The Academy Awards®:
It’s History and Impact on Films
Film Studies, 2010-11

History of the Academy
Awards®
The Academy Awards (also known as the
Oscars) are the most influential, most prestigious awards in the film industry.
• Presented since 1929
• Held by AMPAS (Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences)
• First ceremony was private and in the
Roosevelt Hotel
• Guest tickests cost $5

History of the Academy
Awards®
• Recipients of the award had been announced 3 months earlier
• The following year, winners were announced before the ceremony to newspapers to be later published
• In 1941, the Academy decided to adopt the a more secretive means of revealing the winners- the sealed envelope

Academy Awards® Facts and
Trivia
Three awards were given during the Academy's first year that were never given again:
• Best Unique and Artistic
Production
• Best Title Writing (for silent films)
• Best Comedy Direction

• The Academy Awards failed to take place as scheduled on 3 occasions:
– 1938 due to massive flooding in Los Angeles
– 1968 out of respect for
Dr. Martin Luther King who was assassinated.
Funeral was on April 9.
– 1981 it was postponed due to the assassination attempt against Regan
• In 1953, the awards were first televised

• The establishment of the Academy (and its awards system) has had a major effect and influence upon the film industry:
– it boosts a nomination or award (for a film or actor)
– gives prestige and bottom-line profits to a studio or performer.
– studios have often engaged in expensive marketing and advertising campaigns to sway votes

All Quiet on the Western Front
(1930)
•the first talkie war film to win Best
Picture
•the first film to win 'Best Picture' when it was in a category titled Outstanding
Production (from 1930-1940)
•the first Universal-produced film to win
Best Picture; it would be another 43 years until Universal would again win the top prize for The Sting (1973)

• filmsite.org
• imdb.com