Year after year, movie fans are beset with Oscar fever. They all want to know which stars, directors, and film staff will be honored this year in Los Angeles. Well, here comes our take on this year’s Oscars. We’ll also do a bit of looking back at Oscars history and give an overview of the selection process.
Why is Hollywood’s Golden Boy Called “the Oscar?”
First things first: the actual name of the award is the “Academy Award of Merit.” The nickname comes from famous actress Bette Davis, who supposedly regularly mentioned that the statue on the prize reminded her of her first husband Oscar Nelson Jr. Journalist Sidney Skolsky then was the man who popularized the term in a 1934 article.
The very first Academy Awards ceremony took place a few years before that, though, and to be specific on the 16th of May 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – and then only for a select audience. The man behind the movie prize was a Louis B. Mayer, at the time the head of the Hollywood movie studio MGM. With leading figures of the film industry, on January 1st 1927, he founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an institution to protect the interests of movie producers and to bring more awareness to films as a product. Mayer’s idea bore fruit: the Academy Award quickly won prestige and has been awarded more than 3,100 times since its premiere.
The Oscar Awarding Process
So, how does the awarding process actually go? First, all the members of the academy make a pre-selection. Every member has the right to vote, and makes ten suggestions for the category of Best Film. Every member may then also make five suggestions for the categories that correspond to their specialties. Some categories, such as animated movies, documentaries, and short films have special pre-selection juries. Once all the nominees have been agreed on, comes the decisive phase: selecting the prize winner. Here again all academy members have a right to vote in every category. The way they vote however is not made public.
What’s more, while the first Oscars had only twelve categories in 1929, today there are around 23, which is almost twice as many. Some of the new categories include “Best Supporting Actor,” and “Best Supporting Actress,” as well as “Best Sound,” “Best Editing,” and “Best Original Score.”
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“And the Oscar goes to..:” Oppenheimer Cleans up in 2024
Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece Oppenheimer has more than earned its top spot at the 2024 Oscars. The visually stunning history movie, which fits the biography of the “father of the A-bomb” into an action-packed three hours, was nominated in 13 categories – and it won seven of them. Chief among them were primarily the main categories of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Cillian Murphy). There were also awards given for best supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), best cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), best editing, and best score (Ludwig Göransson).
Other films that received a large number of nominations were the black comedy Poor Things (eleven nominations) and Martin Scorsese’s western drama Killers of the Flower Moon (ten nominations). The first received four Oscars including Best Actress (Emma Stone); Scorsese’s picture meanwhile left with no Oscars at all, landing Killers of the Flower Moon a spot in the top seven films with the most nominations of all time not to receive an award.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Picture | Oppenheimer |
| Best Director | Christopher Nolan: Oppenheimer |
| Best Actress | Emma Stone (Poor Things) |
| Best Actor | Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) |
| Best Cinematography | Hoyte van Hoytema (Oppenheimer) |
| Best Editing | Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer) |
| Best Original Score | Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer) |
| Best Sound | Johnnie Burn & Tarn Willers (The Zone of Interest) |
| Best International Feature Film | The Zone of Interest |
Oscars 2024: No German Nominees Awarded
The view from Teufel’s homeland of Germany is pretty grim this year. Germany has rarely won any prizes in the history of the award, but there have been nights of triumph for Germany’s film history in the past. Recently, Germany has taken home the Oscar for Best International Feature Film with the production for All Quiet on the Western Front (2023), which was also awarded to The Lives of Others (2007). And last but not least Gerd Nefzer, who earned the visual effects Oscar with his team for Blade Runner 2049 (2018) and Dune (2022).
This year, Germany had better chances for an Oscar winner than it has for a long time, because there were to German directors on the shortlist for Best International Feature Film, Ilker Çatak und Wim Wenders. Sandra Hüller was also nominated for best actress. But unfortunately, none of the three got anywhere – The Zone of Interest was awarded best international feature film, while Emma Stone took home the best actress trophy.
The Most Interesting Moments in Oscars History
The long history of the Academy Awards has featured a lot of moments that might make you stop and think. Here are some of the weirdest stories in the history of the esteemed movie award:
- The talk of the Oscars 2022 was when Will Smith walked up to the stage and slapped host Chris Rock after he made a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
- The awards ceremony 2017 were marked by a famous gaff now known as Envelopegate, which has gone down in Oscar history. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced that the winner of the Best Picture category was La La Land, when the real winner was the film Moonlight.
- When Marlon Brando won Best Actor in 1973 for his performance in the Godfather, he declined and instead sent Sacheen Littlefeather to the stage. The supposedly Native American woman from the Apache tribe made a speech about discrimination against Native American people. But in reality, she was an actress named Maria Cruz
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Oscars FAQ
Katherine Hepburn was awarded the Best Actress trophy four times between 1934 and 1982.
Director William Wyler was nominated for an Oscar a total of twelve times, of which he won only three.
Irish actor Peter O’Toole was given eight nominations in his lifetime, but never once actually won.
Tatum O’Neal won the award at the age of 10 in 1973 as Best Supporting Actress, making her the youngest Oscar award winner of all time. James Ivory, who won best adapted screenplay in 2018 for Call me By Your Name at the age of 89 is the oldest winner.
The most successful movies at the Oscars are The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2004), Titanic (1998) and Ben Hur (1960), each winning eleven Oscars. The Lord of the Rings trilogy won a total of 17 Oscars, setting the record for a single series.
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