The Academy Awards are popularly known as the Oscars and are held every year in North America to honor the efforts and hard work of those who have entertained the audience with their brilliant work. The award is extremely prestigious and is considered to be the ultimate recognition of talent in the world of cinema. Winning an Academy award is supposed to be the best thing that can happen to an actor/actress. Even a nomination is a big honor itself.
The Academy Awards were first held in 1929 amongst 270 guests and from a small dinner time award have over the years emerged as the most awaited event of the year televised live in many countries and watched buy millions of people round the globe. The first Academy Award ceremony was aired on the radio and after 1953; it was broadcasted on the television. Now the awards ceremony is watched in 200 countries. The ceremony lasts for four hours. In the first ceremony, only 15 awards were given out and now the list of categories is pretty long and at a guess 34 awards are given out in various categories including science and technology, foreign films etc. The voting process is fair and foolproof and only two employees know the result prior to the ceremony.
The statuette awarded at the Oscars is 13 ½ inches tall and weighs 3.85 kg. It is in the shape of a gold covered Britannia knight standing on a black metal base shaped as a reel of film. The statuette is the property of the academy and not of the recipient; this rule was formed in 1950 and so those who have won this award or inherited it, cannot sell it. The event is glamour personified and stars try to outdo each other in costumes.
