Oscar Awards - Records and Facts....

Ok, I’m back with my first post for March, 2011. I thought of switching from the usual topic these days, which is the Cricket World Cup. Instead for a change let’s have a look at some facts related to the field of Arts and Entertainment. This time it’ll be the Oscar Awards.

The Oscar Awards for 2011 has just been announced. My post today will outline some of the records and facts gathered from the history of this prestigious award ceremony. So here we go.

• The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of the 1927/1928 film season.

• The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last CommandThe Way of All Flesh. In the inaugural awards ceremony held in 1929, the Best Picture award was won by the film “Wings”. and

• Art director Cedric Gibbons is credited with the design of the award trophy.

• At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27, 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced. Until then, foreign language films were honored with the Special Achievement Award.

• In 1993, an In Memoriam segment was introduced, honoring those who had made a significant contribution to cinema who had died in the preceding 12 months.

• Three films have been awarded 11 Academy Awards each, making them the film with most awards being won. The three films are Ben-Hur (1929), Titanic (1997) and Lord of the Rings – The return of the King (2003).

• Walt Disney won 26 Oscars (22 competitive, 4 honorary), making him the person who has won the most number of Academy Awards.

• Most awards won by a woman, is Edith Head (who is a costume designer) who won 8 awards.

• John Ford has 4 Oscar Awards, making him the Director who has won the most number of awards. In acting, Katherine Hepburne has also won 4 Oscars, which the most number is won by an actor / actress.

• Three films have received the so-called Big Five Academy Awards (best picture, director, actor, actress, and writing). They are It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

• First woman to win Best Picture is Julia Phillips for The Sting (1973), while the first woman to win the Best Director award is Kathryn Bigelow for Hurt Locker (2009).

• Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950) has the record for most number of nominations (14).