Film Awards Ceremony «Oscar» (27/03)

The main US national film award «Oscar» (Oscar) is the oldest award in the world in the field of media and one of the most significant awards in world cinema. It is awarded annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts (Film Academy) at a ceremony that traditionally takes place in February – March at the «Dolby» Theater. Dolby Theatre, it was formerly known as Kodak, in Los Angeles (USA).

The peculiarity of this award is that, unlike most film festivals, «Oscars» are awarded based on the results of universal voting by members of the Film Academy, and not at the choice of the jury. Candidates for the awards are nominated by film industry colleagues, but the award winners are determined by secret ballot of Academy members, of whom there were more than 9,000 as of 2020, divided into 17 guilds.

Each guild (the largest of them is acting) votes according to its own category (actors choose the best actress and actor, screenwriters – of the best screenwriter, etc.). But for some nominations, special voting groups are created outside the Film Academy, and together they vote only in one category – « best picture». The names of the winners are kept secret until the «Oscar» ceremony.

The award dates back to 1929, although it has officially borne its name «Oscar» since 1939, and was originally called the Academy Awards, and was conceived by the head of the American film studio MGM, Louis B. Mayer. He, two years earlier, became one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), along with other film industrialists and heads of Hollywood film studios.

The first Film Awards ceremony for this Academy took place on May 16, 1929 in Los Angeles at the «Roosevelt» Hotel. Since then, the rules for presentation, voting and even the list of nominations have constantly changed. Today, the award ceremony is broadcast live in dozens of countries around the world, and until 1953 it was broadcast on radio.

Perhaps the only thing that has remained unchanged since the early days of the «Oscar» – gilded statuette, which is the main prize for the winners. It has been produced since 1929 and is a knight with a sword on a reel with film. The five holes on the base of the – reel are the five departments of the Film Academy: producers, screenwriters, directors, actors and technicians. The height of the figurine is – 34 cm, weight – 3.85 kg, it is made of gold-plated Britannia alloy, it is located on a pedestal made of black marble. Only during World War II were plaster statuettes used instead of metal ones, since any piece of metal was needed at the front. The idea for the figurine belongs to MGM executive director Cedric Gibbons, its embodiment – by sculptor George Stanley. But the author of the very name – «Oscar» – is not known for certain.

Initially, the award was awarded in 12 categories, currently «Oscar» is awarded in 23 main categories: Best Film of the Year, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adaptation Screenplay, Best Music, Best Song, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Feature and Documentary Short Films, Best Animated Feature and Short Films, Best Documentary Feature. Only 7 nominations have remained unchanged since 1929, and documentaries have only been nominated for «Oscar» since 2001. In addition to the main ones, «Oscars» are also awarded in several special categories.

Soviet and Russian films have been nominated for «Oscar» many times, six films have received this award – documentary film by L. Varlamova and I. Kopalina «Destruction of Nazi troops near Moscow» (1942), epic film by S. Bondarchuk «War and Peace» (1968), painting by A. Kurosawa «Dersu Uzala» (co-production of the USSR and Japan, 1975), film by V. Menshova «Moscow does not believe in tears» (1980), drama by N. Mikhalkova «Burnt by the Sun» (1994) and animated film by A. Petrova «Old Man and the Sea» (2000).

Unfortunately, in recent years, Russian films nominated by the country for «Oscar» have been defeated even before the nomination competition stage. According to leading filmmakers, the problem is not the lack of worthy Russian films, but the difference in criteria when selecting films for nominees and some factors influencing the award that have nothing to do with art, for example, political ones.

In general, in recent years, politics and the choice of awards have increasingly been criticized all over the world. In particular, it is noted that the opinion of voting members of the Film Academy is not always impartial. As the voting season begins, they are subject to pressure from film companies in the form of an active advertising campaign for the candidates' films. Experts also note a decreasing level of requirements for nominees, as well as the fact that the policies and financial performance of the film’s distribution influence the votes of members of the Film Academy. Therefore, paintings that should be noted for their artistic merits turn out to be undeservedly «-pushed».

But, despite the criticism, «Oscar» is still one of the main international film awards, and the «Oscar» ceremony itself attracts millions of viewers around the world to TV screens.

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