Oscar

OSCAR

Every January, when the calendar has turned to a new year, the attention of the entertainment community and of film fans around the world turns to the upcoming Academy Awards - the main national film award in the USA. Hundreds of millions of cinema lovers glue themselves to their television sets to learn who will receive the highest honour in filmmaking.

 The Awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - a professional honorary organization. They were first given in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929.The establishment of the Academy has had a major effect and influence upon the film industry.

 Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better known by a nickname, Oscar, the origins of which aren't clear. The most popular story is that Margaret Herrick an Academy librarian remarked that the statuette resembled her uncle Oscar. But the Academy itself didn't use this nickname officially until 1939.

The Oscar statuette has been designed by Cedric Gibbonsand sculptured by George Stanley. Oscar is a knight, holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of a film.Each statuette is made of britanniumand is plated then in gold. So Oscar is 34.3 sm tall and weighs 3.9 kg.

 During the II World War plaster statuettes were given, but after the war they were changed into the golden ones.

 In 2000 55 statuettes completely disappeared. It was a shock for the society. But in 9 days 52 of them were found out.

 This year the Academy Award of Merit is given in 24 categories, including the following:

1.      Actor in a Leading Role

2.      Actor in a Supporting Role

3.      Actress in a Leading Role

4.      Actress in a Supporting Role

5.      Animated Feature Film

6.      Art Direction

7.      Cinematography

8.      Costume Design

9.      Directing

10.  Documentary Feature

11.  Documentary Short

12.  Film Editing

13.  Foreign Language Film

14.  Makeup

15.  Music (Score)

16.  Music (Song)

17.  Best Picture

18.  Short Film (Animated)

19.  Short Film (Live Action)

20.  Sound Editing

21.  Sound Mixing

22.  Visual Effects

23.  Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

24.  Writing (Original Screenplay)

 There are some special Awards, which are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole:

·         Academy Honorary Award 

·         Academy Special Achievement Award

·         The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award 

·         The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

·         Gordon E. Sawyer Award

I want to tell you some interesting facts about Oscar from the Guinness Book of Records.

             The only actress, who won 4 Oscars as the Best Actress was Katrin Hepbern. She was awarded for her films “Morning glory”, “Guess, who’s comming to dinner”, “The lion in winter”, “On golden pond”. She was nominated 12 times.

 Edith Headgot 8 personal Oscars for creating costumes.

 The youngest actress, who got the Oscar at the age of 5 was Shirley Templ.

 Future Catwoman Hally Berry became the first Afro-American to win the Best Actress for her role in “Monster's Ball” in 2002. It was another step on the way of racial overcoming!

 Walt Disney was nominated 64 times. He receivedthe greatestnumberofOscars - 29!

 Those people were included to this famous book.

 The greatest number of Academy Awards won by a film is 11. The epic “Ben-Hur” was the first film to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations. This achievement has been equalled twice — by the highest ever grossing film “Titanic” in 1997 and by “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, which won in all 11 of its nominated categories in 2004.

 Russian films, which won Oscars in the nominationBest Foreign Language Filmare “The war and piece” (by Sergey Bondarchuk) 1969,“Dersu Uzala” (by Akira Kurasava, USSR) 1975, “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” (by VladimirMenshow)1979, “Burnt by the sun” (by Nikita Mihalkow) 1995.

 And what about the last year ceremony? Do you know who won the Oscars?

 “No Country for Old Men” emerged as the Best Picture winner, and the film's directors, Ethan and Joel Coen took home awards for Achievement in Directing. Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem, Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton triumphed in the acting categories.

 What about the last 81^st Academy Award?

               This year nominees: The Best picture:

·         THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

·         FROST/NIXON

·         MILK

·         THE READER

·         SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

 Attendance at the Annual Academy Awards is by invitation only. No tickets are put on public sale. The 81^st Annual Academy Awards will be held on February 22^nd, 2009.

 The awards night itself 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. All of Hollywood's glamour in one place at one time!Walking along the red carpet is often called “Vanity fair”.The ceremony and extravagant afterparties are televised around the world.

        As you know, there is one more Annual American award… not so popular as Oscar, but not less interesting. It is called The Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies. First awarded in 1981, it was created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to counterpoint the Academy Awards by dishonoring (or honoring) the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry." The award usually takes the form of a plastic raspberry spray-painted gold and mounted on a plastic base - nominally valued at approximately US$5.

This year nominates are such films as Disaster Movie, The Happening, The Hottie And The Nottie, In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,The Love Guru, Meet The Spartans. And nominated people are Paris Hilton,Mike Myers and some other not very popular celebrities. This year ceremony will be held on Saturday night February 21, 2009 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood.