History

It's hard to believe given the hype and hysteria today that once upon a time the Oscars® were a modest affair. Instituted on 16 May 1929, only a few years after sound actually came to cinema, the first Academy Awards® ceremony took place away from the media glare during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Organised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which had been established in 1927, the awards set out to recognise outstanding movie-making achievements and thereby encourage excellence in the industry.

270 people attended the event - guest tickets were $5 a pop. Fifteen awards were given at the first ceremony for cinematic achievements in 1927 and 1928. German Emil Jannings collected the gong for the Best Actor, which made his statuette the first ever to be presented.

While it was an elaborate affair, little was made of the actual handing out of trophies. This lent itself in part to the lack of suspense - the winners had already been announced three months earlier.

This all changed the following year, when a Los Angeles radio station produced a live one-hour broadcast of the event and the results were kept secret until the night. And from here the Oscars® evolved into what they are today. By 1941, the infamous sealed-envelope system had been introduced and by 1953, the ceremony was televised and broadcast to millions across America; the following decade, in 1969, the Oscars® were broadcast internationally, and now have a reach of over 200 countries.

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