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Aristotle | Politics | Politics
In addition to his works on ethics, which address the individual, Aristotle addressed the city in his work titled Politics. Aristotle considered the city to be a natural community. Moreover, he considered the city to be prior in importance to the family, which in turn is prior to the individual, "for the whole must of necessity be prior to the part". He famously stated that "man is by nature a political animal" and argued that humanity's defining factor among others in the animal kingdom is its rationality. Aristotle conceived of politics as being like an organism rather than like a machine, and as a collection of parts none of which can exist without the others. Aristotle's conception of the city is organic, and he is considered one of the first to conceive of the city in this manner.
thumb|upright=1.5 | Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions
The common modern understanding of a political community as a modern state is quite different from Aristotle's understanding. Although he was aware of the existence and potential of larger empires, the natural community according to Aristotle was the city (polis) which functions as a political "community" or "partnership" (koinōnia). The aim of the city is not just to avoid injustice or for economic stability, but rather to allow at least some citizens the possibility to live a good life, and to perform beautiful acts: "The political partnership must be regarded, therefore, as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together." This is distinguished from modern approaches, beginning with social contract theory, according to which individuals leave the state of nature because of "fear of violent death" or its "inconveniences".
In Protrepticus, the character 'Aristotle' states:
As Plato's disciple Aristotle was rather critical concerning democracy and, following the outline of certain ideas from Plato's Statesman, he developed a coherent theory of integrating various forms of power into a so-called mixed state: |
Aristotle | Economics | Economics
Aristotle made substantial contributions to economic thought, especially to thought in the Middle Ages. In Politics, Aristotle addresses the city, property, and trade. His response to criticisms of private property, in Lionel Robbins's view, anticipated later proponents of private property among philosophers and economists, as it related to the overall utility of social arrangements. Aristotle believed that although communal arrangements may seem beneficial to society, and that although private property is often blamed for social strife, such evils in fact come from human nature. In Politics, Aristotle offers one of the earliest accounts of the origin of money. Money came into use because people became dependent on one another, importing what they needed and exporting the surplus. For the sake of convenience, people then agreed to deal in something that is intrinsically useful and easily applicable, such as iron or silver.
Aristotle's discussions on retail and interest was a major influence on economic thought in the Middle Ages. He had a low opinion of retail, believing that contrary to using money to procure things one needs in managing the household, retail trade seeks to make a profit. It thus uses goods as a means to an end, rather than as an end unto itself. He believed that retail trade was in this way unnatural. Similarly, Aristotle considered making a profit through interest unnatural, as it makes a gain out of the money itself, and not from its use.
Aristotle gave a summary of the function of money that was perhaps remarkably precocious for his time. He wrote that because it is impossible to determine the value of every good through a count of the number of other goods it is worth, the necessity arises of a single universal standard of measurement. Money thus allows for the association of different goods and makes them "commensurable". He goes on to state that money is also useful for future exchange, making it a sort of security. That is, "if we do not want a thing now, we shall be able to get it when we do want it". |
Aristotle | Rhetoric | Rhetoric
Aristotle's Rhetoric proposes that a speaker can use three basic kinds of appeals to persuade his audience: ethos (an appeal to the speaker's character), pathos (an appeal to the audience's emotion), and logos (an appeal to logical reasoning). He also categorizes rhetoric into three genres: epideictic (ceremonial speeches dealing with praise or blame), forensic (judicial speeches over guilt or innocence), and deliberative (speeches calling on an audience to decide on an issue). Aristotle also outlines two kinds of rhetorical proofs: enthymeme (proof by syllogism) and paradeigma (proof by example). |
Aristotle | Poetics | Poetics
Aristotle writes in his Poetics that epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, painting, sculpture, music, and dance are all fundamentally acts of mimesis ("imitation"), each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner. He applies the term mimesis both as a property of a work of art and also as the product of the artist's intention and contends that the audience's realisation of the mimesis is vital to understanding the work itself. Aristotle states that mimesis is a natural instinct of humanity that separates humans from animals and that all human artistry "follows the pattern of nature". Because of this, Aristotle believed that each of the mimetic arts possesses what Stephen Halliwell calls "highly structured procedures for the achievement of their purposes." For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation – through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama.
thumb | upright=1.35 | The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) by Bénigne Gagneraux. In his Poetics, Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through some hamartia (fault).
While it is believed that Aristotle's Poetics originally comprised two books – one on comedy and one on tragedy – only the portion that focuses on tragedy has survived. Aristotle taught that tragedy is composed of six elements: plot-structure, character, style, thought, spectacle, and lyric poetry. The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; and the plot, not the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy. Tragedy is the imitation of action arousing pity and fear, and is meant to effect the catharsis of those same emotions. Aristotle concludes Poetics with a discussion on which, if either, is superior: epic or tragic mimesis. He suggests that because tragedy possesses all the attributes of an epic, possibly possesses additional attributes such as spectacle and music, is more unified, and achieves the aim of its mimesis in shorter scope, it can be considered superior to epic. Aristotle was a keen systematic collector of riddles, folklore, and proverbs; he and his school had a special interest in the riddles of the Delphic Oracle and studied the fables of Aesop. |
Aristotle | Gender and sexuality | Gender and sexuality
Aristotle never wrote a specific work on women. However, he asserted the existence of differences between men and women throughout his biological, political, and ethical works. For most female animals, including human women, Aristotle maintains that they are for the most part physically smaller and of a more cowardly constitution.
