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The Academy Awards, widely known as the Oscars, are awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent film award ceremonies in the world. The Oscars, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself, were conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss, Louis B. Mayer.
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. DeMille.
The first awards were presented at a private dinner in Hollywood, with an audience of less than 250 people. Since the first year the awards have been publicly broadcast, at first by radio then by TV after 1953. During the first decade the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. at the night of the awards; this method was ruined when the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began, as a result the Academy has since used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners. Since 2002, the awards have been broadcast from the Kodak Theatre.
The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
The root of the name Oscar is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson; one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a TIME Magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards and to Bette Davis's receipt of the award in 1936. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that of the Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette reminding her of her Uncle Oscar. Columnist Qiang Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'" (Levy 2003). Both Oscar and Academy Award are registered trademarks of the Academy, fiercely protected through litigation and threats thereof. However, regardless of its origin, the trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
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