The Importance of the Academy Awards

There's a certain connotation that comes when a movie, actor, or director gets the title of "Academy Award Winner" or "Academy Award Nominee". The preface follows them throughout their whole lives, because it remains one of the highest honors Hollywood can bestow on a person or film. But recently, the new generation of moviegoers has had little to no appreciation for the one of the world's oldest awards ceremonies. The Oscars are monumental to a film's success and legacy, still recognized for awarding critical favorites over a given year. The Academy Awards are, simply put, one of the most important celebrations of filmmaking in the whole world.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, a professional film organization dedicated to the honoring and preservation of motion picture history, had their first awards show in 1929, honoring the best of filmmaking over the 1927-1928 film period. The winner of Best Picture that year was Wings. Though it was a simple dinner, members of the Academy appreciated the awards celebration, so the Academy held another awards ceremony the following year. The "Academy Awards" soon became an annual tradition. The first telecast ceremony was in 1953 (the year The Greatest Show on Earth won Best Picture), averaging almost 40 million viewers. Though the categories have changed, and the length of the show has increased, the Oscar ceremony is still around today, broadcast annually on ABC towards the end of February.

The actual award, known as an "Oscar", is a gold statuette is 34 centimeters tall, 8.5 pounds, and stands upright with his arms folded into his stomach (described like a knight holding his sword). Although the style was briefly changed to plaster during World War II, the award has since returned to a pure gold design. The name "Oscar" is disputed in its origins, though Walt Disney is known to have thanked the Academy for an Oscar in 1932. The name "Oscar" was officially recognized by the Academy in 1939.

Whether it be for the fashion, the hype, the tradition, or the awards themselves, everyone has a reason for watching the Academy Awards. The "red carpet" telecast engages viewers and stars in the glamour of the show, with many fashion experts and commentators talking to nominees before their entrance into the Kodak Theater (where the Oscars are held). The fascination with the red carpet comes with a passion for an almost 1920's-like Hollywood: back when the stars were glamorous and the people of the movies were treated like royalty. Now, the time to celebrate these stars comes once a year, during the Academy Awards.

Newspaper outlets initially knew the winners of the Oscars before the telecast, to prepare for a story the following day. But after the Los Angeles Times leaked the winners before the ceremony in 1941, the Academy began using sealed envelopes that weren't opened until the actual Academy Awards. So now, the mystery surrounding the Oscars is one of Hollywood's best kept secrets. Even though dozens of prediction sites and Oscar aficionados (this site included) end up predicting the majority of winners, there oftentimes remains surprise winners. Basically, the Oscars are anyone's game until the actual ceremony happens.

The tradition of watching the Academy Awards dates back generations. Think about it: most people were born into a world where the Oscars were already a huge deal. It's a brand-name show that virtually everyone recognizes. The memories of watching an Oscar ceremony are profound and memorable, from the best shows to the worst. And every so often, when the fates collide and the masses and Academy agree on a favorite movie, the viewership increases to a grand celebration. Remember when Titanic swept eleven Oscars, including Best Picture, in 1998? Remember Celine Dion's magnificent performance of "My Heart Will Go On"? The Academy thrives on those special memories, and as such, the Oscars remain an important part of film culture.

But above all else, above all the history and tradition of the Academy Awards, lies the fundamental purpose of the Oscar ceremony: honoring the best of filmmaking over a given year. Even though dozens of awards shows occur before the Oscars, none are as prestigious or recognized. Take 1995 for example. That year, Apollo 13 won the Directors Guild Award, the Screen Actor's Guild Award, and several critics prizes. It was supposed to win it all at the Academy Awards. But that year, the Oscar for Best Picture went to Mel Gibson's Braveheart. Now, virtually everyone recognizes Braveheart as the best film of 1995. No matter how many other awards it receives, how high the ratings are, or how high the box office of a certain film is, the movie selected as Best Picture is almost always recognized as the best film of a year.

Think about it this way: out of the hundreds of films that are released each year, only five to ten are chosen as nominees for Best Picture, and only one takes the prize. That is a staggering and awe-inspiring idea to think about:

Only one film out of the hundreds released annually is chosen as Best Picture.

Another way to think about it is this: only 84 films in the history of cinema have ever received the award for Best Picture. The American Film Institute recognizes more films than that. Winning any Oscar puts you in a lexicon of individuals that ranks below 100. Winning an Oscar is one of the hardest awards to win, and one of the most prestigious.

The importance of the Academy Awards is it's honor, it's tradition, and it's pride. But above all else, the Academy Award is a symbol for great moviemaking. It makes even the most disinterested person fascinated with cinema. The Oscar encourages people to love and appreciate the movies unlike any other celebration; so we, as movie fans, should embrace that passion and support the Academy Awards each and every year. Get excited about the nominees, and celebrate the winners. Talk about the awards weeks before, and try your best to see all the movies up for Best Picture. But more importantly, fall in love with cinema all over again.

For that is the true importance of the Academy Awards: to celebrate the grand art that is the movies.