This same week the Hollywood Academy made public the names of the nominees for the Oscar, surely the most prestigious awards in the world of cinema. One more year we will be able to enjoy the great awards ceremony on February 28, in which we will be able to see the most important actors on the big screen.
The reborn y M with twelve and ten nominations respectively, they are presented as two of the favorite films to become the big winners. While you wait for the day of delivery of the statuettes to arrive, we wanted to collect in this article 10 curiosities about these awards that you may not know.
If you are a cinephile from head to toe, most of these curiosities you will already know, but if like us you are a simple movie fan, most of them will surprise you greatly. Ready to know some curiosities about the Oscars?
The first televised ceremony took place in 1953
Today the Oscars ceremony that is held every year is a fixture in the programming of most television networks in the world. However, this has not happened for a long time and is that the first televised ceremony took place on March 19, 1953. The one in charge of retransmitting the ceremony for the first time was the American network NBC.
The great protagonist of that gala was the film The greatest show in the world, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, which took home the best picture award.
Each Oscar is worth 1 dollar (87 euro cents)
Everyone usually has the belief that an Oscar can have an incalculable monetary value, but this is very different from reality and that is each statuette has a price of 1 dollar or what is the same 87 cents of euro. The reason for all this is that since 1950, the award winners have to sign a contract with the Academy by which it prohibits them from selling the award without first offering it to the Hollywood Academy for the price of $ 1.
This contract is signed by all winners after 1950, so all statuettes before that date can be sold without any problem and for the amount that their owner wants. For example In 1999, Michael Jackson paid $ 1,5 million to buy the Oscar for best picture that won Gone With the Wind in 1940.
Walt Disney, the man Oscar
Walt Disney is the person with the highest number of Oscars in history. In his brilliant record, he accumulates a total of 22 statuettes and no more and no less than 59 nominations, a record figure that hardly anyone will be able to match for many years to come.
For these achievements, Disney also received four honorary awards, highly deserved if we take into account the contribution it made to the world of cinema.
What is the film with the highest number of awards?
If Walt Disney is the person with the highest number of awards, the films with the highest number of Oscars have been Ben Hur, Titanic y The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with a total of 11 statuettes each.
Behind this trio of mythical films are gone With the Wind y West Side Story with 10 awards each
This record could be broken this year and as we have already said The reborn It has twelve nominations, although the truth seems really difficult to get a full prize.
Italy, king of kings
If we leave out the United States and the American actors, who of course are the ones that have won the most statuettes throughout history, Italy is the country that has won the most times in the foreign language film category, with a total of 13 awards. They are followed by France, Spain and Japan somewhat further behind and with fewer statuettes in their palm groves. Perhaps this year is a good opportunity for one of these countries to close the gap.
Jack Nicholson the most awarded actor
The title of this curiosity is not totally true and it is that Jack Nicholson He is one of the 3 actors who has achieved the most awards, with a total of 3, but he shares this privilege with Daniel Day Lewis and Walter Brennan who also have 3 statuettes in a privileged place in his home.
The first Oscar to win an Oscar happened in 1942
It is only an interesting curiosity but to find the first Oscar that received an Oscar we have to go until 1942. In that year Oscar Hammerstein II became the first person named Oscar to be awarded this accolade. As if that were not enough, four years later he repeated the award.
Since that date, many have been the people called Oscars who have been awarded an Oscar, in different categories.
Katharine Hepburn, the most loved actress
Despite the fact that Meryl Streep has been nominated a total of 18 times, she does not hold the record for being the most awarded actress, which falls on Katharine hepburn, which has won a total of 4 awards throughout history.
Only 4 women have been nominated in the category of best direction
Along the history only 4 women have been nominated in the category of best direction. Only one of them, Kathyn Bigelow known for Zone of Fear or Living on the Edge, has managed to win the award.
Only two actors have won an Oscar posthumously
Throughout the history of the Oscars, which are many, only two interpreters have obtained the award posthumously, It is about Peter Finch and Heath Ledger. The first of them died at age 60 of a heart attack and the second died of an overdose at age 28. Both left this world, unfortunately, without knowing that they had achieved the highest recognition that an actor can receive.