OSCAR STATUETTE FACTS Design: A stylized figure of a knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes signifying the five original branches of the Academy (actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers).
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.
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.
Del Rio was married to MGM chief art director Cedric Gibbons who was purportedly looking for a model for the statue. Del Rio suggested Fernandez stand in as the well-proportioned figure, and he posed as a knight standing on a film reel, holding a crusader's sword.
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.
While each trophy reportedly costs over $400 to produce, official regulation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences states that the winners or anyone else cannot sell it in the market. It mandates that any resale requires for it to be first offered back to the Academy for $1.
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.
Who is the only person to present himself with an Oscar?
Irving Berlin actually presented himself with the original-song Oscar at the 15th Oscars ceremony on March 4, 1943, at the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel.
Anyone who wins an Oscar has to sign an agreement that includes a 1951 no-resale rule introduced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2015, a court ruling changed a rule that meant anyone selling an Oscars statue should offer it to the Academy for $10 first, and lowered it to one measly dollar.
Award winners must comply with these rules and regulations. 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.
(NEXSTAR) – The Academy Award is generally regarded as one of the highest honors that an actor can receive — the keyword being “generally.” In the history of the Oscars, however, there have only been three people who refused their awards: actors George C. Scott and Marlon Brando, and screenwriter Dudley Nichols.
In July 2015, a California judge banned Oscar winners or their heirs from putting their statuettes up for sale, stating that they “were never intended to be treated as an article of trade”. So while each statuette costs approximately $400 to produce, their face value is just a dollar.
The famous Oscars statuette is clearly the most visible prize for winners, but are there any hidden benefits other than prestige? The AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)'s official guidelines reveals there are. Winners and nominees alike receive a prize worth around $100,000, but doesn't come in cash.
Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, a very well-known Mexican actor and filmmaker who used the nickname “the Indian” to embrace his Kickapoo roots, claimed to be the model for the trophy during his stay in Hollywood in the 1920s. So, could it be that the Oscar is actually “El Oscar”?
What has never been acknowledged by the Academy — or seemingly even noticed by anyone other than a few Egypt-focused bloggers — is that Gibbons' statuette, from which the current model has deviated very little, looks eerily like ancient statuettes of Ptah, the Egyptian god of — wait for it — arts, crafts and trade.
Einar's writings, specifically, indicated that Lilleberg nicknamed the golden statuette “Oscar” after a neighborhood figure they both knew in 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.
Actor Harold Russell sold the Oscar he won for his role in 'For the Best Years of Our Lives' in 1944 in exchange for 60,500 dollars in order to pay for his wife's illness.
The earliest Oscars trophy sale can be traced back to 1993 when Hollywood star Vivien Leigh's family put her Oscar for Best Actress from Gone with the Wind up for auction. The trophy fetched a jaw-dropping price of USD 563,000.
It has to be noted that the actresses do not pay for their dresses, as famous designers such as Dior, Versace or Armani are willing to pay for them themselves.
Adorned in white and joined by a crew of contemporary dancers, Byrne and Hsu duetted the film's ballad with an initial touch of grace, only for Byrne's elongated fingers — a nod to EEAAO's iconic hot dog hands — to steal the show. The performance juxtaposed beauty and absurdity, much like the film itself.
Several of the stars in attendance at the 2024 Oscars ceremony were seen wearing pins in support of a ceasefire in Gaza. Outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, where annual awards ceremony is being staged, hundreds of protesters gathered to protest the ongoing violence in Palestine.
The Academy has handed out more than 3,000 of its prized statuettes since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929, and while many of those recipients are some of the world's most famous actors and actresses, little is known about Oscar himself.
It depicted, like it does today, a knight holding a crusader's sword while standing on a film reel. The five spokes on the film reel represent the five original branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. The statuette was made of gold-plated bronze.
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.
