The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is presenting
its 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony from the Kodak Theatre in
Hollywood.
The world's top film honours are given out annually by the Beverly
Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Here are some facts about the Oscars:
Early days:
- When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929,
movies had just begun to talk. The first ceremony took place in the
Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
- The best actress and actor awards went to Janet Gaynor for
Seventh Heaven and Emil Jannings for The Last Command.
- The Warner Bros. film The Jazz Singer was honoured with a special
award as the "pioneering outstanding talking picture, which has
revolutionized the industry."
The Academy had ruled that it was ineligible for competition for
best picture because it was thought it would be unfair to let sound
films compete with silents.
1939 and Gone with the Wind:
- 1939 was one of the most celebrated years in American film
history, encompassing such classics as The Wizard of Oz,
Stagecoach, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Wuthering
Heights and Goodbye, Mr Chips.
- Gone with the Wind, director Victor Fleming's almost four-hour
blockbuster film was the longest feature released up to that time,
and it was the major Oscar winner of the year. It was also the
first colour film to win for best picture.
- The film earned 13 nominations and won eight competitive awards
(and two special citations) - both records for the time. It would
hold that record until Gigi (1957) won nine Oscars.
- Both lead acting awards were presented to British performers -
for the first time in Academy history. Newcomer Vivien Leigh won
for her portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, and
Robert Donat won for his title role in Goodbye, Mr Chips.
Most awards:
- The 1959 epic Ben Hur set an Academy Award record by winning 11
Oscars, a benchmark matched nearly four decades later by the 1997
blockbuster Titanic, which reaped 11 awards from 12 nominations.
2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King also won 11
Oscars from 11 nominations.
- US actress Meryl Streep holds the record for most acting
nominations, 15 including for 2008's Doubt, and she has won twice.
Katharine Hepburn earned 12 nominations but won four times. Ingrid
Bergman is next with three Oscars. Jack Nicholson is the most
nominated male star with 12 nominations and three wins. Walter
Brennan also won three, but from only four nominations.
2008:
- Last year's lead-acting Oscars were won by Daniel Day-Lewis in
There Will Be Blood and Marion Cotillard who played French
songstress Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
won best director for No Country For Old Men, which also won the
best picture award.
