Here is some background information about the Academy Awards, also known as the “Oscars.”
February 26, 2017 – The 89th Annual Academy Awards airs on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.
2017 Winners (selected):
Best Picture
“Moonlight”
Best Actor
Casey Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea”
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali in “Moonlight”
Best Actress
Emma Stone in “La La Land”
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis in “Fences”
Best Director
“La La Land” – Damien Chazelle
Other Facts:
PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm has tallied the ballots since 1934. Newspaper headlines announced the winners before the ceremony until 1941 when the sealed envelope system was put in place. Now only two partners of the firm know the results until the envelopes are opened.
Walt Disney is the most honored person in Oscar history. He received 59 nominations and 26 competitive awards throughout his career.
Composer John Williams is the most nominated living person-50 nominations (including 5 wins).
Meryl Streep is the most nominated performer in Academy history with 20 nominations.
Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male performer in Academy history with 12 nominations.
Katharine Hepburn had the most Oscar wins for a performer, with four.
Daniel Day-Lewis is the only person to have three Best Actor Oscars.
Tatum O’Neal is the youngest person to ever win an Oscar at 10 years, 148 days old.
Only three films have won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing: in 1934, “It Happened One Night”; in 1975, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”; and in 1991, “The Silence of the Lambs.”
No one film has ever taken home all six top prizes, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress.
Scientific and Technical Awards are given out in a separate ceremony for methods, discoveries or inventions that contribute to the arts and sciences of motion pictures.
Timeline:
May 16, 1929 – The first Academy Awards are held in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets cost $5.
1929 – The first Best Picture award goes to “Wings.”
1929 – The first statuette ever presented is to Emil Jannings, for his Best Actor performance in “The Last Command.”
1937 – The first presentation of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is given to Darryl F. Zanuck.
1938 – Due to extensive flooding in Los Angeles, the ceremony is delayed for one week.
March 19, 1953 – First televised ceremony is from the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.
1966 – The awards are first broadcast in color.
1968 – Due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the ceremony is moved forward two days as the original date is the day of King’s funeral.
1976-present – ABC broadcasts the Oscars.
1981 – Due to the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, the ceremony is postponed 24 hours.
2001 – The Best Animated Feature Film category is added.
June 23, 2009 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces that beginning in 2010, 10 films will receive nominations in the Best Picture category, instead of five.
June 26, 2009 – The Academy announces that beginning in 2010, new rules governing the Best Song category may eliminate that category in any given year. Also, the Irving G. Thalberg and Jean Hersholt honorary awards will be given at a separate ceremony in November.
June 14, 2011 – The Academy announces new rules governing the Best Picture category, the number of movies nominated may vary from 5 – 10 in any given year and will not be known until the nominees are announced. The new rule goes into effect in 2012.
November 9, 2011 – Eddie Murphy drops out as host of the Oscars in February 2012, one day after producer Brett Ratner quits the show, because of a remark he made that was considered homophobic.
January 18, 2016 – Following criticism two years in a row about the lack of diversity with Oscar nominees, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, issues a statement saying that “in the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond.”
January 24, 2017 – The romantic musical, “La La Land,” picks up 14 Oscar nominations, tying the record held by “All About Eve” and “Titanic.” After complaints in 2016 about a lack of diversity, six black actors receive nominations for their performances, a record.
February 26, 2017 – Following the moment where “La La Land” was mistakenly announced as best picture, “Moonlight” becomes the first film with an all-black cast to win the Academy Award for best picture. Additionally, Mahershala Ali is the first Muslim actor to win best supporting actor.