In Hollywood, California, the Academyof Motion Picture Arts and Science has held its annual film competition since 1929. A gold trophy, a 34-centimeter-tall statuette, is awarded to the winners. However, the famous Oscar is actually not all it appears to be.
Most people think that the statuette, which weighs nearly four kilograms, must be made of solid gold. If only this were true. It is gold-plated, but the great majority of an Oscar statuette is only bronze. While it may be priceless to the winners, the Academy officially sets its value at a mere US$1. In addition, winners of the award are legally bound to sell the statuette back to the Academy rather than to the public.
Oscar is not a particularly common man’s name, so where does the monikercome from? Legend has it that in the 1930s, the Academy’s first librarian and later its executivedirector, Margaret Herrick, was heard to say that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. The name stuck, and in 1939 the Academy officially adopted Oscar to represent the common name of the award. Its official name, however, is the “Academy Award of Merit.”
Whatever one wishes to call it, the Oscar is one of the world’s most recognizable trademarks. Cinema has come a long way since the first prototypesof movie cameras were developed near the end of the 19th century. Movies have since become one of the most popular forms of entertainment worldwide. The Oscars have come to represent excellence in cinema.
