Oscar Fever!
It’s that time of the year again. And the 84th Academy Awards demand all your attention. The Artist, has predictably swept the major categories and some of the biggest wins this year are…
Best Picture The Artist (Prod: Thomas Langmann )
Actor in a Leading Role Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Actress in a Leading Role Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Best Director Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Now if you haven’t OD’ed on the Oscars just yet, we’ve put together a bit of trivia for you…
Ever wondered why they’re called, the Oscars? As the story goes, the Academy’s former librarian, Margaret Herrick once exclaimed that the 13.5 inches tall man resembled her uncle, Oscar Pierce. The nickname grew extremely popular over the years, but it wasn’t until 1939 that the Academy officially adopted the name.
The Oscar is a knight made in 24-karat gold. With a ‘crusader’s sword’ in hand on a film reel platform, he weighs 8.5 pounds.
Barring today’s ceremony, 2,809 Oscars have been presented at the Academy Awards.
50 statues are crafted each year to be presented at the event!
The first Academy Award ceremony was held in 1929, where you needed to shell out only $5 to enter as a guest. Wings, a film belonging to the silent era (directed by William A. Wellman) was the first to receive the Best Picture Award. And 84-years-later, the Oscars come full circle with The Artist winning the same award this year.
James Cameron’s Titanic, Peter Jackson’s fantastical trilogy Lord of the Rings and William Wyler’s classic Ben-Hur have all received 11 Oscars and have been nominated 14, 12 and 11 times respectively.
The stunning Katharine Hepburn is the only actress to date to win four Oscars in the Best Actress category.
Jack Nicolson, nominated 12 times, has won three Oscars so far. He is the only actor (along with Walter Brennan) to have received the maximum number of trophies in the Best Actor category.
Meryl Streep is the only actor to have received 17 nominations in the history of Hollywood. (She got her third Oscar win today)
Christopher Plummer, who won his first Oscar today in the Best Supporting Actor category, for his role as a man who comes out-of-the-closet in the film, Beginners is the oldest actor (aged 82 years) to have received the Academy Award. In his speech he said looking at the trophy, ‘You’re only two years older than me darling, where have you been all of my life?’
Remember the endearing yet outspoken Mammy from Gone With the Wind (1939)? Hattie McDaniel changed the history of American cinema by becoming the first black performer to get the Oscar nod for her supporting role in the classic. And today, Octavia Spencer has won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film, The Help – for a role similar to Mammy’s.
Tatum O’Neal at age 10 became the youngest actor to receive an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Paper Moon (1974).
The longest acceptance speech was given by a lady named Greer Garson for winning Best Actress for her role in Mrs. Miniver (1943). She spoke for seven minutes by the clock. Greer never won another Oscar again._
