Jessel
10th Academy Awards	March 10, 1938	life of emile ! The Life of Emile Zola	116 !1 hour, 56 minutes	—	—	Bob Burns
11th Academy Awards	February 23, 1939	You Can't Take It With You	126 !2 hours, 6 minutes	—	—	None
12th Academy Awards	February 29, 1940	Gone with the Wind	232 !3 hours, 52 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope	Ambassador Hotel (Cocoanut Grove)
13th Academy Awards	February 27, 1941	Rebecca	130 !2 hours, 10 minutes	—	—		Biltmore Hotel (Biltmore Bowl)
14th Academy Awards	February 26, 1942	How Green Was My Valley	108 !1 hour, 48 minutes	—	—
15th Academy Awards	March 4, 1943	Mrs. Miniver	134 !2 hours, 14 minutes	—	—		Ambassador Hotel (Cocoanut Grove)
16th Academy Awards	March 2, 1944	Casablanca	102 !1 hour, 42 minutes	—	—	Jack Benny	Grauman's Chinese Theatre
17th Academy Awards	March 15, 1945	Going My Way	130 !2 hours, 10 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope, John Cromwell
18th Academy Awards	March 7, 1946	lost w ! The Lost Weekend	101 !1 hour, 41 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope, James Stewart
19th Academy Awards	March 13, 1947	best years ! The Best Years of Our Lives	172 !2 hours, 52 minutes	—	—	Jack Benny	Shrine Auditorium
20th Academy Awards	March 20, 1948	Gentleman's Agreement	118 !1 hour, 58 minutes	—	—	Agnes Moorehead, Dick Powell
21st Academy Awards	March 24, 1949	Hamlet	095 !1 hour, 35 minutes	—	—	Robert Montgomery	academy !The Academy Theatre
22nd Academy Awards	March 23, 1950	All the King's Men	110 !1 hour, 50 minutes	—	—	Paul Douglas	Pantages Theatre
23rd Academy Awards	March 29, 1951	All About Eve	138 !2 hours, 18 minutes	—	—	Fred Astaire
24th Academy Awards	March 20, 1952	american in p ! An American in Paris	113 !1 hour, 53 minutes	—	—	Danny Kaye
25th Academy Awards	March 19, 1953	greatest show ! The Greatest Show on Earth	092 !1 hour, 32 minutes	40 million	—	Bob Hope, Conrad Nagel	Pantages Theatre / NBC International Theatre
26th Academy Awards	March 25, 1954	From Here to Eternity	118 !1 hour, 58 minutes	43 million	—	Donald O'Connor, Fredric March	Pantages Theatre / NBC Century Theatre
27th Academy Awards	March 30, 1955	On the Waterfront	108 !1 hour, 48 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope, Thelma Ritter
28th Academy Awards	March 21, 1956	Marty	090 !1 hour, 30 minutes	—	—	Jerry Lewis, Claudette Colbert, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
29th Academy Awards	March 27, 1957	Around the World in 80 Days	188 !3 hours, 8 minutes	—	—	Jerry Lewis, Celeste Holm
30th Academy Awards	March 26, 1958	bridge ! The Bridge on the River Kwai	161 !2 hours, 41 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope, David Niven, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Rosalind Russell	Pantages Theatre
31st Academy Awards	April 6, 1959	Gigi	115 !1 hour, 55 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope, David Niven, Tony Randall, Mort Sahl, Sir Laurence Olivier, Jerry Lewis
32nd Academy Awards	April 4, 1960	Ben-Hur	100 !1 hour, 40 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope
33rd Academy Awards	April 17, 1961	apartment ! The Apartment	125 !2 hours, 5 minutes	—	—		Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
34th Academy Awards	April 9, 1962	West Side Story	130 !2 hours, 10 minutes	—	—
35th Academy Awards	April 8, 1963	Lawrence of Arabia	150 !2 hours, 30 minutes	—	—	Frank Sinatra
36th Academy Awards	April 13, 1964	Tom Jones	128 !2 hours, 8 minutes	—	—	Jack Lemmon
37th Academy Awards	April 5, 1965	My Fair Lady	170 !2 hours, 50 minutes	—	—	Bob Hope
38th Academy Awards	April 18, 1966	sound of m ! The Sound of Music	174 !2 hours, 54 minutes	—	—
39th Academy Awards	April 10, 1967	man for all ! A Man for All Seasons	151 !2 hours, 31 minutes	—	—
40th Academy Awards	April 10, 1968	In the Heat of the Night	110 !1 hour, 50 minutes	—	—
41st Academy Awards	April 14, 1969	Oliver!	153 !2 hours, 33 minutes	—	—	None	Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
42nd Academy Awards	April 7, 1970	Midnight Cowboy	145 !2 hours, 25 minutes	—	43.40
43rd Academy Awards	April 15, 1971	Patton	172 !2 hours, 52 minutes	—	—
44th Academy Awards	April 10, 1972	french ! The French Connection	104 !1 hour, 44 minutes	—	—	Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jack Lemmon
45th Academy Awards	March 27, 1973	godfather1 !The Godfather	158 !2 hours, 38 minutes	—	—	Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson
46th Academy Awards	April 2, 1974	sting ! The Sting	203 !3 hours, 23 minutes	—	—	John Huston, Burt Reynolds, David Niven, Diana Ross
47th Academy Awards	April 8, 1975	godfather2 ! The Godfather Part II	200 !3 hours, 20 minutes	—	—	Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra
48th Academy Awards	March 29, 1976	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	192 !3 hours, 12 minutes	—	—	Goldie Hawn, Gene Kelly, Walter Matthau, George Segal, Robert Shaw
49th Academy Awards	March 28, 1977	Rocky	218 !3 hours, 38 minutes	—	—	Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Richard Pryor
50th Academy Awards	April 3, 1978	Annie Hall	210 !3 hours, 30 minutes	39.73 million	31.10	Bob Hope
51st Academy Awards	April 9, 1979	deer hunter ! The Deer Hunter	205 !3 hours, 25 minutes	—	—	Johnny Carson
52nd Academy Awards	April 14, 1980	Kramer vs. Kramer	192 !3 hours, 12 minutes	—	—
53rd Academy Awards	March 31, 1981	Ordinary People	193 !3 hours, 13 minutes	—	—
54th Academy Awards	March 29, 1982	Chariots of Fire	204 !3 hours, 24 minutes	—	—
55th Academy Awards	April 11, 1983	Gandhi	195 !3 hours, 15 minutes	—	—	Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau
56th Academy Awards	April 9, 1984	Terms of Endearment	222 !3 hours, 42 minutes	—	38.00	Johnny Carson
57th Academy Awards	March 25, 1985	Amadeus	190 !3 hours, 10 minutes	—	—	Jack Lemmon
58th Academy Awards	March 24, 1986	Out of Africa	182 !3 hours, 2 minutes	38.65 million	25.71	Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams
59th Academy Awards	March 30, 1987	Platoon	199 !3 hours, 19 minutes	39.72 million	25.94	Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, Paul Hogan
60th Academy Awards	April 11, 1988	last emperor ! The Last Emperor	213 !3 hours, 33 minutes	42.04 million	27.80	Chevy Chase	Shrine Auditorium
61st Academy Awards	March 29, 1989	Rain Man	199 !3 hours, 19 minutes	42.77 million	28.41	None
62nd Academy Awards	March 26, 1990	Driving Miss Daisy	217 !3 hours, 37 minutes	40.22 million	26.42	Billy Crystal	Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
63rd Academy Awards	March 25, 1991	Dances with Wolves	215 !3 hours, 35 minutes	42.79 million	28.06		Shrine Auditorium
64th Academy Awards	March 30, 1992	silence of ! The Silence of the Lambs	213 !3 hours, 33 minutes	44.44 million	29.84		Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
65th Academy Awards	March 29, 1993	Unforgiven	210 !3 hours, 30 minutes	45.84 million	32.85
66th Academy Awards	March 21, 1994	Schindler's List	198 !3 hours, 18 minutes	46.26 million	31.86	Whoopi Goldberg
67th Academy Awards	March 27, 1995	Forrest Gump	215 !3 hours, 35 minutes	48.87 million	33.47	David Letterman	Shrine Auditorium
68th Academy Awards	March 25, 1996	Braveheart	218 !3 hours, 38 minutes	44.81 million	30.48	Whoopi Goldberg	Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
69th Academy Awards	March 24, 1997	english ! The English Patient	214 !3 hours, 34 minutes	40.83 million	25.83	Billy Crystal	Shrine Auditorium
70th Academy Awards	March 23, 1998	Titanic	227 !3 hours, 47 minutes	57.25 million	35.32
71st Academy Awards	March 21, 1999	Shakespeare in Love	242 !4 hours, 2 minutes	45.63 million	28.51	Whoopi Goldberg	Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
72nd Academy Awards	March 26, 2000	American Beauty	244 !4 hours, 4 minutes	46.53 million	29.64	Billy Crystal	Shrine Auditorium
73rd Academy Awards	March 25, 2001	Gladiator	203 !3 hours, 23 minutes	42.93 million	25.86	Steve Martin
74th Academy Awards	March 24, 2002	beautiful mind ! A Beautiful Mind	263 !4 hours, 23 minutes	40.54 million	25.13	Whoopi Goldberg	Dolby Theatre
75th Academy Awards	March 23, 2003	Chicago	210 !3 hours, 30 minutes	33.04 million	20.58	Steve Martin
76th Academy Awards	February 29, 2004	lord of ! The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	224 !3 hours, 44 minutes	43.56 million	26.68	Billy Crystal
77th Academy Awards	February 27, 2005	Million Dollar Baby	194 !3 hours, 14 minutes	42.16 million	25.29	Chris Rock
78th Academy Awards	March 5, 2006	Crash	213 !3 hours, 33 minutes	38.64 million	22.91	Jon Stewart
79th Academy Awards	February 25, 2007	departed ! The Departed	231 !3 hours, 51 minutes	39.92 million	23.65	Ellen DeGeneres
80th Academy Awards	February 24, 2008	No Country for Old Men	201 !3 hours, 21 minutes	31.76 million	18.66	Jon Stewart
81st Academy Awards	February 22, 2009	Slumdog Millionaire	210 !3 hours, 30 minutes	36.94 million	21.68	Hugh Jackman
82nd Academy Awards	March 7, 2010	hurt locker ! The Hurt Locker	217 !3 hours, 37 minutes	41.62 million	24.75	Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin
83rd Academy Awards	February 27, 2011	kings ! The King's Speech	195 !3 hours, 15 minutes	37.63 million	21.97	James Franco, Anne Hathaway
84th Academy Awards	February 26, 2012	The Artist	194 !3 hours, 14 minutes	39.30 million	25.50	Billy Crystal
85th Academy Awards	February 24, 2013	Argo	3 hours, 35 minutes	40.30 million	26.60	Seth MacFarlane
Ceremony	Date	Best Picture winner	Length of ceremony	Number of viewers	Rating	Host(s)	Venue