From these comments in his biological works, he often connects the idea that women are inferior with their need to be ruled over by men. Proponents of feminist philosophy question the extent to which Aristotle's philosophy relies on misogynistic and sexist tenets. Within the same works, however, there is still concern for women's happiness and participation within the city. For instance, women are meant to be consulted on household decisions, are praised for their tenderness to children, and expected to participate in religious festivals. |
Aristotle | Transmission | Transmission
thumb|upright=0.8|Preface to Argyropoulos's 15th century Latin translation of Aristotle's Physics
More than 2300 years after his death, Aristotle remains one of the most influential people who ever lived. He contributed to almost every field of human knowledge then in existence, and he was the founder of many new fields. According to the philosopher Bryan Magee, "it is doubtful whether any human being has ever known as much as he did". Aristotle has been regarded as the first scientist.
Among countless other achievements, Aristotle was the founder of formal logic, pioneered the study of zoology, and left every future scientist and philosopher in his debt through his contributions to the scientific method. Taneli Kukkonen, observes that his achievement in founding two sciences is unmatched, and his reach in influencing "every branch of intellectual enterprise" including Western ethical and political theory, theology, rhetoric, and literary analysis is equally long. As a result, Kukkonen argues, any analysis of reality today "will almost certainly carry Aristotelian overtones ... evidence of an exceptionally forceful mind." Jonathan Barnes wrote that "an account of Aristotle's intellectual afterlife would be little less than a history of European thought".
Aristotle has been called the father of logic, biology, political science, zoology, embryology, natural law, scientific method, rhetoric, psychology, realism, criticism, individualism, teleology, and meteorology.
The scholar Taneli Kukkonen notes that "in the best 20th-century scholarship Aristotle comes alive as a thinker wrestling with the full weight of the Greek philosophical tradition." What follows is an overview of the transmission and influence of his texts and ideas into the modern era. |
Aristotle | His successor, Theophrastus | His successor, Theophrastus
thumb | upright=0.8 | Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written
Aristotle's pupil and successor, Theophrastus, wrote the History of Plants, a pioneering work in botany. Some of his technical terms remain in use, such as carpel from carpos, fruit, and pericarp, from pericarpion, seed chamber.
Theophrastus was much less concerned with formal causes than Aristotle was, instead pragmatically describing how plants functioned. |
Aristotle | Later Greek philosophy | Later Greek philosophy
The immediate influence of Aristotle's work was felt as the Lyceum grew into the Peripatetic school. Aristotle's students included Aristoxenus, Dicaearchus, Demetrius of Phalerum, Eudemos of Rhodes, Harpalus, Hephaestion, Mnason of Phocis, Nicomachus, and Theophrastus. Aristotle's influence over Alexander the Great is seen in the latter's bringing with him on his expedition a host of zoologists, botanists, and researchers. He had also learned a great deal about Persian customs and traditions from his teacher. Although his respect for Aristotle was diminished as his travels made it clear that much of Aristotle's geography was clearly wrong, when the old philosopher released his works to the public, Alexander complained "Thou hast not done well to publish thy acroamatic doctrines; for in what shall I surpass other men if those doctrines wherein I have been trained are to be all men's common property?" |
Aristotle | Hellenistic science | Hellenistic science
After Theophrastus, the Lyceum failed to produce any original work. Though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly. It is not until the age of Alexandria under the Ptolemies that advances in biology can be again found.
The first medical teacher at Alexandria, Herophilus of Chalcedon, corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. Though a few ancient atomists such as Lucretius challenged the teleological viewpoint of Aristotelian ideas about life, teleology (and after the rise of Christianity, natural theology) would remain central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries. Ernst Mayr states that there was "nothing of any real consequence in biology after Lucretius and Galen until the Renaissance." |
Aristotle | Revival | Revival
Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Aristotle's vast philosophical and scientific corpus lay largely dormant in the West. However, his works underwent a remarkable revival in the Abbasid Caliphate. Translated into Arabic alongside other Greek classics, Aristotle's logic, ethics, and natural philosophy ignited the minds of early Islamic scholars.
Through meticulous commentaries and critical engagements, figures like Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) breathed new life into Aristotle's ideas. They harmonized his logic with Islamic theology, employed his scientific methodologies to explore the natural world, and even reinterpreted his ethics within the framework of Islamic morality. This revival was not mere imitation. Islamic thinkers embraced Aristotle's rigorous methods while simultaneously challenging his conclusions where they diverged from their own religious beliefs. |
Aristotle | Byzantine scholars | Byzantine scholars
Greek Christian scribes played a crucial role in the preservation of Aristotle by copying all the extant Greek language manuscripts of the corpus. The first Greek Christians to comment extensively on Aristotle were Philoponus, Elias, and David in the sixth century, and Stephen of Alexandria in the early seventh century. John Philoponus stands out for having attempted a fundamental critique of Aristotle's views on the eternity of the world, movement, and other elements of Aristotelian thought. Philoponus questioned Aristotle's teaching of physics, noting its flaws and introducing the theory of impetus to explain his observations.
After a hiatus of several centuries, formal commentary by Eustratius and Michael of Ephesus reappeared in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, apparently sponsored by Anna Comnena. |
Aristotle | Medieval Islamic world | Medieval Islamic world
thumb|upright=0.8|Islamic portrayal of Aristotle (right) in the Kitāb naʿt al-ḥayawān, .
