Hollywood will celebrate its biggest night of the year! On Sunday, March 4, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will host the world’s preeminent movie-related event: the 90th Academy Awards, perhaps better known as the Oscars.
The Oscar statuette weighs 6 3/4 pounds and stands 13 1/2 inches high. A total of 24 awards for artistic and technical merit in the American film industry are awarded annually to recognize excellence in cinematic achievements. These awards include best picture, director, cinematography, screenplay, editing, costume design, production design, visual effects, makeup and hair, foreign language film, documentary, live action short and more.
Only four Oscars are awarded for acting: best actors and actresses in leading and supporting roles. All winners are selected by the Academy’s voting members.
The ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and aired on TV for the first time in 1953. Each year, it is viewed in more than 200 countries, both on TV and streamed live online, and it is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony.
Although it’s always exciting to talk about who won, and what everyone wore, we’d like to share some fun facts about Oscars past.
Fun Facts about Oscars
- The first color film to win Best Picture was Gone with the Wind.
- Only two sequels have win Best Picture: The Godfather Part II in 1974 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.
- Five actors to win consecutive Oscars: Luise Rainer (1936-37), Spencer Tracy (1937-38), Katharine Hepburn (1967-68), Jason Robards (1976-77) and Tom Hanks (1994-95).
- Meryl Streep holds the record for most Best Actress Oscar nominations at 18.
- Jack Nicholson holds the record for most Best Actor nominations with 12.
Interesting Facts
- The Fugitive is the only film based on a TV series to get a Best Picture nomination.
- Grace Kelly attended the 1956 Academy Awards less than a month before becoming a princess.
- The tallest actor to ever win an Oscar was John Wayne, who was 6’4.
- American Hustle is the 15th film to receive nominations in every acting category.
- Megan Ellison, a producer of Her and American Hustle, is the first woman and third person ever to snag two Best Picture nominations in the same year.
All in the Family
- Liza Minnelli is the only Oscar winner with two Oscar winning parents. Her mother, Judy Garland, received an Honorary Oscar in 1939, and her father won Best Director in 1958; Liza won Best Actress in 1972.
- River and Joaquin Phoenix are the only brothers to receive acting Oscar nominations. And Lionel and Ethel Barrymore are the only siblings to win Oscars for acting.
- There are two families with three-generations of Oscar winners: The Hustons (Walter, son John Huston and granddaughter Anjelica) and The Coppolas (Carmine, son Francis Ford and granddaughter Sofia).
- The Newmans (Alfred, Emil, Lionel, Randy, David and Thomas) are the most Oscar nominated family in history with 87 nominations.