It’s time! We’ve had the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes. And now it’s the Oscars.
The red carpet is being rolled out, statuettes polished, and tuxedos tailored. The 91st Oscars take place tonight at the Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The Oscars ceremony is the one essential date in the movie world calendar, the giddy, glamorous apex of industry celebration.
The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, are a set of awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry, given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), to recognise excellence in cinematic achievements. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the ‘Academy Award of Merit’, and popularly referred to as ‘Oscar’. The design of the Oscar statuette, which represents a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a sword, is credited to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) art director Cedric Gibbons. The Oscar statuettes are made by RS Owens & Company, the Chicago-based awards manufacturer retained by the Academy since 1982.
The first Academy Awards ceremony was a May 16, 1929 banquet hosted by Douglas Fairbanks at the Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room with 270 attendees. The first ever Academy Award was bestowed upon Emil Jannings, for Best Actor for his leading roles in silent films The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command. The award for the Best Picture went to Wings, an American silent war film set during the First World War.
To be eligible for an award in a given year, a film must be publicly exhibited for paid admission for at least one week at a commercial theatre in Los Angeles County between January 1 and midnight of December 31 of that year. Exceptions to this rule include foreign-language films, documentaries and short films.
Always an eventful evening, the Academy Awards never fails to provide talking points. In the past few years, the granddaddy of all award shows has weathered unthinkably embarrassing fiascos, from #OscarsSoWhite to #EnvelopeGate.
An incredible list of musical performers of this year’s nominated songs is set to take the stage. As is tradition, the nominees for Best Original Song, including Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga who will team up once again for a rendition of Shallow from A Star Is Born. Celebrating the success of the Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen and Adam Lambert are rumoured to be opening the show.
Last month’s Golden Globe Awards has upended the Oscars race when the best-film prizes went to Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book, while the critical darling A Star Is Born was left with only one trophy. If Black Panther wins, it will be the first comic-book film to do so. With Alfonso Cuarón’s poignant love letter to his Mexican upbringing, Roma could also be the first Best Picture win for Netflix.
The Best Actor race is also one of the most solid in years, with Bale, Cooper, Malek, and Mortenson leading the pack. Malek’s confident take on Queen front man Freddie Mercury mesmerises. Bale’s transformation as former vice president Dick Cheney astounds as well.
One thing is for sure. We’ll all have something to talk about on Monday morning.
Welcome to ‘Nutty’s Infotainment. YAYS!’ And your time starts NOW!
Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. She got it in 2010 for her Iraq war thriller, The Hurt Locker. Name her ex-husband, who was nominated in the same category for the technological wonder Avatar.
James Cameron . ‘The Hurt Locker’ is also the lowest grossing movie to ever win at the Oscars. It is estimated to have earned $21 million at the box office, that’s less than 2% of what it’s competitor Avatar made in ticket sales in the same year.
Following the Kevin Hart debacle, the Oscars 2019 will be the first in 30 years to be without a host. Who is the most frequent host ever at Oscars?
Bob Hope. He was host of the Academy Awards ceremony 19 times between 1939 and 1977.
What is the One-Dollar Oscar rule?
Before an Academy Award winner or his estate can sell his Oscar, he must first offer to sell it to the Academy for one dollar. This is to discourage winners from selling the award for financial gain. Oscars awarded before 1950, however, are not bound by this agreement.
Who is the only person to have won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize?
George Bernard Shaw. After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, Shaw received an Academy Award for adapting his 1913 stage play Pygmalion into a film script for My Fair Lady.
The actress with the most Oscars is Katharine Hepburn who won four Best Actress Oscars during her career. Name the actress who won the Academy Award for playing the role of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004), becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for playing another Academy Award winner.
Cate Blanchett.
Name the American business magnate and investor who was born to Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble on this day in 1955 and was adopted by Armenian couple, Paul and Clara. He travelled through India in 1974 seeking enlightenment and studying Zen Buddhism. He, along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, co-founded a company in 1976. The rest is history.
Steve Jobs.
NSDAP was a political party founded by Anton Drexler on this day, 99 years back. Its slogan was “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (“One People, One Nation, One Leader” in English). How is it commonly referred to as?
Nazi Party
How many letters are there in the Greek alphabet?
Twentyfour.
What purple fruit is a key ingredient in moussaka, baba ghanoush and baingan bharta?
Eggplant.
What does the slanted ‘E’ in the below DELL logo represent?
(Answer next week. Answer to last week’s photo-quiz: Dustin.)
GOLDEN STATUETTE: The design of the Oscar statuette, which represents a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a sword, is credited to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Art Director Cedric Gibbons.