Aristotle is considered the most influential figure in the history of Arabic philosophy and was one of the most revered thinkers in early Islamic theology. Most of the still extant works of Aristotle, as well as a number of the original Greek commentaries, were translated into Arabic and studied by Muslim philosophers, scientists, and scholars. Averroes, Avicenna, and Alpharabius, who wrote on Aristotle in great depth, also influenced Thomas Aquinas and other Western Christian scholastic philosophers. Alkindus greatly admired Aristotle's philosophy, and Averroes spoke of Aristotle as the "exemplar" for all future philosophers. Medieval Muslim scholars regularly described Aristotle as the "First Teacher". The title was later used by Western philosophers (as in the famous poem of Dante) who were influenced by the tradition of Islamic philosophy. |
Aristotle | Medieval Europe | Medieval Europe
With the loss of the study of ancient Greek in the early medieval Latin West, Aristotle was practically unknown there from to except through the Latin translation of the Organon made by Boethius. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, interest in Aristotle revived and Latin Christians had translations made, both from Arabic translations, such as those by Gerard of Cremona, and from the original Greek, such as those by James of Venice and William of Moerbeke.
After the Scholastic Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica, working from Moerbeke's translations and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher", the demand for Aristotle's writings grew, and the Greek manuscripts returned to the West, stimulating a revival of Aristotelianism in Europe that continued into the Renaissance. These thinkers blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, bringing the thought of Ancient Greece into the Middle Ages. Scholars such as Boethius, Peter Abelard, and John Buridan worked on Aristotelian logic.
According to scholar Roger Theodore Lafferty, Dante built up the philosophy of the Comedy with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly through quotations in the works of Albert Magnus.Lafferty, Roger. "The Philosophy of Dante", pg. 4 Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing the Nicomachean Ethics.Inferno, Canto XI, lines 70–115, Mandelbaum translation. Dante famously refers to him as "he / Who is acknowledged Master of those who know".Inferno, Canto IV, lines 115-16 trans., 131 original, Robert Pinksky translation (1994); note to line, p.384 |
Aristotle | Medieval Judaism | Medieval Judaism
Moses Maimonides (considered to be the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism) adopted Aristotelianism from the Islamic scholars and based his Guide for the Perplexed on it and that became the basis of Jewish scholastic philosophy. Maimonides also considered Aristotle to be the greatest philosopher that ever lived, and styled him as the "chief of the philosophers".Levi ben Gershom, The Wars of the Lord: Book one, Immortality of the soul, p. 35.Leon Simon, Aspects Of The Hebrew Genius: A Volume Of Essays On Jewish Literature And Thought (1910), p. 127.Herbert A. Davidson, Herbert A. |q (Herbert Alan) Davidson, Professor of Hebrew Emeritus Herbert Davidson, Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works, p. 98. Also, in his letter to Samuel ibn Tibbon, Maimonides observes that there is no need for Samuel to study the writings of philosophers who preceded Aristotle because the works of the latter are "sufficient by themselves and [superior] to all that were written before them. His intellect, Aristotle's is the extreme limit of human intellect, apart from him upon whom the divine emanation has flowed forth to such an extent that they reach the level of prophecy, there being no level higher".Menachem Kellner, Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People, p. 77. |
Aristotle | Early Modern science | Early Modern science
thumb | William Harvey's , 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical thinking.
In the early modern period, scientists such as William Harvey in England and Galileo Galilei in Italy reacted against the theories of Aristotle and other classical era thinkers like Galen, establishing new theories based to some degree on observation and experiment. Harvey demonstrated the circulation of the blood, establishing that the heart functioned as a pump rather than being the seat of the soul and the controller of the body's heat, as Aristotle thought. Galileo used more doubtful arguments to displace Aristotle's physics, proposing that bodies all fall at the same speed whatever their weight. |
Aristotle | 18th and 19th-century science | 18th and 19th-century science
The English mathematician George Boole fully accepted Aristotle's logic, but decided "to go under, over, and beyond" it with his system of algebraic logic in his 1854 book The Laws of Thought. This gives logic a mathematical foundation with equations, enables it to solve equations as well as check validity, and allows it to handle a wider class of problems by expanding propositions of any number of terms, not just two.
Charles Darwin regarded Aristotle as the most important contributor to the subject of biology. In an 1882 letter he wrote that "Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle". Also, in later editions of the book "On the Origin of Species', Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle; the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopher Empedocles. |
Aristotle | Present science | Present science
The philosopher Bertrand Russell claims that "almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine". Russell calls Aristotle's ethics "repulsive", and labelled his logic "as definitely antiquated as Ptolemaic astronomy". Russell states that these errors make it difficult to do historical justice to Aristotle, until one remembers what an advance he made upon all of his predecessors.
The Dutch historian of science Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis writes that Aristotle and his predecessors showed the difficulty of science by "proceed[ing] so readily to frame a theory of such a general character" on limited evidence from their senses. In 1985, the biologist Peter Medawar could still state in "pure seventeenth century" tones that Aristotle had assembled "a strange and generally speaking rather tiresome farrago of hearsay, imperfect observation, wishful thinking and credulity amounting to downright gullibility".
