Academy Award Statue

The beginnings of a legacy in the world of motion picture entertainment, the Academy Awards statue was first presented in the year 1929. Initially, awarded in a small ceremony, in a private banquet lasting for about 15 minutes, the Academy Awards have become the most anticipated functions in the world. Originally, christened as 'The Academy Award of Merit', the famous golden statue was designed by Cedric Gibbons, the chief art director motion picture company, MGM. It has brandished as a symbol of excellence in the field of motion picture production, over the last 75 years. The statue was named as the Oscar, in the year 1934, after Academy Award committee secretary, Margret Herrick mentioned the possibly identical appearance of the knight to her late uncle named Oscar. The statue portrays a knight holding a crusader's sword. The knight is standing upon a movie film reel with five distinct spokes; each representing the basic divisions of movie production: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. It is made of Britannium with electronically plated gold. It measures 13 1/2 inches in height and weighs 8 1/2 pounds. It is built in a factory in Chicago by the R.S. Owens Company. Approximately, 50 statues or more are built every year at R.S. Owens for the awards. The company has a standing policy of cutting a statuette in half and melting it down if it hasn't met the strict quality standards. The golden statuette is hand crafted by 12 people. The average time taken to manufacture each statue is 20 hours. Since, the beginning of the award ceremony the total eligible categories of movie production have grown from 13, in 1927 to 24 categories in the year 2002. The total number of Academy Award statues handed out till date stands at 2,524.