What Is The Oscas A Symbol Of American Culture
The Oscars
Contents: 1.Introduction…………………………………………….....2
2.The History of The Oscars…………………………….....3
3.The Nominations…………………………………..……...6
4.Winning the Oscar………………………………………....7
5.The Negative effects of the Oscars……………………….9
6.The Oscars - a symbol of American Culture ……………10
7.Conclusion ………………………………………………..11
8.Bibliography………………………………………………12
Introduction
Every actor’s dream is to hear his name out loud and rush to the stage to finally get the thing he desired for all his life: the Oscar. As, hopefully, a future actress I never get enough of thinking about that moment. Therefore, I have decided to write …show more content…
about this major event that takes place every year in The United States, in order to share with the others everything that Oscar means for me and the entire world. If Hollywood is really the movie capital of the world, then Oscar night is the world 's greatest wrap party. Each winter, the glitterati of the film world gather in Los Angeles to celebrate the great films and great performances of the past year. Of course, most people are familiar with the evening 's glamorous fashions and long-winded acceptance speeches, but there is a long history to the Academy Awards that raises many questions. Why is the statuette called Oscar? Why do accountants have to protect the envelopes? Who was that naked man next to David Niven? What is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? These answers and many more are all here.
The History of The Oscars
How It Began In early 1927, during dinner at the home of M-G-M 's studio chief Louis B. Mayer, Mayer and three of his guests – actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson – began talking about creating an organized group to benefit the entire film industry. They planned another dinner for the following week, with invitees from all the creative branches of the film industry. And so, on January 11, 1927, 36 people met for dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to hear a proposal to found the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“International” dropped from the name soon after). Attendees included many of the biggest names in the industry at the time: Mayer, Mary Pickford, Sid Grauman, Jesse Lasky, George Cohen, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Cedric Gibbons and Irving Thalberg. The group supported the concept and things came together quickly. By mid-March of that year, articles of incorporation were presented and the first officers were elected, with Douglas Fairbanks as president. On May 11, 1927, a week after the state granted the Academy a charter as a non-profit organization, an official organizational banquet was held at the Biltmore Hotel. Of the 300 guests, 230 joined the Academy, paying $100 each. That night, the Academy also awarded its first honorary membership, to Thomas Edison.
The Academy At first, Academy consisted of five sections, each representing a distinct professional group: producers, screen-writers, directors and actors. However, the increasingly strict specialization in the film industry has resulted in a more complex structure, which currently consists of fourteen professional groups. These include the four initial sections (producers, writers, directors, actors), additional administrative units (executives, public relations) and subdivisions within technical units (art directors, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Artistic Director). Membership has always been granted by invitation only. From the very beginning, the idea was to create an association consisted of the elite of Hollywood. Artists are invited to become members “when the services they have brought to the film industry were sufficiently significant to make the Academy members feel that they would like to have them as colleagues”. The first part of the Academy’s Constitution formalized the necessary qualifications: “Any person whose activity is outstanding, or has acquired a prominent place, or has made valuable contributions in the areas of film production output, directly or indirectly, and has a good moral and personal standing, can achieve active membership of the Academy, after the Board’s vote or after a recommendation made by the committee members.” The conditions for acquiring membership vary from one section to another. The easiest and fastest way to join is to get a nomination - all Oscar nominees are invited to become members. The Academy has rarely used the right to refuse the invitation of a nominated artist. Other than that, each section has its own criteria. In most sections, it is necessary to have several films up to that point, several years of experience and sponsorship provided by two full members of the Academy.
Oscar statuette Although there are eight other types of annual awards presented by the Academy ,plus two awards that are not presented annually ,the best known one is the Academy Award of Merit more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader 's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. In 1928, MGM 's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director and actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Reluctant at first, Fernández was finally convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the "Oscar". Then, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbons 's design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The origin of the name Oscar is disputed. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson; one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that the Academy 's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette 's reminding her of her "Uncle Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce). Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick 's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar '". The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It may also have been named after the famous Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. In 1882, when disembarking in New York to begin his "Grand Tour" of America, Wilde was asked by a customs officer whether he had anything to declare and reputedly replied "I have nothing to declare but my genius”.
The Nomination
Being nominated for an Oscar means to be appreciated ,and to be appreciated in the early career is, most times, a decisive factor for the future of an artist. A first Oscar nomination serves often as a sign of a successful career in the future, because it places the nominated artist at a different level of prestige and popularity in the film industry. Actresses get their first nomination far earlier than actors: almost half of all the actresses get their first nomination before the age of 30 years, while for the actors, the corresponding percentage is 10%. Actors and actresses in supporting roles receive the first nomination when they are very young or very old. For example, about 10% of the actors and actresses in supporting roles, compared to only 3% of those in the lead role, had over 60 years at the first nomination. One simple Oscar nomination can have a powerful and lasting effect on the careers of artists, increasing the number of appearances on the small screen and the big screen and therefore, their popularity. Once artists are nominated, their careers are tracked more closely by producers, directors and colleagues. Nominations improve the status and popularity of artists. Many artists were recognized before being nominated, but then ,suddenly became celebrities, especially when they were playing in films that were commercial.
Winning the Oscar
Winning an Oscar is considered to be the greatest achievement in the world of film, a symbol of professional success. Filmmakers are trying to win an Oscar in the first phase of their activity because they know very well that this distinction will have a huge influence on their future career. Theoretically, it is possible to win an Oscar at any age and, indeed, there were winners in all ages, young and old. Practically though, the best chance to win the Oscar occurs at an age between 30 and 49 years, two thirds of all winners belonging to this period. The immediate receipt of recognition from the Academy is often due to luck or circumstances on which actors have no control. "The hand of destiny" is a phrase often used in the world of showbiz, it describes with great precision how their careers are created and sustained - starting with the first chance that you are offered, debut appearance, continuing with receiving a role in a film that gets to be noticed, until the first nomination, or possibly winning the award. Good luck, or as actors say "the quality of being the right person at the right time and right place" is a more important factor for the onset of a movie star career than acting talents or skills of interpretation. For most actors, winning an Oscar is a unique event in life. However, if we consider the intensity of competition, the percentage of performers who have won multiple awards is impressive: about 20% of all winners. As it is natural, performers of leading roles are more likely to win a second award than those performing in supporting roles. Therefore, actresses nominated at “Best Actress” category, have the best prospects to repeat the performance, respectively 30%, versus 13% of the performers nominated for Best Actor.
They never got an Oscar? Among directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Preston Sturges, Orson Welles, Ernst Lubitsch, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Sidney Lumet (four nomination and no wins), Arthur Penn, George Lucas, Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, Robert Altman. Among actors: Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, Montgomery Clift, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Deborah Kerr, Margaret Sullavan, Richard Burton (seven nominations, zero wins), Peter O 'Toole (eight nominations, zero wins), Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck. Among movies for best picture: "Avatar," "Citizen Kane," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Double Indemnity," "It 's a Wonderful Life," "The Red Shoes," "A Place in the Sun," "Bonnie and Clyde," "Chinatown," "Jaws," "Taxi Driver," "E.T.," "The Right Stuff." And not even nominated: "Rear Window," "My Man Godfrey," "Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl Friday," "Vertigo," "The Shop Around the Corner," "Touch of Evil," "The Shining," "Laura," "The Lady Eve," "The Night of the Hunter," "Kiss Me Deadly," "East of Eden," "The Miracle Worker," "Blue Velvet," "Magnolia."
So who won the most? Among actors: Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations, 4 wins); Bette Davis (10 nominations, 2 wins); Jack Nicholson (12 nominations, 3 wins); Spencer Tracy (9 nominations, 2 wins); Meryl Streep (17 nominations, 3 wins). Among directors: William Wyler (12 nominations, 3 wins); John Ford (5 nominations, 4 wins); Billy Wilder (8 nominations, 2 wins); David Lean (7 nominations, 2 wins); Fred Zinnemann (7 nominations, 2 wins). The all-time champs are: Billy Wilder, for writing (12 nominations, 3 wins); Alfred Newman, for music (43 nominations, 9 wins); Sammy Cahn, for best song (26 nominations, 4 wins); Edith Head, for costumes (35 nominations, 8 wins); and Walt Disney (with 22 Oscars in a variety of categories.
The Negative Effects of the Oscars
The Oscar can also have negative effects on some of its winners and the film industry in general. Some winners may become victims of their own success when they accept their agents pressures, to appear in a lot of movies, in order to take advantage of the newly acquired popularity. It would be easy, but wrong to blame Oscar for any unfavorable turn that the career of a winner of this award can take. For each case of “Oscar victim”, there is an opposite example, an artist whose career was saved and revitalized by receiving this award. Hesitant careers are rarely a direct consequence of the Oscar - to recall here that some Oscar winners are not artists of great value. The decreasing quality performances of the Oscar winners could be the consequence, on one hand, of the haste with how producers are leading actors to take part in projects of questionable quality and , on the other hand, of the wrong choices actors make. Automatic distribution of actors in roles similar to those which have brought them the Oscar is another negative effect of the distinction offered by the Academy. The actors are frustrated that they receive dozens of offers similar or identical to the winning role, which prevents them from getting rid of the template label that they are identified with. The fierce competition, the attraction exerted by the Academy Award and the profound effects it has on the career of the winners ,also explain the stronger obsession from year to year to win this award. Those who won the Oscar are under enormous pressure, being forced to prove that they deserve it. This perpetual anxiety can be considered one of the most devastating consequences of the competition, for both winners, and for nominees. Anxiety caused by winning Oscars and the next period of success, when you are bound to prove that you won on merit ,reflects issues that give uniqueness to entertainment. Being a performer is one of the most insecure profession. The ascension to star status may be meteoric, but also the decline can be as fast and dramatic.
The Oscar – symbol of American Culture
The Oscar show is watched by a billion viewers worldwide, many of whom are not even cinephiles.
These global dimensions extend "the visibility" beyond the boundaries of the Oscar ceremony, surpassing the U.S. borders. The Oscar became an absolute symbol of success and professional fulfillment in the dominant American culture. Following the ceremony, the audience enters the microcosm of American films, American television, American culture and, in general American society. Explicitly or implicitly, this function helps to crystallize on a planetary scale the U.S. cultural imperialism. The Awards and the Oscar show is an effective propaganda not only for the American films, but also for the American capitalism and for the American life-style. Tracking the annual ceremonies has became mandatory for most Americans. The Oscar acts as a secular ritual in American culture. Like other religious rituals, the Oscar ceremonies benefits from a high degree of organization and follows a set of rules; there are hundreds of rules and precepts of the Academy. Oscar ceremony takes place collectively ,imposing an audience participation, live or via television. It is essential, however, that like other rituals, the show reaffirms the core values of the dominant American
culture. The American Awards embody the basic American values such as democracy, equality, individualism, competition, the rise in the social hierarchy, reliability of service, professional fulfillment and financial success. Academy Awards shed light at the same time, on all the inherent contradictions posed by these values , contradictions between cultural myths and their immediate reality. Each value that Academy Awards evoke can be formulated as a dichotomy of opposite orientations: democracy and elitism, equality and discrimination, universalism and particularism, individualism and collectivism, competition and cooperation, hard work and luck, success and failure. Conclusion
In conclusion, I must say that the Oscars changed the operation of the film industry entirely through strong influence on each element involved in the making of a film: studios and production companies, various types of film artists, critics and even moviegoers. The major studios schedule the premieres of their most prestigious and "important” films in the period between late fall and early winter, especially in December. The reasoning that motivates this decision is that the films will be "fresh" in the minds of the Academy voters when ballots are received in January. The amazing thing about the Oscar is the public and immediate manifestation of these cultural values .Through the Oscar show, viewers have the opportunity to participate in the rise and decline of artists and their careers, to witnesses the evolution of artists who get overnight amazing success, all happening on TV right in front of them. In the end, The Academy Award embodies the inherent tension from Hollywood between the artistic and the commercial side. It celebrates the film industry and all that are part of it in an large-scale show that billions of viewers around the world are waiting for with baited breath every year.
Bibliography
* Levy, Emanuel (2003). All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. New York: Continuum.
22.02.2013
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award 22.02.2013
* http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-23/entertainment/ct-prj-0224-oscars-david-thomson-20130223_1_oscars-blossom-room-motion-picture-arts
February 23, 2013|By David Thomson
* http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html 20.02.2013
Contents: 1.Introduction…………………………………………….....2
2.The History of The Oscars…………………………….....3
3.The Nominations…………………………………..……...6
4.Winning the Oscar………………………………………....7
5.The Negative effects of the Oscars……………………….9
6.The Oscars - a symbol of American Culture ……………10
7.Conclusion ………………………………………………..11
8.Bibliography………………………………………………12
Introduction
Every actor’s dream is to hear his name out loud and rush to the stage to finally get the thing he desired for all his life: the Oscar. As, hopefully, a future actress I never get enough of thinking about that moment. Therefore, I have decided to write …show more content…
about this major event that takes place every year in The United States, in order to share with the others everything that Oscar means for me and the entire world. If Hollywood is really the movie capital of the world, then Oscar night is the world 's greatest wrap party. Each winter, the glitterati of the film world gather in Los Angeles to celebrate the great films and great performances of the past year. Of course, most people are familiar with the evening 's glamorous fashions and long-winded acceptance speeches, but there is a long history to the Academy Awards that raises many questions. Why is the statuette called Oscar? Why do accountants have to protect the envelopes? Who was that naked man next to David Niven? What is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? These answers and many more are all here.
The History of The Oscars
How It Began In early 1927, during dinner at the home of M-G-M 's studio chief Louis B. Mayer, Mayer and three of his guests – actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson – began talking about creating an organized group to benefit the entire film industry. They planned another dinner for the following week, with invitees from all the creative branches of the film industry. And so, on January 11, 1927, 36 people met for dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to hear a proposal to found the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“International” dropped from the name soon after). Attendees included many of the biggest names in the industry at the time: Mayer, Mary Pickford, Sid Grauman, Jesse Lasky, George Cohen, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Cedric Gibbons and Irving Thalberg. The group supported the concept and things came together quickly. By mid-March of that year, articles of incorporation were presented and the first officers were elected, with Douglas Fairbanks as president. On May 11, 1927, a week after the state granted the Academy a charter as a non-profit organization, an official organizational banquet was held at the Biltmore Hotel. Of the 300 guests, 230 joined the Academy, paying $100 each. That night, the Academy also awarded its first honorary membership, to Thomas Edison.
The Academy At first, Academy consisted of five sections, each representing a distinct professional group: producers, screen-writers, directors and actors. However, the increasingly strict specialization in the film industry has resulted in a more complex structure, which currently consists of fourteen professional groups. These include the four initial sections (producers, writers, directors, actors), additional administrative units (executives, public relations) and subdivisions within technical units (art directors, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Artistic Director). Membership has always been granted by invitation only. From the very beginning, the idea was to create an association consisted of the elite of Hollywood. Artists are invited to become members “when the services they have brought to the film industry were sufficiently significant to make the Academy members feel that they would like to have them as colleagues”. The first part of the Academy’s Constitution formalized the necessary qualifications: “Any person whose activity is outstanding, or has acquired a prominent place, or has made valuable contributions in the areas of film production output, directly or indirectly, and has a good moral and personal standing, can achieve active membership of the Academy, after the Board’s vote or after a recommendation made by the committee members.” The conditions for acquiring membership vary from one section to another. The easiest and fastest way to join is to get a nomination - all Oscar nominees are invited to become members. The Academy has rarely used the right to refuse the invitation of a nominated artist. Other than that, each section has its own criteria. In most sections, it is necessary to have several films up to that point, several years of experience and sponsorship provided by two full members of the Academy.
Oscar statuette Although there are eight other types of annual awards presented by the Academy ,plus two awards that are not presented annually ,the best known one is the Academy Award of Merit more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader 's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. In 1928, MGM 's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director and actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Reluctant at first, Fernández was finally convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the "Oscar". Then, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbons 's design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The origin of the name Oscar is disputed. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson; one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that the Academy 's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette 's reminding her of her "Uncle Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce). Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick 's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar '". The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It may also have been named after the famous Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. In 1882, when disembarking in New York to begin his "Grand Tour" of America, Wilde was asked by a customs officer whether he had anything to declare and reputedly replied "I have nothing to declare but my genius”.
The Nomination
Being nominated for an Oscar means to be appreciated ,and to be appreciated in the early career is, most times, a decisive factor for the future of an artist. A first Oscar nomination serves often as a sign of a successful career in the future, because it places the nominated artist at a different level of prestige and popularity in the film industry. Actresses get their first nomination far earlier than actors: almost half of all the actresses get their first nomination before the age of 30 years, while for the actors, the corresponding percentage is 10%. Actors and actresses in supporting roles receive the first nomination when they are very young or very old. For example, about 10% of the actors and actresses in supporting roles, compared to only 3% of those in the lead role, had over 60 years at the first nomination. One simple Oscar nomination can have a powerful and lasting effect on the careers of artists, increasing the number of appearances on the small screen and the big screen and therefore, their popularity. Once artists are nominated, their careers are tracked more closely by producers, directors and colleagues. Nominations improve the status and popularity of artists. Many artists were recognized before being nominated, but then ,suddenly became celebrities, especially when they were playing in films that were commercial.
Winning the Oscar
Winning an Oscar is considered to be the greatest achievement in the world of film, a symbol of professional success. Filmmakers are trying to win an Oscar in the first phase of their activity because they know very well that this distinction will have a huge influence on their future career. Theoretically, it is possible to win an Oscar at any age and, indeed, there were winners in all ages, young and old. Practically though, the best chance to win the Oscar occurs at an age between 30 and 49 years, two thirds of all winners belonging to this period. The immediate receipt of recognition from the Academy is often due to luck or circumstances on which actors have no control. "The hand of destiny" is a phrase often used in the world of showbiz, it describes with great precision how their careers are created and sustained - starting with the first chance that you are offered, debut appearance, continuing with receiving a role in a film that gets to be noticed, until the first nomination, or possibly winning the award. Good luck, or as actors say "the quality of being the right person at the right time and right place" is a more important factor for the onset of a movie star career than acting talents or skills of interpretation. For most actors, winning an Oscar is a unique event in life. However, if we consider the intensity of competition, the percentage of performers who have won multiple awards is impressive: about 20% of all winners. As it is natural, performers of leading roles are more likely to win a second award than those performing in supporting roles. Therefore, actresses nominated at “Best Actress” category, have the best prospects to repeat the performance, respectively 30%, versus 13% of the performers nominated for Best Actor.
They never got an Oscar? Among directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Preston Sturges, Orson Welles, Ernst Lubitsch, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Sidney Lumet (four nomination and no wins), Arthur Penn, George Lucas, Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, Robert Altman. Among actors: Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, Montgomery Clift, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Deborah Kerr, Margaret Sullavan, Richard Burton (seven nominations, zero wins), Peter O 'Toole (eight nominations, zero wins), Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck. Among movies for best picture: "Avatar," "Citizen Kane," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Double Indemnity," "It 's a Wonderful Life," "The Red Shoes," "A Place in the Sun," "Bonnie and Clyde," "Chinatown," "Jaws," "Taxi Driver," "E.T.," "The Right Stuff." And not even nominated: "Rear Window," "My Man Godfrey," "Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl Friday," "Vertigo," "The Shop Around the Corner," "Touch of Evil," "The Shining," "Laura," "The Lady Eve," "The Night of the Hunter," "Kiss Me Deadly," "East of Eden," "The Miracle Worker," "Blue Velvet," "Magnolia."
So who won the most? Among actors: Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations, 4 wins); Bette Davis (10 nominations, 2 wins); Jack Nicholson (12 nominations, 3 wins); Spencer Tracy (9 nominations, 2 wins); Meryl Streep (17 nominations, 3 wins). Among directors: William Wyler (12 nominations, 3 wins); John Ford (5 nominations, 4 wins); Billy Wilder (8 nominations, 2 wins); David Lean (7 nominations, 2 wins); Fred Zinnemann (7 nominations, 2 wins). The all-time champs are: Billy Wilder, for writing (12 nominations, 3 wins); Alfred Newman, for music (43 nominations, 9 wins); Sammy Cahn, for best song (26 nominations, 4 wins); Edith Head, for costumes (35 nominations, 8 wins); and Walt Disney (with 22 Oscars in a variety of categories.
The Negative Effects of the Oscars
The Oscar can also have negative effects on some of its winners and the film industry in general. Some winners may become victims of their own success when they accept their agents pressures, to appear in a lot of movies, in order to take advantage of the newly acquired popularity. It would be easy, but wrong to blame Oscar for any unfavorable turn that the career of a winner of this award can take. For each case of “Oscar victim”, there is an opposite example, an artist whose career was saved and revitalized by receiving this award. Hesitant careers are rarely a direct consequence of the Oscar - to recall here that some Oscar winners are not artists of great value. The decreasing quality performances of the Oscar winners could be the consequence, on one hand, of the haste with how producers are leading actors to take part in projects of questionable quality and , on the other hand, of the wrong choices actors make. Automatic distribution of actors in roles similar to those which have brought them the Oscar is another negative effect of the distinction offered by the Academy. The actors are frustrated that they receive dozens of offers similar or identical to the winning role, which prevents them from getting rid of the template label that they are identified with. The fierce competition, the attraction exerted by the Academy Award and the profound effects it has on the career of the winners ,also explain the stronger obsession from year to year to win this award. Those who won the Oscar are under enormous pressure, being forced to prove that they deserve it. This perpetual anxiety can be considered one of the most devastating consequences of the competition, for both winners, and for nominees. Anxiety caused by winning Oscars and the next period of success, when you are bound to prove that you won on merit ,reflects issues that give uniqueness to entertainment. Being a performer is one of the most insecure profession. The ascension to star status may be meteoric, but also the decline can be as fast and dramatic.
The Oscar – symbol of American Culture
The Oscar show is watched by a billion viewers worldwide, many of whom are not even cinephiles.
These global dimensions extend "the visibility" beyond the boundaries of the Oscar ceremony, surpassing the U.S. borders. The Oscar became an absolute symbol of success and professional fulfillment in the dominant American culture. Following the ceremony, the audience enters the microcosm of American films, American television, American culture and, in general American society. Explicitly or implicitly, this function helps to crystallize on a planetary scale the U.S. cultural imperialism. The Awards and the Oscar show is an effective propaganda not only for the American films, but also for the American capitalism and for the American life-style. Tracking the annual ceremonies has became mandatory for most Americans. The Oscar acts as a secular ritual in American culture. Like other religious rituals, the Oscar ceremonies benefits from a high degree of organization and follows a set of rules; there are hundreds of rules and precepts of the Academy. Oscar ceremony takes place collectively ,imposing an audience participation, live or via television. It is essential, however, that like other rituals, the show reaffirms the core values of the dominant American
culture. The American Awards embody the basic American values such as democracy, equality, individualism, competition, the rise in the social hierarchy, reliability of service, professional fulfillment and financial success. Academy Awards shed light at the same time, on all the inherent contradictions posed by these values , contradictions between cultural myths and their immediate reality. Each value that Academy Awards evoke can be formulated as a dichotomy of opposite orientations: democracy and elitism, equality and discrimination, universalism and particularism, individualism and collectivism, competition and cooperation, hard work and luck, success and failure. Conclusion
In conclusion, I must say that the Oscars changed the operation of the film industry entirely through strong influence on each element involved in the making of a film: studios and production companies, various types of film artists, critics and even moviegoers. The major studios schedule the premieres of their most prestigious and "important” films in the period between late fall and early winter, especially in December. The reasoning that motivates this decision is that the films will be "fresh" in the minds of the Academy voters when ballots are received in January. The amazing thing about the Oscar is the public and immediate manifestation of these cultural values .Through the Oscar show, viewers have the opportunity to participate in the rise and decline of artists and their careers, to witnesses the evolution of artists who get overnight amazing success, all happening on TV right in front of them. In the end, The Academy Award embodies the inherent tension from Hollywood between the artistic and the commercial side. It celebrates the film industry and all that are part of it in an large-scale show that billions of viewers around the world are waiting for with baited breath every year.
Bibliography
* Levy, Emanuel (2003). All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. New York: Continuum.
22.02.2013
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award 22.02.2013
* http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-23/entertainment/ct-prj-0224-oscars-david-thomson-20130223_1_oscars-blossom-room-motion-picture-arts
February 23, 2013|By David Thomson
* http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html 20.02.2013