First presented on May 16, 1929 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood when 15 awards were given before an audience of 26 people, the Oscars are the oldest media-related award ceremony in the world. The first televised Oscar ceremony took place in 1953, enabling millions throughout the United States and Canada to view it. In 1966, broadcasting in color began. Since 1969, the Academy Awards have been broadcast internationally in over 200 countries.
The Oscars are selected by the Academy's roughly 6,000 members. They use secret ballots, which are tabulated by the international auditing firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The results of nomination balloting are announced at a 5:30 a.m. press conference the third week of January at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Final ballots are mailed to voting members in late January and are due back to PricewaterhouseCoopers the Tuesday prior to the date of the awards for final tabulation. AMPAS requires the auditors to maintain absolute secrecy until the moment the show's presenters open the envelopes and reveal the winners on live television.
Awards are presented in up to 25 categories for achievements made the previous year. This includes 24 main categories that honor exceptional individual or collective achievement, as well as one special or honorary award, which varies from year to year.
The 24 main Academy Awards categories are:
1. Best Actor in a Leading Role
2. Best Actor in a Supporting Role
3. Best Actress in a Leading Role
4. Best Actress in a Supporting Role
5. Best Animated Feature
6. Best Animated Short Film
7. Best Art Direction
8. Best Cinematography
9. Best Costume Design
10. Best Director
11. Best Documentary Feature
12. Best Documentary Short Subject
13. Best Film Editing
14. Best Foreign Language Film
15. Best Live Action Short Film
16. Best Makeup
17. Best Original Score
18. Best Original Song
19. Best Picture
20. Best Sound Editing
21. Best Sound Mixing
22. Best Visual Effects
23. Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay
24. Best Writing - Original Screenplay
The Oscar statuette is made of gold-plated Britannia and is affixed onto a black metal base. It depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers and Technicians. The Oscar is 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 lbs.
Numerous stories have circulated over the years with claims of how the Academy Awards came to be known as the Oscars. According to "This Is Hollywood," Margaret Herrick, who was a librarian at the Academy Awards in the 1920s, once quipped that the award trophy "looked just like my Uncle Oscar." However, others, including Academy President Bette Davis, have claimed to have come up with the "Oscar" name themselves. The trophy was officially named the "Oscar" in 1939 by the AMPAS.