Awards, are a form of appreciation, and who doesn’t like to be awarded and recognised for their work? Kindergarteners love their stars, given as an award for the tiny tasks that they master or simply put effort, while some companies award the ‘star of the month’ to boost and motivate the employees, some take them out of lunch or dinner, and some thrive on positive comments left by customers. And for a ‘mom’, finishing your food without making a face is a ‘big reward’.
The ‘Academy Award” also known as the Oscar are a number of awards bestowed annually for achievement in the film industry. They are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The cinematic work is assessed by the Academy’s voting members. In the year 1929, the first academy awards were presented and the winners received a gold-plated statuette nicknames ‘Oscar’. The 24 categories under which the winners are chosen from are;
Best Picture
Best Actor
Best Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Direction
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Cinematography
Production Design
Editing
Original Score
Original Song
Costume Design
Makeup and Hair Style
Sound Mixing
Sound Editing
Visual Effects
Foreign language films
Animated feature film
Animated short film
Live-action short
Documentary feature
Documentary short
Special awards are also presented for scientific and technical work, honorary awards and a few others, which may not be presented every year. For a film to be eligible for an award in the given year, a film should be exhibited publicly for at least one week at a commercial theatre in the county of Los Angeles for paid admission (buying of tickets) any time between January 1 to midnight of December 31 in that year. Foreign-language films are exception to this rule, these films are submitted by their country of origin and need not be shown in the theatres in the USA. Similarly, documentaries and short films are to be officially submitted by the producer and have different requirements for eligibility requirements. The music artiste has to file a submission form for music awards. Until the year 2010, the names of winners were not engraved on the statuette to prevent information leak. The winners had to return their Oscar for their names to be engraved. Since 2010, there is an option of having their statuette engraved with nameplates at an inscription-processing station at an after Oscar ceremony party at the Governor’s Ball. Engraved nameplates are made before the ceremony for every possible winner by the R.S. Owens company and later nameplates of the non-winning nominees are recycled.
India bagged two Oscar awards this year.
Best Documentary Short Film
‘The Elephant Whisperers’ by Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
Best Music (Original Song)
‘Naatu Naatu’ from RRR: Music by M. M. Keeravaani;
Lyric by Chandrabose