Historically, the "Oscarcast" has pulled in a bigger haul when box-office hits are favored to win the Best Picture trophy. More than 57.25 million viewers tuned to the telecast for the 70th Academy Awards in 1998, the year of Titanic, which generated close to US$600 million at the North American box office pre-Oscars. The 76th Academy Awards ceremony in which The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (pre-telecast box office earnings of US$368 million) received 11 Awards including Best Picture drew 43.56 million viewers. The most watched ceremony based on Nielsen ratings to date, however, was the 42nd Academy Awards (Best Picture Midnight Cowboy) which drew a 43.4% household rating on April 7, 1970.

By contrast, ceremonies honoring films that have not performed well at the box office tend to show weaker ratings. The 78th Academy Awards which awarded low-budgeted, independent film Crash (with a pre-Oscar gross of US$53.4 million) generated an audience of 38.64 million with a household rating of 22.91%. In 2008, the 80th Academy Awards telecast was watched by 31.76 million viewers on average with an 18.66% household rating, the lowest rated and least watched ceremony to date, in spite of celebrating 80 years of the Academy Awards. The Best Picture winner of that particular ceremony was another independently financed film ( No Country for Old Men).

Venues

In 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented at a banquet dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. From 1930–1943, the ceremony alternated between two venues: the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard and the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood then hosted the awards from 1944 to 1946, followed by the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles from 1947 to 1948. The 21st Academy Awards in 1949 were held at the Academy Award Theatre at what was the Academy's headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.

From 1950 to 1960, the awards were presented at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. With the advent of television, the 1953–1957 awards took place simultaneously in Hollywood and New York first at the NBC International Theatre (1953) and then at the NBC Century Theatre (1954–1957), after which the ceremony took place solely in Los Angeles. The Oscars moved to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California in 1961. By 1969, the Academy decided to move the ceremonies back to Los Angeles, this time to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Music Centre.

