Background on The
Awards:
The
Academy
Awards®
, affectionately known as the
Oscars®
,
are the oldest, best known, most influential, most prestigious,
and famous of film awards. The awards (and gold-plated statuettes)
have been presented annually (the first awards ceremony was
held in May of 1929) by a non-profit professional organization
- the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (
AMPAS
),
based in Beverly Hills, California, and founded in 1927.
Pricewaterhouse
(now PricewaterhouseCoopers)
has managed
the Academy Awards balloting process since 1935 - all but
the first six years of the Oscars. Ever since 1941, when
their now-famous confidential envelope system was introduced,
marking the first year of complete secrecy,
"the Envelope Please" has become a familiar phrase
that evokes the thought of the Academy Awards® ceremony.
Except for the early years of the institution,
the awards honored films made during the previous 12-month
calendar year. [At first, to be eligible for an award, a film
had to open in Los Angeles during the twelve months ending
on July 31 of the preceding year. To allow each ceremony to
cover films for a single calendar year - matching the eligibility
period, the
1932/33 awards
were
based on a 17-month qualifying period. Ever since then, beginning
with the
1934 awards
ceremony,
all awards have been based on openings in the previous calendar
year. Films also had to be over 40 minutes long to qualify
as feature-length.] Until 1954, the Oscars were presented mostly
on a Thursday evening. From 1955 to 1958, they were presented
on a Wednesday. From 1959 until 1998 the Oscars were, with
a few exceptions, presented on a Monday night. Only since 1999
have the Awards ceremony taken place on a Sunday (traditionally
in March). In 2004, the ceremony was moved even earlier (usually
in February) to improve ratings and to be more relevant to
the awards 'season'.
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Comments About
the Awards Themselves:
The establishment of the Academy (and its awards
system) has had a major effect and influence upon the film
industry, due to the enormous boost a nomination or award (for
a film or actor) creates, by giving prestige and bottom-line
profits to a studio or performer. Studios have often engaged
in expensive marketing and advertising campaigns to sway votes,
and to encourage contractual loyalty during voting. The Academy
has, with limited success, tried to limit the influences of
pressure groups and promotion, box office gross receipts, and
studio public relations and marketing on voting results. It
has also attempted to limit votes for melodramatic sentimentality,
atonement for past mistakes, personal popularity, and "prestige"
or epic scale, but those influences have often had a decided
effect upon the outcome of some of the poll results.
Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision,
cultural influence, and innovative qualities of many films
are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the
80s, moneymaking 'formula-made' blockbusters with glossy production
values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture
winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with
depth or critical acclaim by any measure. See
The
Worst Academy Awards Oscars
for more.
Like any other awards, recognitions, or "best" lists,
the top nominees and winners do not necessarily reflect or
objectively measure the greatest that cinematic history has
to offer. Many of the most Deserving Films of All Time (see
Films
Without Awards
) did not win Academy Awards® (and
in some cases were not even included in the nominees). In addition,
Top
Box-Office Films
aren't always guaranteed awards success
either.
And certain
Film Genres
(notably
westerns, science fiction, and comedy) as well as independent
films are
not
represented in balanced numbers throughout
Oscar history - see extensive analysis of
Best
Picture Genre Biases
.
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