The 85th Academy Awards

The most important annual celebrity event in Show Biz takes place in Los Angeles. It's Oscar Night, that dazzling evening when the prestigious Academy Awards are presented for the best achievements of the year in motion pictures. The 85th Annual Academy Awards was presented yesterday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre, in Hollywood, California, formely known as the Kodak Theatre. The host was Seth MacFarlane.

The first Academy Awards were held on May 16, 1929 at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel.

The Chinese Theatre which is rich in movie tradition, with its cement handprints and footprints in the forecourt, opened in 1927 and hosted the ceremony of the Oscars from 1944 to 1946. 

After moving the ceremony to many different places, a new, permanent home for the Oscars was built, and it returned the Oscars to downtown Hollywood where they started. Since its opening, the Kodak Theatre has been the home of the annual Academy Awards Ceremonies since 2002. Kodak paid a large amount of money for the naming of the theatre but since it went bankrupt in January 2012, the Group who owns the building renamed it ‘Hollywood & Highland Center’ during last year’s Academy Awards.

 

The Oscar was named by Margaret Herrick, the Academy librarian, who remarked in 1931 (upon seeing the statuettes), "Why it looks like my Uncle Oscar!" Her uncle's full name, by the way, was Oscar Pierce.

"Titanic" and "All About Eve" are the two most nominated films in Oscar history with 14 nominations each. 'Titanic' went on to win 11 of those awards.
The three movies that won the most Oscars were:


Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997) and Ben-Hur (1959). All three movies won 11 statuettes.


Second place is held by West Side Story, which won ten Oscars.

The actress with the most Academy Awards for Best Actress is Katharine Hepburn, who won four of the golden statuettes in 1932, 1967, 1968 and 1981.
The title for the most Best Actor awards, though, is shared by seven different actors: Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Fredric March, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks who each won two Oscars.





The actor with the most total Oscar nominations is Jack Nicholson, who was nominated 12 times (winning three times - twice for Best Actor and once for Best Supporting Actor.)

Meryl Streep holds the record for the most total Oscar nominations, with 16 nominations and winning twice.

The 85th Academy Awards

Best Picture

Argo

Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

Actor in a Supporting 

Christoph Walz in Django Unchained

Actress in a Leading Role

Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook

Actress in a Supporting Role

Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables

Best Director

Ang Lee in Life of Pi


Best Original Song
Adele in Skyfall