Zoologists have frequently mocked Aristotle for errors and unverified secondhand reports. However, modern observation has confirmed several of his more surprising claims. Aristotle's work remains largely unknown to modern scientists, though zoologists sometimes mention him as the father of biology or in particular of marine biology. Practising zoologists are unlikely to adhere to Aristotle's chain of being, but its influence is still perceptible in the use of the terms "lower" and "upper" to designate taxa such as groups of plants. The evolutionary biologist Armand Marie Leroi has reconstructed Aristotle's biology, while Niko Tinbergen's four questions, based on Aristotle's four causes, are used to analyse animal behaviour; they examine function, phylogeny, mechanism, and ontogeny. The concept of homology began with Aristotle; the evolutionary developmental biologist Lewis I. Held commented that he would be interested in the concept of deep homology. In systematics too, recent studies suggest that Aristotle made important contributions in taxonomy and biological nomenclature. |
Aristotle | Surviving works | Surviving works |
Aristotle | Corpus Aristotelicum | Corpus Aristotelicum
thumb | upright=0.8 | First page of a 1566 edition of the Nicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin
The works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity through medieval manuscript transmission are collected in the Corpus Aristotelicum. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school. Reference to them is made according to the organization of Immanuel Bekker's Royal Prussian Academy edition (, Berlin, 1831–1870), which in turn is based on ancient classifications of these works. |
Aristotle | Loss and preservation | Loss and preservation
Aristotle wrote his works on papyrus scrolls, the common writing medium of that era. His writings are divisible into two groups: the "exoteric", intended for the public, and the "esoteric", for use within the Lyceum school. Aristotle's "lost" works stray considerably in characterization from the surviving Aristotelian corpus. Whereas the lost works appear to have been originally written with a view to subsequent publication, the surviving works mostly resemble lecture notes not intended for publication. Cicero's description of Aristotle's literary style as "a river of gold" must have applied to the published works, not the surviving notes. A major question in the history of Aristotle's works is how the exoteric writings were all lost, and how the ones now possessed came to be found. The consensus is that Andronicus of Rhodes collected the esoteric works of Aristotle's school which existed in the form of smaller, separate works, distinguished them from those of Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, edited them, and finally compiled them into the more cohesive, larger works as they are known today.
According to Strabo and Plutarch, after Aristotle's death, his library and writings went to Theophrastus (Aristotle's successor as head of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school). After the death of Theophrastus, the peripatetic library went to Neleus of Scepsis.
Some time later, the Kingdom of Pergamon began conscripting books for a royal library, and the heirs of Neleus hid their collection in a cellar to prevent it from being seized for that purpose. The library was stored there for about a century and a half, in conditions that were not ideal for document preservation. On the death of Attalus III, which also ended the royal library ambitions, the existence of Aristotelian library was disclosed, and it was purchased by Apellicon and returned to Athens .
Apellicon sought to recover the texts, many of which were seriously degraded at this point due to the conditions in which they were stored. He had them copied out into new manuscripts, and used his best guesswork to fill in the gaps where the originals were unreadable.
When Sulla seized Athens in 86 BC, he seized the library and transferred it to Rome. There, Andronicus of Rhodes organized the texts into the first complete edition of Aristotle's works (and works attributed to him). The Aristotelian texts we have today are based on these. |
Aristotle | Depictions in art | Depictions in art |
Aristotle | Paintings | Paintings
Aristotle has been depicted by major artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder, Justus van Gent, Raphael, Paolo Veronese, Jusepe de Ribera, Rembrandt, and Francesco Hayez over the centuries. Among the best-known depictions is Raphael's fresco The School of Athens, in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, where the figures of Plato and Aristotle are central to the image, at the architectural vanishing point, reflecting their importance. Rembrandt's Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, too, is a celebrated work, showing the knowing philosopher and the blind Homer from an earlier age: as the art critic Jonathan Jones writes, "this painting will remain one of the greatest and most mysterious in the world, ensnaring us in its musty, glowing, pitch-black, terrible knowledge of time." |
Aristotle | Sculptures | Sculptures |
Aristotle | Eponyms | Eponyms
The Aristotle Mountains in Antarctica are named after Aristotle. He was the first person known to conjecture, in his book Meteorology, the existence of a landmass in the southern high-latitude region, which he called Antarctica. Aristoteles is a crater on the Moon bearing the classical form of Aristotle's name. (6123) Aristoteles, an asteroid in the main asteroid belt is also bearing the classical form of his name. |
Aristotle | See also | See also
Aristotelian Society
Conimbricenses
Perfectionism |
Aristotle | References | References |
Aristotle | Notes | Notes |
Aristotle | Citations | Citations |
Aristotle | Sources | Sources
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Aristotle | Further reading | Further reading
The secondary literature on Aristotle is vast. The following is only a small selection.
Ackrill, J. L. (1997). Essays on Plato and Aristotle, Oxford University Press.
These translations are available in several places online; see External links.
Bakalis, Nikolaos. (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments, Trafford Publishing, .
Bolotin, David (1998). An Approach to Aristotle's Physics: With Particular Attention to the Role of His Manner of Writing. Albany: SUNY Press. A contribution to our understanding of how to read Aristotle's scientific works.
Burnyeat, Myles F. et al. (1979). Notes on Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Oxford: Sub-faculty of Philosophy.
Code, Alan (1995). Potentiality in Aristotle's Science and Metaphysics, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 76.
De Groot, Jean (2014). Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th century BC, Parmenides Publishing, .
Frede, Michael (1987). Essays in Ancient Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gendlin, Eugene T. (2012). Line by Line Commentary on Aristotle's De Anima , Volume 1: Books I & II; Volume 2: Book III. The Focusing Institute.
Gill, Mary Louise (1989). Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity. Princeton University Press.
Jori, Alberto (2003). Aristotele, Bruno Mondadori (Prize 2003 of the "International Academy of the History of Science"), .
Knight, Kelvin (2007). Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre, Polity Press.
Lewis, Frank A. (1991). Substance and Predication in Aristotle. Cambridge University Press.
Lord, Carnes (1984). Introduction to The Politics, by Aristotle. Chicago University Press.
Loux, Michael J. (1991). Primary Ousia: An Essay on Aristotle's Metaphysics Ζ and Η. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Maso, Stefano (Ed.), Natali, Carlo (Ed.), Seel, Gerhard (Ed.) (2012) Reading Aristotle: Physics VII. 3: What is Alteration? Proceedings of the International ESAP-HYELE Conference, Parmenides Publishing. .
