By Alex Switzer

Daily Staff Writer

The Academy Awards: A brief history

The Academy Awards, popularly dubbed “The Oscars,” has been paramount among the award ceremonies for nearly a century. The inaugural presentation of the awards was in May 1929 in Los Angeles — after the recent arrival of “talking pictures” — and had only 270 in attendance.

After the failure of a system of notifying newspapers early about winners in their areas, the second year dawned the “sealed-envelope” system that is still used today.

Originally a banquet benefit, the Academy Awards has moved multiple times throughout Hollywood to find a rightful home. Now, it is at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland.

The awards became more vivid than ever for television audiences when it had its first color broadcast in 1966.

The Oscar — or the Academy Award of Merit — has had a history almost as extensive as the ceremony itself.

To this day, the origin of the nickname “Oscar” has been disputed; there is the enduring rumor, however, that past Academy Executive Director Margaret Herrick said the award reminded her of her Uncle Oscar — hence the name.

Though its form has rarely changed, the medium in which Oscar has been presented has changed with the times. Gold-bronze, gold-plated britannium and even plaster (because of metal shortages during years of war) have all been used to encase the sculpture created by Cedric Gibbons — a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer art director at the time of the ceremony’s conception.

Then, in 2000, a shipment of the year’s statuettes were stolen from a shipping center in Bell, Calif., making the Academy more cautious by having a surplus of statues for all 24 categories on hand in case of emergency.

Standing 13 1/2 inches tall in its universally recognized form, the Oscar symbolizes an era of film making achievement — and sometimes unexpected on-stage antics.

— Information compiled from www.oscars.org.

The Nominees: Their picks and politics

A diverse array comprises the most sought-after category at the 77th Academy Awards — Best Picture.

From the small productions of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Sideways” to the larger casts of “Ray,” “Finding Neverland” and “The Aviator,” the academy is representing films from studios big and small.

Even with the star-studded showcasing, this year’s nominations are very diverse, and choosing the one that is likely to walk away with Best Picture is not as cut-and-dry of a choice as in previous years.

Although this year’s gold could be anyone’s game, Jeff Bruner, movie and theater critic for The Des Moines Register, says he believes Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” will rise above the others.

“It is a combination of a spectacular performance by Hilary Swank — who had a once-in-a-lifetime role with ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ — and an amazing script,” Bruner says. “The script is a thing of beauty. They shot the film on the first draft of the script, which is unheard of.”

He says the race will be much tighter this year because of the lack of blockbuster films taking any precedence — making way for one of the smallest box-office Best Movie categories in 20 years.

In addition to these films, some people were surprised Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” did not get considered for best picture.

However, Bruner says the films that were nominated were no real surprise.

“You could definitely make good arguments for all five films,” he says. “People say the Hollywood liberals kept ‘The Passion’ out of the Oscars. If that were true, they would’ve found a way to get ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ in. I don’t buy it.”

What people miss, Bruner says, is that Hollywood politics are not the same as politics in Washington. “There aren’t Republican and Democratic politics,” he says. “There are only corporate politics.”

However, Bruner says there was one really shocking aspect to this year’s nominees — the oversight of “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti.

“The fact that ‘Sideways’ got so many nominations — for best screenplay, for best director, for best supporting actor — and for Paul Giamatti being left out [for best actor] is an incredible oversight and inexcusable,” he says. “The only upside is that he’ll get good roles for the next few years.”

Party time!

As with events like the Super Bowl and Daytona 500, annual TV events are usually accompanied by parties to entertain the audience. With over four hours of programming to watch, students have begun organizing get-togethers for their night at the Oscars.

For members of the ISU Cinema Group, throwing an Oscar party is another way just to have a good time.

“It’s a good excuse to have a party,” says David Sheets, senior in electrical engineering and president of the group.

“We usually ‘boo’ the movies that we don’t like.”

The event, Sheets says, beckons people to come together to watch it.

“The event justifies having the party and the people make it fun,” he says. “I think sitting at home alone with a bottle of Jack Daniels watching the Oscars is about as depressing of a proposition as you can get.”

Sheets says food and beverage is a must at the party; its sources are optional; however.

“Basically, the host decides whatever food will be available — whether potato chips or popcorn,” he says. “You can usually just steal it and tell them you’ll pay them back.”

Chris Andre, one of the group’s members, says sometimes the parties can get two-sided when people begin to disagree about who should win. He says he was especially disappointed when the “movie with the boat” swept nearly all the major categories.

Sheets agrees there were better nominees than the movie about the “ship” — James Cameron’s “Titanic,” which won 11 of its 14 Oscar nominations — in 1998.

Also, to pass the time, the guys say they start up betting pools at the parties to raise the stakes and make things interesting.

“You definitely need to bring some money so you can have a friendly bet,” says Andre, freshman in meteorology.

Sheets says in order to mix things up, sometimes people will use their own movies instead of money to place bets.

He says many people bet on the Oscars just for the sake of betting, but he will put money down on the categories that count.

“We’ll bet on it if it’s Best Picture, Best Actor — things like that,” he says. “If it’s a couple of people from PBS, we don’t care, but if it’s a well-known actor, we’ll bet on them.”

Sheets says the success of the party is just as dependent on who you’re celebrating with as it is the show.

“It’s all about the mood and it’s the people you’re with that makes it fun and of course the show as well,” he says. “Plus, it also depends on how much you’ve had to drink by the time it gets to the best picture.”