In 2002, the Kodak Theatre became the permanent home of the award ceremonies. However, due to Eastman Kodak's bankruptcy issues, this theatre was renamed the Hollywood and Highland Centre in the days preceding the February 26, 2012, awards ceremony. As of May 2012, the theatre was once again renamed – to the Dolby Theatre – after Dolby Laboratories acquired the naming rights.

Merit categories

Current categories

In the first year of the awards, the Best Director award was split into two separate categories (Drama and Comedy). At times, the Best Original Score award has also been split into separate categories (Drama and Comedy/Musical). From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Art Direction (now Production Design), Cinematography, and Costume Design awards were likewise split into two separate categories (black-and-white films and colour films). Prior to 2012, the Production Design award was called Art Direction, while the Makeup and Hairstyling award was called Makeup.

Another award, entitled the Academy Award for Best Original Musical, is still in the Academy rulebooks and has yet to be discontinued. However, due to continuous insufficient eligibility each year, it has not been awarded since 1984 (when Purple Rain won).

Discontinued categories

Proposed categories

The Board of Governors meets each year and considers new award categories. To date, the following proposed categories have been rejected:

• Best Casting: rejected in 1999
• Best Stunt Coordination: rejected every year from 1991-2012
• Best Title Design: rejected in 1999

Special categories

The Special Academy Awards are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole. They are not always presented on a consistent annual basis.

Current special categories

• Academy Honorary Award: since 1929
• Academy Scientific and Technical Award: since 1931
• Gordon E. Sawyer Award: since 1981
• Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: since 1956
• Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: since 1938

Discontinued special categories

• Academy Juvenile Award: 1934 to 1960
• Academy Special Achievement Award: 1972 to 1995

Criticism

Due to the positive exposure and prestige of the Academy Awards, studios spend millions of dollars and hire publicists specifically to promote their films during what is typically called the " Oscar season". This has generated accusations of the Academy Awards being influenced more by marketing than quality. William Friedkin, an Academy Award-winning film director and former producer of the ceremony, expressed this sentiment at a conference in New York in 2009, describing it as "the greatest promotion scheme that any industry ever devised for itself".

In addition, some winners critical of the Academy Awards have boycotted the ceremonies and refused to accept their Oscars. The first to do so was Dudley Nichols (Best Writing in 1935 for The Informer). Nichols boycotted the 8th Academy Awards ceremony because of conflicts between the Academy and the Writers' Guild. George C. Scott became the second person to refuse his award (Best Actor in 1970 for Patton) at the 43rd Academy Awards ceremony. Scott described it as a 'meat parade', saying 'I don't want any part of it." The third winner, Marlon Brando, refused his award (Best Actor in 1972 for The Godfather), citing the film industry's discrimination and mistreatment of Native Americans. At the 45th Academy Awards ceremony, Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to read a 15-page speech detailing his criticisms.

Tim Dirks, editor of AMC's filmsite.org, has written of the Academy Awards,

Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision, cultural influence, and innovative qualities of many films are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the 1980s, moneymaking "formula-made" blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure.

Acting prizes in certain years have been criticized for not recognizing superior performances so much as being awarded for sentimental reasons, personal popularity, atonement for past mistakes, or presented as a "career honour" to recognize a distinguished nominee's entire body of work.

Associated events

The following events are closely associated with the annual Academy Awards ceremony:

• Nominees luncheon
• Governors Awards
• The 25th Independent Spirit Awards (in 2010), usually held in Santa Monica the Saturday before the Oscars, marked the first time it was moved to a Friday and a change of venue to L.A. Live.
• Golden Raspberry Awards
• The 8th annual "Night Before", traditionally held at the Beverly Hills Hotel (eight years running in 2010) and generally known as THE party of the season, benefits the Motion Picture and Television Fund, which operates a retirement home for SAG actors in the San Fernando Valley.
• Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party airs the awards live at the nearby Pacific Design Centre.
• The Governors' Ball is the Academy's official after-party, including dinner (until 2011), and is held adjacent to the awards-presentation venue. In 2012, the three course meal was replaced by appetizers.
• The Vanity Fair after-party, historically held at the former Morton's restaurant, since 2009 has been held at the Sunset Tower.