[Reprinted in J. Barnes, M. Schofield, and R. R. K. Sorabji, eds.(1975). Articles on Aristotle Vol 1. Science. London: Duckworth 14–34.]
Reeve, C. D. C. (2000). Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics. Hackett.
Scaltsas, T. (1994). Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics. Cornell University Press.
Strauss, Leo (1964). "On Aristotle's Politics", in The City and Man, Rand McNally.
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Aristotle | External links | External links
At the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
At the Internet Classics Archive
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Collections of works
At Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Perseus Project at Tufts University
At the University of Adelaide
P. Remacle
The 11-volume 1837 Bekker edition of Aristotle's Works in Greek (PDF DJVU)
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Aristotle | Table of Content | Short description, Life, Theoretical philosophy, Logic, ''Organon'', Metaphysics, Substance, Immanent realism, Potentiality and actuality, Epistemology, Natural philosophy, Physics, Five elements, Motion, Four causes, Optics, Chance and spontaneity, Astronomy, Geology and natural sciences, Biology, Empirical research, Scientific style, Classification of living things, Psychology, Soul, Memory, Dreams, Practical philosophy, Ethics, Politics, Economics, Rhetoric, Poetics, Gender and sexuality, Transmission, His successor, Theophrastus, Later Greek philosophy, Hellenistic science, Revival, Byzantine scholars, Medieval Islamic world, Medieval Europe, Medieval Judaism, Early Modern science, 18th and 19th-century science, Present science, Surviving works, Corpus Aristotelicum, Loss and preservation, Depictions in art, Paintings, Sculptures, Eponyms, See also, References, Notes, Citations, Sources, Further reading, External links |
An American in Paris | short description | An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem (or tone poem) for orchestra by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital during the .
Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic.Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: Makoto Ozone to Perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in One-Night-Only Concert All-American Program Also to Include Bernstein's Candide Overture and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Gershwin's An American in Paris: April 22, 2014 at nyphil.org Accessed June 20, 2017 It was Damrosch who had commissioned Gershwin to write his Concerto in F following the earlier success of Rhapsody in Blue (1924)."An American in Paris", by Betsy Schwarm, Encyclopædia Britannica He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor.
On January 1, 2025, An American in Paris entered the public domain. |
An American in Paris | Background | Background
Although the story is likely apocryphal, Gershwin is said to have been attracted by Maurice Ravel's unusual chords, and Gershwin went on his first trip to Paris in 1926 ready to study with Ravel. After his initial student audition with Ravel turned into a sharing of musical theories, Ravel said he could not teach him, saying, "Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?"
Gershwin strongly encouraged Ravel to come to the United States for a tour. To this end, upon his return to New York, Gershwin joined the efforts of Ravel's friend Robert Schmitz, a pianist Ravel had met during the war, to urge Ravel to tour the U.S. Schmitz was the head of Pro Musica, promoting Franco-American musical relations, and was able to offer Ravel a $10,000 fee for the tour, an enticement Gershwin knew would be important to Ravel.
Gershwin greeted Ravel in New York in March 1928 during a party held for Ravel's birthday by Éva Gauthier. Ravel's tour reignited Gershwin's desire to return to Paris, which he and his brother Ira did after meeting Ravel. Ravel's high praise of Gershwin in an introductory letter to Nadia Boulanger caused Gershwin to seriously consider taking much more time to study abroad in Paris. Yet after he played for her, she told him she could not teach him. Boulanger gave Gershwin basically the same advice she gave all her accomplished master students: "What could I give you that you haven't already got?" This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano and orchestra to follow his Rhapsody in Blue. Paris at this time hosted many expatriate writers, among them Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and artist Pablo Picasso.LSRI Archives Oral Interview Anita Loos and Mary Anita Loos October 1979 re: letters and Ravel's telegram to Gershwin |
An American in Paris | Composition | Composition
Gershwin based An American in Paris on a melodic fragment called "Very Parisienne", written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. Gershwin called it "a rhapsodic ballet"; it is written freely and in a much more modern idiom than his prior works.
Gershwin explained in Musical America, "My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere."
The piece is structured into five sections, which culminate in a loose A–B–A format. Gershwin's first A episode introduces the two main "walking" themes in the "Allegretto grazioso" and develops a third theme in the "Subito con brio". The style of this A section is written in the typical French style of composers Claude Debussy and Les Six. This A section featured duple meter, singsong rhythms, and diatonic melodies with the sounds of oboe, English horn, and taxi horns. It also includes a melody fragment of the song "La Sorella" by Charles Borel-Clerc (1879–1959) (published in 1905).
The B section's "Andante ma con ritmo deciso" introduces the American Blues and spasms of homesickness. The "Allegro" that follows continues to express homesickness in a faster twelve-bar blues. In the B section, Gershwin uses common time, syncopated rhythms, and bluesy melodies with the sounds of trumpet, saxophone, and snare drum. "Moderato con grazia" is the last A section that returns to the themes set in A. After recapitulating the "walking" themes, Gershwin overlays the slow blues theme from section B in the final "Grandioso". |
An American in Paris | Response | Response
Gershwin did not particularly like Walter Damrosch's interpretation at the world premiere of An American in Paris. He stated that Damrosch's sluggish, dragging tempo caused him to walk out of the hall during a matinee performance of this work. The audience, according to Edward Cushing, responded with "a demonstration of enthusiasm impressively genuine in contrast to the conventional applause which new music, good and bad, ordinarily arouses."
