10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Oscars

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Oscar Trivia
An Oscar statue appears at the 91st Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, File)

Hollywood is a town that hinges itself on Awards Season. Buzzy award shows are commonplace in the entertainment industry, but none are as big as the Academy Awards. As a film school, we always get excited during this time of year to celebrate filmmaking and the creative minds behind every production. Winning an Oscar is considered the ultimate recognition of honor in film and entertainment. As we inch closer to Oscar Sunday, we are sharing 10 things you probably didn’t know about the #Oscars.

Oscars Trivia—How Well Do You Know Oscars?

Since 1929, the Academy Awards ceremony has made its home in various hotels and theatre venues around Los Angeles. The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was the original venue location for the Academy banquet. Instead of the presentation ceremonies you see today, banquet-style affairs were the traditional way the Academy Awards ceremony started. After the switch from banquet to presentation ceremonies, hotel venues were no longer viable. Before finally settling at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in 2002, the Academy Awards graced many theatres around Los Angeles, including the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Pantages Theatre, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of LA. Indulge your trivia brain for a moment and journey with us down Oscar’s memory lane.

1.

The Academy Awards was originally called the Academy Awards of Merit and only consisted of 12 categories. In 1930, the number of categories dropped to seven and the two major film awards were collapsed into one category known as “Best Picture.” Today, there are a total of 23 categories at the Academy Awards.

2.

The Special Effects Oscar category didn’t make its appearance until 1939. Fred Sersen and E.H. Hansen of 20th Century-Fox won the first Special Effects Oscar for The Rains Came. 

3.

It’s believed that the name “Oscar” came from an Academy Librarian who thought the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar. The name officially stuck in 1939 after the Academy adopted the nickname. 

4.

The Oscar statuette was registered as a trademark and copyrighted in 1975, with the words Oscar and Academy Awards following in 1979, according to the L.A. Times.

5.

The Academy Awards has only been postponed five times in its 94-year history. It happened in… 

  • 1938 due to flooding in Los Angeles 
  • 1968 due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • 1981 due to the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan
  • 2021 due to the COVID pandemic 
  • 2022 due to the COVID pandemic

6.

In 2002, The Academy introduced “Best Animated Feature” as an official category. Can you guess which animated film won the first best animated feature Oscar? Scroll down to the bottom of this post to find the answer!

7.

The Oscar statuettes are only worth a mere $1. The Academy has strict regulations around the statuettes and winners must offer to sell back their award to the Academy first before selling it to someone else.

8.

The current home for the Academy Awards is at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The location is only one mile away from The Los Angeles Film School campus!

9.

Unfortunately, the Academy Awards is by invitation only. Lucky for us, there are hired seat fillers to make the audience look more full.

10.

Two alumni from The Los Angeles Film School have been personally nominated for an Oscar—Martin Pensa (Dallas Buyers Club) and Phillip Bladh (Sound of Metal). In 2021, Phillip Bladh won an Oscar for Best Sound on Sound of Metal.

Want to know the answer to question 6?

It’s Shrek.