movies - academy awards

hollywood's gold standard

Oscar Oscar 2006

The 78th annual Academy Awards took place on March 5th, 2006.

this year's winners

introduction | official sites | traditional sources | online coverage | special mentions | prediction sites | canada and the oscars | other oscar sites | online reviewers | behind the scenes | slightly off the red carpet | elsewhere on the web | related pages

Note: some content may change and some links may become invalid between Oscar seasons.

Academy Award(s)®, Oscars® and the Oscar® statuette are the registered trademarks, service marks and copyrighted property of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This site is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with A.M.P.A.S.


Introduction

Louis B. MayerIn May of 1927, movie mogul Louis B. Mayer (then head of MGM) dreamed up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a way of lending respectability and status to the movie industry.


For several years, the award devised by the AMPAS was simply known as "The Statuette." Its official name is the "Academy Award of Merit."


First designed on a tablecloth by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, the 13.5 inch (34 cm) tall, 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) figure depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film. The design was executed by sculptor George Stanley and was first manufactured by the Dodge Trophy Co. of Crystal Lake, Illinois. It is now manufactured by R.S. Owens.


The name "Oscar" has several fanciful origins. One story has it that Academy librarian, Margaret Herrick, said: "Why, he looks just like my Uncle Oscar!" Equally likely is the claim that in 1935 Bette Davis named it after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., because its flat bottom reminded her of him. The first written evidence of the name appeared in a Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky article published in 1934. Whatever the origin, Oscar became the statuette's official name when AMPAS began referring to it as such in 1939.


The Oscar-winning scriptwriter Frances Marion once described the figurine as "a perfect symbol of the picture business; a powerful athletic body clutching a gleaming sword, with half of his head, that part which held the brains, completely sliced off." Another cynical source suggests Oscar stands for "Over-Siliconed Carping Actors' Reward."


Despite trying to avoid controversy, the Academy's industry-pleasing efforts have often created controversy through its choices and non-choices. That aside, the annual spectacle is faithfully watched by over a billion people in over one hundred countries every early spring.


The sites listed below offer a guide to the myth and magic of the Academy Awards, Hollywood's ultimate gold standard.



78th annual Academy Award Winners


78th annual Academy Award Nominees


Official Sites


Official Broadcasters


The Papers

Coverage from veteran print journals. Free registration may be required at some sites.


The Reference Sites


Online Coverage


Internet Movie Database

Movie City News

BBC News

CNN

E! Online

Entertainment Weekly

Guardian Unlimited

Premiere Magazine

Yahoo!

Apple Movie Trailer Theatre

Other


Special Mentions


Prediction Sites


Canada and the Oscars

Canada has an impressive track record at the Academy Awards, going back to the inauguration of the awards in the late 1920s and continuing into the new millennium.


Other Oscar Sites


Roger Ebert


James Berardinelli

The noted online reviewer offers his opinions about the Oscar exercise and as well as how many Oscar nominated actresses have done nude scenes during their careers.

An archive of his past Oscar observances can be found here.


Behind The Scenes


Yahoo! provides the answers:


Slightly Off The Red Carpet


Elsewhere On The Web


Inactive and archived


Related Pages



James Berardinelli Archives

The noted on-line reviewer offers his opinions about the Oscar exercise.



Chrystfferssen Maakorey's Note of Protest

The operator of the Fennec Awards Database site took great exception to Crash winning Best Picture at the 2006 Academy Awards. He responded by announcing he is shutting his site down. From his site:

I cannot bring myself to update this website saying that the film the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences selected was the best of the year. Therefore, the Fennec Awards Database is closing down. Effective immediately there will be no more updates to the film side (the Tonys section will have an update later this year).

Read Maakorey's full statement on his site here.