Critics believed that An American in Paris was better crafted than Gershwin's Concerto in F. Evening Post did not think it belonged in a program with classical composers César Franck, Richard Wagner, or Guillaume Lekeu on its premiere. Gershwin responded to the critics: |
An American in Paris | Instrumentation | Instrumentation
An American in Paris was originally scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, wood block, ratchet, cymbals, low and high tom-toms, xylophone, glockenspiel, celesta, 4 taxi horns labeled as A, B, C, and D with circles around them (but tuned as follows: A=Ab, B=Bb, C=D, and D=low A), alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone (all doubling soprano and alto saxophones), and strings. Although most modern audiences have heard the taxi horns using the incorrect notes of A, B, C, and D, it had been Gershwin's intention to use the notes A4, B4, D5, and A3. It is likely that in labeling the taxi horns as A, B, C, and D with circles, he was referring to the four horns, and not the notes that they played. The correct tuning of the horns in sequence = D horn = low Ab, A horn = Ab an octave higher, B horn = Bb just above the Ab, and C horn = high D above the Bb.
A major revision of the work by composer and arranger F. Campbell-Watson simplified the instrumentation by reducing the saxophones to only three instruments: alto, tenor and baritone; the soprano and alto saxophone doublings were eliminated to avoid changing instruments. This became the standard performing edition until 2000, when Gershwin specialist Jack Gibbons made his own restoration of the original orchestration of An American in Paris, working directly from Gershwin's original manuscript, including the restoration of Gershwin's soprano saxophone parts removed in Campbell-Watson's revision. Gibbons' restored orchestration of An American in Paris was performed at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 9, 2000, by the City of Oxford Orchestra conducted by Levon Parikian.
William Daly arranged the score for piano solo; this was published by New World Music in 1929. |
An American in Paris | Preservation status | Preservation status
On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score would be eventually released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, were working to make scores available to the public that represent Gershwin's true intent. It was unknown whether the critical score would include the four minutes of material Gershwin later deleted from the work (such as the restatement of the blues theme after the faster 12 bar blues section), or if the score would document changes in the orchestration during Gershwin's composition process.
The score to An American in Paris was scheduled to be issued first in a series of scores to be released. The entire project was expected to take 30 to 40 years to complete, but An American in Paris was planned to be an early volume in the series.
Two urtext editions of the work were published by the German publisher B-Note Music in 2015. The changes made by Campbell-Watson were withdrawn in both editions. In the extended urtext, 120 bars of music were re-integrated. Conductor Walter Damrosch had cut them shortly before the first performance.
On September 9, 2017, The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere of the long-awaited critical edition of the piece prepared by Mark Clague, director of the Gershwin initiative at the University of Michigan. This performance was of the original 1928 orchestration. |
An American in Paris | Recordings | Recordings
An American in Paris has been frequently recorded. The first recording was made for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929 with Nathaniel Shilkret conducting the Victor Symphony Orchestra, drawn from members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gershwin was on hand to "supervise" the recording; however, Shilkret was reported to be in charge and eventually asked the composer to leave the recording studio. Then, a little later, Shilkret discovered there was no one to play the brief celesta solo during the slow section, so he hastily asked Gershwin if he might play the solo; Gershwin said he could and so he briefly participated in the actual recording. This recording is believed to use the taxi horns in the way that Gershwin had intended using the notes A-flat, B-flat, a higher D, and a lower A.
The radio broadcast of the September 8, 1937, Hollywood Bowl George Gershwin Memorial Concert, in which An American in Paris, also conducted by Shilkret, was second on the program, was recorded and was released in 1998 in a two-CD set.
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded the work for RCA Victor, including one of the first stereo recordings of the music.
In 1945, Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra recorded the piece for RCA Victor, one of the few commercial recordings Toscanini made of music by an American composer.
The Seattle Symphony also recorded a version in 1990 of Gershwin's original score, before numerous edits were made resulting in the score as we hear it today.
The blues section of An American in Paris has been recorded separately by a number of artists; Ralph Flanagan & His Orchestra released it as a single in 1951 which reached No. 15 on the Billboard chart. Harry James released a version of the blues section on his 1953 album One Night Stand, recorded live at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (Columbia GL 522 and CL 522). |
An American in Paris | Use in film | Use in film
In 1951, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the musical film An American in Paris, featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron and directed by Vincente Minnelli. Winning the 1951 Best Picture Oscar and numerous other awards, the film featured many tunes of Gershwin and concluded with an extensive, elaborate dance sequence built around the symphonic poem An American in Paris (arranged for the film by Johnny Green), which at the time was the most expensive musical number ever filmed, costing $500,000 .The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study |
An American in Paris | Notes and references | Notes and references |
An American in Paris | Further reading | Further reading
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An American in Paris | External links | External links
Scores, marked by Leonard Bernstein, Andre Kostelanetz, Erich Leinsdorf; New York Philharmonic archives
1944 recording by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Artur Rodziński
, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, 1959. archive
Category:1928 compositions
Category:Compositions by George Gershwin
Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Category:Music about Paris
Category:Music commissioned by the New York Philharmonic
Category:Symphonic poems
Category:Compositions for symphony orchestra
Category:Concert band pieces |
An American in Paris | Table of Content | short description, Background, Composition, Response, Instrumentation, Preservation status, Recordings, Use in film, Notes and references, Further reading, External links |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Short description | The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted from the Art Directors' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) being renamed the Designers' branch. Since 1947, the award is shared with the set decorators. It is awarded to the best interior design in a film.
