Often called the Oscars after the eponymous gold statue, the Academy Awards are an annual ceremony recognizing artistic and technical merit in the film industry. Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vote for winners across a range of categories, including acting, cinematography, sound design, and more.
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The statue of the golden knight that Academy Award winners receive (aka the Oscar) might be nearly as recognizable as the winners themselves. Oscar was born when art director Cedric Gibbons sketched him out and handed him over to sculptor George Stanley to bring to life.
The organization includes over 10,000 members who work in various aspects of the film industry. Specific branches nominate for relevant categories, but once nominees have been selected, all members can vote for the award winners. For most categories, the nominee with the most votes wins. Best picture, however, uses ranked-choice voting.
We all know about best picture and best actress, but the Academy Awards also honor people in lesser-known Hollywood roles, such as sound mixers and production designers. In 2026, for the first time in more than two decades, a new category will be added: an Oscar for achievement in casting.
Each nominating category has slightly different rules. For best picture, the film must have run for at least a week in one of six specified US cities; for best original screenplay, the nominee must provide a copy of their shooting script.
While every other award is given to whoever gets the most votes, best picture is selected through a ranked-choice voting process. The winner needs to receive more than half of the total votes to come out on top.
In 2015, #OscarSoWhite went viral on social media, highlighting the disproportionately low number of nominees of color compared to their white colleagues. Data also shows divisions when it comes to age, gender, and nationality.
Several different people claim to have bestowed the famous nickname, including a librarian who thought the knight resembled her uncle Oscar and a gossip columnist who was poking fun at a local theater owner.
Variety rounded up 21 different Oscar-winning scandals, starting with Will Smith's physical assault on Chris Rock and moving through best picture upsets and best supporting actress rumors—though nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think Marisa Tomei gave an award-worthy performance in "My Cousin Vinny."
Disney received 59 nominations and a total of 22 competitive awards and four honorary awards. Walter Brennan, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Jack Nicholson all have the most awards for male actors (three each), while Katharine Hepburn is the actress with the most awards, winning four times.
From casting the molten metal into its iconic shape, to the electroplating process that gives Oscar his signature 24-carat golden glow, to assembling the finished product and engraving the winner's name, there's much more to this knight than meets the eye.
Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.