The Oscars History

The Oscars or Academy Awards is every year in recognition of cinematic achievements of US film. Since 1929 the Oscar, which is presented to winners became a sought-after prize for all in the film industry. It is the oldest of its sort and others in its class include the music and recording awards, Grammy Awards, theatre has the Tony Awards, television has the Emmy Awards.

The 2016 Oscars had Chris Rock as its host at the Dolby Theatre and to date have more than 3000 Oscars already been given to winners. 2017 will host its 89th Oscars.

Even though the Oscars has a massive list of winning categories I point out some of the most prominent. Even though several categories have been dropped over the years the list still include more than twenty different categories including:

• Best writing (Original Screenplay)
• Best writing (Adapted Screenplay)
• Best visual effects
• Best sound mixing
• Best sound editing
• Best production design
• Best original song
• Best original score
• Best makeup and Hairstyle
• Best live action short
• Best foreign language film
• Best film editing
• Best documentary short
• Best documentary feature
• Best costume
• Best cinematography
• Best animation short
• Best animation feature
• Best actress supporting
• Best actress, leading
• Best actor supporting
• Best actor leading
• Best director
• Best picture

The 2016 awards:

Best Picture winner being Spotlight

The Best Director Alejandro G. Inarritu

Best Actress Brie Larson for Room

Best Actor Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant

The 2015 awards:

The Best Director Alejandro G. Inarritu

Best Actress Julianne Moore

Best Actor Eddie Redmayne

Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette

Best Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons

Best Documentary Laura Poitras

If we try to predict the 2017 Oscars based on the Golden Globe Awards we might be close, yet also possibly far of the mark. The Oscar predictions and ranking movies are Jackie first with Moonlight second and La La Land third. However La La Land won seven Golden Globe Awards earlier in 2017. When we look at directors it could very well be Manchester by the Sea or Hacksaw Ridge for both direction and best film.

Many base their predictions according to the golden Globes and one movie that mattered all the way is La La land. However it does not always work out that way as there are no overlapping voting bodies that represent either one of the two awards ceremonies. When looking at predictions in the past it was around fifty percent accurate thus are we not going according to the Globes, but the actual numbers and nominations according to the Oscars.

The actual nominations on January 24, 2017 is something everybody waits for in anticipation. One thing is for certain though, Golden Globes winners always feature in the Oscars even if they do not always actually win.

Best Director Predictions:

La la Land – Damien Chazelle

Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan

Moonlight – Barry Jenkins

Hawksaw Ridge – Mel Gibson

Arrival – Denis Villeneuve

Silence – Martin Scorsese

Fences- Denzel Washington

Hell or High Water- David Mackenzie

In the Best Actors category the predicted actors are:

Fences – Denzel Washington

Manchester by the Sea – Casey Affleck

La La Land – Ryan Gosling

Hacksaw Ridge – Andrew Garfield

Captain Fantastic – Viggo Mortensen

Loving – Joel Edgerton

Silence – Andrew Garfield

Sully – Tom Hanks

The Founder – Michael Keaton

Paterson – Adam Driver

 

Best Actress Predictions:

It is dicey with Isabelle Huppert’s win of portrayal in Elle at the Golden Globes and not being mentioned or predicted for a win in the Oscars.

Arrival – Amy Adams

La La Land – Emma Stone

Jackie – Natalie Portman

Florence Foster Jenkins – Meryl Streep

The Girl on the Train – Emily Blunt

20th Century Woman – Annette Benning

Loving – Ruth Negga

Miss Sloan – Jessica Chastain

Hidden Figures – Taraji P. Henson

Interesting Oscar Trivia and Facts

• The Oscar is 13.5 inches tall and weighs 6.75 lb.
• An Academy librarian named the statue in 1931 after commenting that her Uncle Oscar Pierce look like the statue. Thus has Margaret Herrick’s playful comment caused the name Oscar.
• The youngest ever to receive the honorary Oscar was in 1934, a five year old Shirley Temple.
• The oldest actor to ever receive an Oscar is the eighty-year-old George Burns as Best Supporting Actor. The oldest actress was 81-year-old Jessica Tandy for Best Actress in Driving Miss Daisy
• Walt Disney received 26 Oscars
• The only documentary song ever to win an Original Song Award is from Melissa Etherege, I Need To Wake Up
• Two Hollywood families has three generations of Oscar winners between them. They are the Coppola family with Carmine, Sofia and Francis Ford and Huston family with Walter and John as well as Angelica Huston.
• The first black performer who won an award was Hattie McDaniel in 1939 for performing Gone with the Wind as supporting actress.
• Two actors who played the same part in the same later movies and remake and also won awards for the same part are the 1974 Godfather by Robert de Niro and earlier in 1972 played by Marlon Brando he won the same award for the same previous Godfather.
• Only one woman ever won three Oscars in a year, it was in 2003 and Fran Walsh took Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture and Best Original Song Awards for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
• In 1974 a ten-year old Tatum O’Neal won a standard Oscar making her the youngest after Shirley Temple and she won it for her supporting role in Paper Moon.
• The person with the most Oscar nominations is Meryl Streep with thirteen nominations.
• Three movies Ben Hur in 1959, Titanic in 1997 and Lord of the Rings: return of the King have won eleven Oscars in a ceremony via various categories.

The longest ever acceptance speech was made in 1942 when Greer Garson won a reward for best actress playing Mrs Miniver.