Academy Awards facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Academy Awards |
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The Oscars logo
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| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |
| Country | United States |
The Academy Awards, often called the Oscars, are the most famous movie awards in the United States. Each year, a special ceremony takes place in late February or early March in Hollywood, California.
The very first Academy Awards were held in 1929. It was a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The ceremony was first heard on the radio in 1930. Later, in 1953, it was shown on television for the first time. The Oscars are the oldest entertainment awards ceremony in the world. They are now shown live on TV all over the globe! Other big American entertainment awards, like the Emmy Awards for TV, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music, were created after the Oscars. Since 1929, over 3,140 Oscar statues have been given out.
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The Oscar Statuette
The most famous award is the Academy Award of Merit, which everyone calls the Oscar statuette. It is made of bronze covered in gold and stands on a black metal base. The statue is about 13.5 inches (34.3 cm) tall and weighs 8.5 pounds (3.856 kg). It looks like a knight holding a sword. The knight stands on a film reel that has five spokes. These five spokes stand for the original main groups of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
Why is it Called "Oscar"?
The Academy officially started calling the trophies "Oscar" in 1939. But no one is completely sure how the name began!
One story says that Bette Davis, a famous actress and president of the Academy in 1941, named the award after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. Another popular story is about Margaret Herrick, an Academy executive director. In 1931, when she first saw the award, she said it reminded her of her "Uncle Oscar," who was her cousin Oscar Pierce.
Oscar Awards Ceremonies
Watching the Show on TV
The main awards are given out at a live TV show. This usually happens in late February or early March, after the movies from the previous year have been released. It's the grand finale of the film awards season, which typically starts in November or December. The ceremony is a huge, fancy event. Invited guests walk on a red carpet, wearing amazing outfits made by famous fashion designers. Men usually wear tuxedos, though sometimes they might skip the bow-tie. Musicians who perform the nominated songs often wear different outfits.
The Academy Awards show is the longest-running live awards show on TV in the U.S. It's broadcast to all time zones in North America and watched by billions of people around the world.
The show usually lasts about three and a half hours. The very first Oscars in 1929 were much shorter, lasting only 15 minutes!
Award Categories
Current Awards
- Best Picture – since 1928
- Best Actor – since 1928
- Best Actress –since 1928
- Best Supporting Actor – since 1936
- Best Supporting Actress – since 1936
- Best Animated Feature – since 2001
- Best Art Direction – since 1928 (also called Interior or Set Decoration)
- Best Cinematography – since 1928
- Costume Design – since 1948
- Directing since 1928
- Documentary Feature since 1943
- Documentary Short Subject since 1941
- Film Editing – since 1935
- Best Foreign Language Film – since 1947
- Makeup – since 1981
- Original Music Score- since 1934
- Best Song- since 1934
- Animated Short Film – since 1931
- Live Action Short Film since 1931
- Academy Award for Sound Mixing since 1930
- Best Sound Effects Editing – since 1963
- Best Visual Effects – since 1939
- Best Writing Adapted Screenplay – since 1928
- Best Writing Original Screenplay – since 1940
- Academy Award, Scientific or Technical – since 1931 presented at three levels
Oscar Records
For a long time, Gone with the Wind (from 1939) was the most successful film, winning ten Oscars. In 1960, the movie Ben-Hur won eleven Oscars. Then, in 1998, Titanic also won eleven Oscars. Six years later, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King matched that record with eleven Oscars.
The five most important categories are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay. These are often called the Big Five. Only three films have won all of these top awards: It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The Silence of the Lambs.
All About Eve and Titanic hold the record for the most nominations, with 14 each.
Most Successful Oscar Winners
Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) has won the most acting Oscars. She received 4 Oscars for Best Actress.
Meryl Streep has been nominated for the most acting Oscars, with 17 nominations. Among men, Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Walter Brennan (1894–1974) have each won three Academy Awards.
Jack Nicholson also holds the record for the most nominations for an actor, with 12 nominations.
The person who has won the most Academy Awards overall is Walt Disney (1901–1966). He won an amazing 26 Oscars, including 4 special Honorary Oscars, and was nominated 37 times. In 1954, he won 4 awards in a single year, which is also a record!
The woman with the most Oscars is the costume designer Edith Head (1897–1981). She won 8 Oscars and received 27 nominations. Among people who are still alive, the composer Alan Menken and Dennis Muren each have 8 Oscars. The cartoon characters Tom and Jerry have also won multiple awards!
See also
In Spanish: Premios Óscar para niños
