And the winner is….

Everyone enjoys being told they are good at what they do and most of us want to be rewarded in some way. But few of us get the same publicity as those working in the film industry, and every actor dreams of being nominated for an Oscar. The Academy Awards ceremony is held in Hollywood once a year, usually in March, and is being shown in more and more countries each year. Over 40 million people in the USA watch the ceremony on TV, all wondering if their favourite stars are going to be awarded an Oscar.

Take a look at these facts about the Oscars:

·     The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 and the first to televised was in 1953.

·     Since the Academy Awards began they have only been postponed three times. The ceremony had to be postponed in 1938 because of a flood, in 1968 for Martin Luther King’s funeral and again in 1981 after the assassination attempt on President Reagan

·     Newspapers used to be given the winners’ names in advance of the ceremony, provided that the names wouldn’t be published until afterwards. However, in 1939 the Los Angeles Times printed the names before the ceremony so since then they have been kept secret

·     Judi Dech was given an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth 1 in the film Shakespeare in Love. That was the first time anyone had been nominated for a performance that lasted only eight minutes.