[2020 Academy] From Trophy Origins to Award Collusion Controversies

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[Asia Economy Reporter Jonggil Lee] “The Oscars (Academy Awards) are not an international film festival. The Oscars are very local.” As Director Bong Joon-ho said, the Academy Awards ceremony is an American film festival. It originated under the leadership of Louis B. Mayer, founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). In 1926, when Hollywood studios and labor unions established a framework for reasonable mediation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was founded as an organization to mediate disputes. Members were recruited from five fields: directors, actors, writers, producers, and technicians. This was to resolve labor disputes as well as to promote overall technical advancement in film.

The trophy was designed as a robust man standing on a film reel holding a crusader’s sword. It was inspired by a drawing by art director Cedric Gibbons. It is said that he casually sketched this image on a table cover at AMPAS’s first meeting. Sculptor George Stanley then created the statue, which has become a symbol today.

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The trophy is 34 cm tall and weighs 3.8 kg. It is made of 92.5% tin and 7.5% copper. It is only gold-plated. It is said to cost 4 million dollars to produce. Awardees who wish to sell their trophies must first offer them to the Academy. They cannot receive the trophy without signing a contract specifying this condition. The price set when offering to the Academy is fixed at just one dollar.

Before this condition was established, trophies were auctioned several times. Harold Russell, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1947, auctioned his trophy in New York in August 1992 to pay for his wife’s eye surgery. Concerned about commercialization of the trophy, AMPAS offered a loan of $20,000 and requested that the trophy be entrusted to the Academy, but Russell firmly refused. In 2011, the screenplay trophy that Orson Welles received for “Citizen Kane (1941)” was put on the market. The trophy was sold for $861,542 in an online auction.

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The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It gained explosive popularity, and from the following year, a Los Angeles radio station broadcast the ceremony. The next year, Vice President Charles Curtis attended as a guest and read President Herbert Hoover’s congratulatory message. Television broadcasts began in 1952. In 1966, the ceremony was broadcast in color, delivering a more vivid live experience to the public.

The Academy is also called the Oscars. Around the time of the 1931 ceremony, Margaret Herrick, a librarian newly hired at the Academy library, saw the golden statue and said, “Oh my! It looks like Uncle Oscar!” A newspaper reporter covered this scene as it was, and the name “Oscar” became popular. Herrick was specially hired by the Academy Association following this incident and later served as a director.

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The Academy Association is composed of twelve branch committees including acting, art, cinematography, directing, sound, editing, production, writing, short films, publicity, and the executive committee. To become a member, one must receive recommendations from at least two members of each branch committee, be recognized as qualified, and finally obtain approval from the chairpersons’ meeting. Qualifications include being a veteran in the film industry, having been nominated for an Academy Award at least once, having made special achievements for the development of film, or having contributed to technical advancement through film production.

The films with the most awards in history are William Wyler’s “Ben-Hur (1959),” James Cameron’s “Titanic (1997),” and Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Each won eleven trophies. Herbert Ross’s “The Turning Point (1977)” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple (1985)” were nominated in eleven categories each but did not win any awards.

The youngest Academy Award winner is Tatum O’Neal for “Paper Moon (1973).” She won Best Supporting Actress at age ten. She was noticed by director Peter Bogdanovich while visiting the studio where her father was filming and played an orphan. The first Black actor to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel (Best Supporting Actress) for “Gone with the Wind (1939).” This was followed by Sidney Poitier (Best Actor) for “Lilies of the Field (1963),” Louis Gossett Jr. (Best Supporting Actor) for “An Officer and a Gentleman (1982),” Denzel Washington (Best Supporting Actor) for “Glory (1989),” and Whoopi Goldberg (Best Supporting Actress) for “Ghost (1990).”

George C. Scott, who played General George S. Patton Jr. in Franklin J. Schaffner’s “Patton (1970),” and Marlon Brando, who portrayed Don Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather (1972),” were both selected for Best Actor but refused the award. Scott even refused his nomination for Best Supporting Actor for “The Hustler,” citing that the Academy had become politically corrupted.

Since its early days, the Academy has been suspected of winners being decided through collusion. In fact, Michelle Pfeiffer of “Batman Returns (1992)” was offered an Oscar if she signed with a major agency but declined. Dan Aykroyd of “Ghostbusters (1984)” was promised a nomination and switched agencies, eventually receiving a Best Supporting Actor nomination for “Driving Miss Daisy (1989).”

Director and producer Menahem Golan once confessed a shocking fact at a 1989 Cannes Film Festival press conference. He claimed that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the Academy in 1986 to ensure the win of “The Running Man,” but it was in vain. He revealed, “Among the approximately 5,000 members who currently vote, about 2,500 are connected to lobbying groups.” He also admitted, “During the nomination process, members prioritize works from companies that pay their salaries and exclude independent producers’ works to give more opportunities to their own companies’ productions.”