ACADEMY AWARD
[Film Technology]
Academy Awards, popularly known as “Oscars” [oscar award] (after a librarian at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences compared the prized statue to her Uncle Oscar), the most famous awards in the film industry. Academy Awards are presented each spring for achievements in the previous year, both for individual performers and for the best film. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an organization founded in 1927 at Hollywood, California, for the purpose of raising the cultural and technical standards of professional film-making. The academy has some 5,000 members, drawn from the performing, technical, and administrative branches of the film industry. Membership is by invitation and eligibility depends on the requirements of a given branch of the academy. Although membership is open to film workers in other countries, the academy has generally been associated with the United States film industry. Annually the academy makes special awards of merit, called the Academy Awards. The symbolic statuette presented to the winners since 1927 is known as an Oscar after the supposed resemblance of the statuette to an Academy employee's uncle called Oscar; 34.3 cm (13.5 in) high and weighing about 4 kg (8.5 lb), the gold-plated bronze human figure was executed by the American sculptor George Stanley based on sketches made by art director Cedric Gibbons. Categories recognized for awards include the best motion picture; performance by a leading actor; performance by a leading actress; performance by an actor in a supporting role (since 1936); performance by an actress in a supporting role (since 1936); achievement in direction; screenplay based on material previously produced or published; original screenplay; art direction; cinematography; costume design; film editing; sound; sound effects; editing; original song; original music score; live-action short subject; animated short subject; documentary feature; documentary short subject; visual effects; best make-up design (since 1982); and foreign-language film (since 1956). In addition, various special or honorary awards are often given for distinguished career or humanitarian achievement. The entire academy membership participates in voting for the annual Academy Awards. In most “best” award categories, a maximum of five entrants are first nominated by the academy members in that particular field. From among these nominees the entire academy then makes its final vote in secret ballots. The winners are publicly announced at a formal ceremony each spring. One hour of the 1928 to 1929 awards ceremony was broadcast on the radio; the entire ceremony was broadcast from 1944 to till. Television broadcasts of the ceremony, beginning in 1953, have become a popular event, attracting worldwide audiences. The academy also supports technical research, maintains a library of film-related materials, and issues bulletins of credits containing the records of producers, actors, writers, directors, and others for production-office use. The headquarters of the academy are in Beverly Hills, California.
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