The films below are listed with their production year (for example, the 2000 Academy Award for Best Art Direction is given to a film from 1999). In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees in alphabetical order. |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Superlatives | Superlatives
Category Name Superlative Notes Most Awards Cedric Gibbons 11 awards Awards resulted from 39 nominations. Most Nominations 39 nominations Nominations resulted in 11 awards. Most Nominations (without ever winning) Roland Anderson 15 nominations Nominations resulted in no awards. |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Winners and nominees | Winners and nominees |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1920s | 1920s
Year Film Art director(s)1927/28 The Dove William Cameron Menzies Tempest 7th Heaven Harry Oliver Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Rochus Gliese 1928/29 The 2nd Academy Awards is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees. Subsequent research by AMPAS has resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges. The Bridge of San Luis Rey Cedric Gibbons Alibi William Cameron Menzies The Awakening Dynamite Mitchell Leisen The Patriot Hans Dreier Street Angel Harry Oliver |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1930s | 1930s
Year Film Art director(s)1929/30 King of Jazz Herman Rosse Bulldog Drummond William Cameron Menzies The Love Parade Hans Dreier Sally Jack Okey The Vagabond King Hans Dreier 1930/31 Cimarron Max Rée Just Imagine Stephen Goosson and Ralph Hammeras Morocco Hans Dreier Svengali Anton Grot Whoopee! Richard Day 1931/32 Transatlantic Gordon Wiles Arrowsmith Richard Day À Nous la Liberté Lazare Meerson 1932/33 Cavalcade William S. Darling A Farewell to Arms Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson When Ladies Meet Cedric Gibbons 1934 The Merry Widow Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope The Affairs of Cellini Richard Day The Gay Divorcee Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark 1935 The Dark Angel Richard Day The Lives of a Bengal Lancer Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Top Hat Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase 1936 Dodsworth Richard Day Anthony Adverse Anton Grot The Great Ziegfeld Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis Lloyd's of London William S. Darling The Magnificent Brute Albert S. D'Agostino and Jack Otterson Romeo and Juliet Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis Winterset Perry Ferguson 1937 Lost Horizon Stephen Goosson Conquest Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning A Damsel in Distress Carroll Clark Dead End Richard Day Every Day's a Holiday Wiard Ihnen The Life of Emile Zola Anton Grot Manhattan Merry-Go-Round John Victor Mackay The Prisoner of Zenda Lyle R. Wheeler Souls at Sea Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 Alexander Toluboff Wee Willie Winkie William S. Darling and David S. Hall You're a Sweetheart Jack Otterson 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood Carl Jules Weyl The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Lyle R. Wheeler Alexander's Ragtime Band Bernard Herzbrun and Boris Leven Algiers Alexander Toluboff Carefree Van Nest Polglase The Goldwyn Follies Richard Day Holiday Stephen Goosson and Lionel Banks If I Were King Hans Dreier and John B. Goodman Mad About Music Jack Otterson Marie Antoinette Cedric Gibbons Merrily We Live Charles D. Hall 1939 Gone with the Wind Lyle R. Wheeler Beau Geste Hans Dreier and Robert Odell Captain Fury Charles D. Hall First Love Jack Otterson and Martin Obzina Love Affair Van Nest Polglase and Alfred Herman Man of Conquest John Victor Mackay Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Lionel Banks The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex Anton Grot The Rains Came William S. Darling and George Dudley Stagecoach Alexander Toluboff The Wizard of Oz Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning Wuthering Heights James Basevi |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1940s | 1940s
Year Film Art director(s) Interior decorator(s) 1940 Prior to 1941, only credited art directors and assistant art directors were eligible for nomination. Black-and-White Pride and Prejudice Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse — Arise, My Love Hans Dreier and Robert Usher — Arizona Lionel Banks and Robert Peterson The Boys from Syracuse Jack Otterson Dark Command John Victor Mackay Foreign Correspondent Alexander Golitzen Lillian Russell Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright My Favorite Wife Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk My Son, My Son! John DuCasse Schulze Our Town Lewis J. Rachmil Rebecca Lyle R. Wheeler The Sea Hawk Anton Grot The Westerner James Basevi Color The Thief of Bagdad Vincent Korda — Bitter Sweet Cedric Gibbons and John S. Detlie — Down Argentine Way Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright North West Mounted Police Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson 1941 Republic Pictures submitted Sis Hopkins and it was initially named as a nominee. However, the studio later withdrew the film from consideration and it is not considered an official nominee. Black-and-White How Green Was My Valley Richard Day and Nathan Juran Thomas Little Citizen Kane Perry Ferguson and Van Nest Polglase A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera The Flame of New Orleans Martin Obzina and Jack Otterson Russell A. Gausman Hold Back the Dawn Hans Dreier and Robert Usher Samuel M. Comer Ladies in Retirement Lionel Banks George Montgomery The Little Foxes Stephen Goosson Howard Bristol Sergeant York John Hughes Fred M. MacLean The Son of Monte Cristo John DuCasse Schulze Edward G. Boyle Sundown Alexander Golitzen Richard Irvine That Hamilton Woman Vincent Korda Julia Heron When Ladies Meet Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell Edwin B. Willis Color Blossoms in the Dust Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary Edwin B. Willis Blood and Sand Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little Louisiana Purchase Raoul Pene Du Bois Stephen Seymour 1942 Black-and-White This Above All Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little George Washington Slept Here Max Parker and Mark-Lee Kirk Casey Roberts The Magnificent Ambersons Albert S. D'Agostino A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera The Pride of the Yankees Perry Ferguson Howard Bristol Random Harvest Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell Edwin B. Willis and Jack Moore The Shanghai GestureBoris Leven Silver Queen Ralph Berger Emile Kuri The Spoilers John B. Goodman and Jack Otterson Russell A. Gausman and Edward Ray Robinson Take a Letter, Darling Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer The Talk