10 Weirdest Facts About the Oscars
The Oscars or the Academy Awards began in 1929 and is an internationally acclaimed award ceremony which awards the best movies of the year in their respective departments of excellence. Undoubtedly, the films awarded the Oscars attain an unquestionable stature for being the best piece of work in the field. These awards have been awarded for 86 years up until this year, and have always been interspersed with celebrities, gossip, rumors and star performances to talk about. The Oscars have also been witness to several odd and weird happenings in its pretty long history. Listed below are the top 10 weirdest facts about the Oscars.
1. Oscar winners do not own the famous Oscar statuettes they are presented with. According to an agreement, all Oscar winners compulsorily sign since 1950, if they ever wish to sell their statuettes, they must first make an offer to the Academy for the price of a pithy $1. If the Academy refuses, then they can no longer keep them. Thus, many times old Oscar trophies have been seen in the open market. In the open market, however, the price of these statuettes goes sky high. Bette Davis’ Oscar sold for $578,000 and that of David Selznik sold for more than $1 million!
2. The famous Oscar statuettes are made of pure 24 karat gold plates and are 13.5 inches long. But these statuettes not always end up being displayed earnestly at the homes of its winners. Jennifer Lawrence who won Best Actress in 2013 gave it to her mother who displays it on her piano. Russell Crowe and Kate Winslet claim to keep their Oscars in their chicken coop and bathroom respectively.
3. The first person ever to win an Oscar was Emil Jannings, a silent film actor who won for the title of Best Actor for his films ‘The Way of All Flesh’ (1927) and ‘The Last Command’ (1928). According to popular legend, the famous German Shepherd dog, Rin Tin Tin was more eligible and got more votes than Emil. However, the career of Emil after he won the Oscar is debatable. He returned to Germany after his win and acted in Nazi propaganda films.
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4. The only person to have never won the Oscars in spite of having been nominated 20 times since 1983 is Kevin O’Connell, a sound re-record engineer. He was first nominated for his work in ‘Terms of Endearment’ and his latest nomination was in 2007, for the movie ‘Transformers.’
5. Surprisingly, in 1941, the then British Ministry of Information won an Oscar for their documentary film ‘Target for Tonight.’ It was for the first time that a documentary film with wartime propagandistic overtures ever won an Oscar!
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