12 Things You Didn't Know About the Oscar Statue (2024)

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12 Things You Didn't Know About the Oscar Statue? ›

The solid-bronze statues are cast at New York foundry Polich Tallix and buffed to a shiny finish before receiving their 24-karat gold coating from Brooklyn's Epner Technology (making 50 awards takes about three months). Once completed, each statue weighs in at 8 ½ pounds – as much as a newborn baby.

The solid-bronze statues are cast at New York foundry Polich Tallix and buffed to a shiny finish before receiving their 24-karat gold coating from Brooklyn's Epner Technology (making 50 awards takes about three months). Once completed, each statue weighs in at 8 ½ pounds – as much as a newborn baby.

The Academy Awards ceremony has been held since 1929, with the ceremony broadcast via radio for the first time in 1930. In 1953, the event was first televised and has been ever since. As the oldest of the major annual entertainment awards in America, the Academy Awards are a huge production.

In 1950 the Academy introduced a law prohibiting the sale of the Oscars. The real price of the statuettes is actually one dollar. In the event that a person wants to get rid of one of the awards, they cannot sell it and will have to return it to the Academy for that price.

It's based on a design by Cedric Gibbons, who was MGM art director at the time of the award's creation. He sketched a knight holding a sword and standing in front of a film reel, according to the Academy. In 1928, they began the process to turn that idea into a statue.

The statuettes are solid bronze and plated in 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones.

Gibbons designed the statue with Fenandez's help, creating a knight standing on a film reel, holding a crusader's sword, which was meant to represent a crusader of the industry. The statue was then sculpted by Stanley and has remained the same 94 years later.

The five major categories are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (original or adapted), and only three movies in history have swept the Oscars by winning each of the Big Five within the same year.

It may come as a surprise, but the person with the most Oscar awards ever is not a movie star — it's Walt Disney. He received 26 Oscars, of which 22 were competitive awards and four were honorary awards.

How much is an Oscar worth? In short $1. That's because anyone who wins an Oscar must sign an agreement and adhere to a no-resale rule put into place in 1951 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the professional honorary organization that hosts the Oscar Awards.

Is the Oscar statue solid gold? ›

It is composed of 24-karat gold-plated bronze. The sleek award stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs a hefty 8.5 pounds. If cast in 24-karat gold, the award would weigh 22.7 pounds, a mass equivalent to a large watermelon or two-year-old child. Gold is 2.7 times as dense as bronze.

The Academy Award statuette's nickname, “Oscar,” has three possible sources. Actress Bette Davis claimed that the name derived from her observation that the backside of the statuette looked like that of her husband Harmon Oscar Nelson. Columnist Sidney Skolsky maintained that he gave the award its nickname.

At the same time, many people believe that the trophy's design is based on the figure of the Egyptian god Ptah. Artist Karon Davis told The Hollywood Reporter, “I wonder if he was influenced by Egypt because it is very similar to the god Ptah.” Ptah was the ancient Egyptian god of creation and art.

Standing at a height of 13 inches and weighing 8 pounds, the Oscar statue is a striking representation of a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing atop a reel of film with five spokes. These spokes symbolize the five original branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers.

They agreed on an annual award and then began thinking about what sort of trophy the winners could be given. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons designed the trophy, choosing to make it a statuette of a knight standing on a reel of film, whilst gripping a crusader's sword.

Einar's writings, specifically, indicated that Lilleberg nicknamed the golden statuette “Oscar” after a neighborhood figure they both knew in their younger years. He was a veteran of the Norwegian army, Einar recounted, who was “known for the way he always stood straight and tall,” Davis wrote.

According to the official Oscars website, the Oscar statuette weighs 8.5 pounds and is 13.5 inches tall. If you're curious for some comparison, the World Health Organization reported in 2023 that the average weight of a newborn baby is just a little over 7 pounds.

"Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00," the Academy's rule website states.

1- Tatum O'Neal

Actress Tatum O'Neal was only 10 years old when she won a competitive Oscar in 1974. She became the youngest person to win the award. Tatum was recognised as the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in “Paper Moon.” In the film, she starred opposite her real-life father, Ryan O'Neal.