of the Town Lionel Banks and Rudolph Sternad Fay Babcock Color My Gal Sal Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little Arabian Nights Alexander Golitzen and Jack Otterson Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb Captains of the Clouds Ted Smith Casey Roberts Jungle Book Vincent Korda Julia Heron Reap the Wild Wind Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson George Sawley 1943 Black-and-White The Song of Bernadette James Basevi and William S. Darling Thomas Little Five Graves to Cairo Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté Bertram C. Granger Flight for Freedom Albert S. D'Agostino and Carroll Clark Darrell Silvera and Harley Miller Madame Curie Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt Mission to Moscow Carl Jules Weyl George James Hopkins The North Star Perry Ferguson Howard Bristol Color Phantom of the Opera Alexander Golitzen and John B. Goodman Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb For Whom the Bell Tolls Hans Dreier and Haldane Douglas Bertram C. Granger The Gang's All Here James Basevi and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little This Is the Army John Hughes George James Hopkins Thousands Cheer Cedric Gibbons and Daniel Cathcart Edwin B. Willis and Jacques Mersereau 1944 United Artists submitted Song of the Open Road and it was initially named as a nominee. However, the studio later withdrew the film from consideration and it is not considered an official nominee. Black-and-White Gaslight Cedric Gibbons and William Ferrari Paul Huldschinsky and Edwin B. Willis Address Unknown Lionel Banks and Walter Holscher Joseph Kish The Adventures of Mark Twain John Hughes Fred M. MacLean Casanova Brown Perry Ferguson Julia Heron Laura Lyle R. Wheeler and Leland Fuller Thomas Little No Time for Love Hans Dreier and Robert Usher Samuel M. Comer Since You Went Away Mark-Lee Kirk Victor A. Gangelin Step Lively Albert S. D'Agostino and Carroll Clark Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter Color Wilson Wiard Ihnen Thomas Little The Climax John B. Goodman and Alexander Golitzen Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb Cover Girl Lionel Banks and Cary Odell Fay Babcock The Desert Song Charles Novi Jack McConaghy Kismet Cedric Gibbons and Daniel B. Cathcart Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle Lady in the Dark Hans Dreier and Raoul Pene Du Bois Ray Moyer The Princess and the Pirate Ernst Fegté Howard Bristol 1945 Black-and-White Blood on the Sun Wiard Ihnen A. Roland Fields Experiment Perilous Albert S. D'Agostino and Jack Okey Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter The Keys of the Kingdom James Basevi and William S. Darling Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes Love Letters Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer The Picture of Dorian Gray Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters Edwin B. Willis and John Bonar and Hugh Hunt Color Frenchman's Creek Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté Samuel M. Comer Leave Her to Heaven Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford Thomas Little National Velvet Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths San Antonio Ted Smith Jack McConaghy A Thousand and One Nights Stephen Goosson and Rudolph Sternad Frank Tuttle 1946 Black-and-White Anna and the King of Siam William S. Darling and Lyle R. Wheeler Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes Kitty Hans Dreier and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer The Razor's Edge Richard Day and Nathan H. Juran Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox Color The Yearling Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis Caesar and Cleopatra John Bryan — Henry V Paul Sheriff and Carmen Dillon 1947 Black-and-White Great Expectations Wilfred Shingleton John Bryan The Foxes of Harrow Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox Color Black Narcissus Alfred Junge — Life with Father Robert M. Haas George James Hopkins 1948 Black-and-White Hamlet Roger K. Furse Carmen Dillon Johnny Belinda Robert M. Haas William O. Wallace Color The Red Shoes Hein Heckroth Arthur Lawson Joan of Arc Richard Day Edwin Casey Roberts and Joseph Kish 1949 Black-and-White The Heiress Harry Horner and John Meehan Emile Kuri Come to the Stable Lyle R. Wheeler and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox Madame Bovary Cedric Gibbons and Jack Martin Smith Edwin B. Willis and Richard A. Pefferle Color Little Women Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore Adventures of Don Juan Edward Carrere Lyle Reifsnider Saraband Jim Morahan and William Kellner Michael Relph |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1950s | 1950s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s) 1950 Black-and-White Sunset Boulevard Hans Dreier and John Meehan Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer All About Eve George W. Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott The Red Danube Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt Color Samson and Delilah Hans Dreier and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer Annie Get Your Gun Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Richard A. Pefferle Destination Moon Ernst Fegté George Sawley 1951 Black-and-White A Streetcar Named Desire Richard Day George James Hopkins Fourteen Hours Leland Fuller and Lyle R. Wheeler Thomas Little and Fred J. Rode The House on Telegraph Hill John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Thomas Little La Ronde D'Eaubonne — Too Young to Kiss Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore Color An American in Paris E. Preston Ames and Cedric Gibbons Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason David and Bathsheba George Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Thomas Little On the Riviera Leland Fuller, Lyle R. Wheeler and Joseph C. Wright (musical settings) Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott Quo Vadis Edward Carfagno, Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning Hugh Hunt The Tales of Hoffmann Hein Heckroth — 1952 Black-and-White The Bad and the Beautiful Edward Carfagno and Cedric Gibbons F. Keogh Gleason and Edwin B. Willis Carrie Roland Anderson and Hal Pereira Emile Kuri My Cousin Rachel John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler Walter M. Scott Rashomon So Matsuyama H. Motsumoto Viva Zapata! Leland Fuller and Lyle R. Wheeler Claude E. Carpenter and Thomas Little Color Moulin Rouge Paul Sheriff Marcel Vertès Hans Christian Andersen Clavé and Richard Day Howard Bristol The Merry Widow Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Arthur Krams and Edwin B. Willis The Quiet Man Frank Hotaling John McCarthy Jr. and Charles S. Thompson The Snows of Kilimanjaro John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Thomas Little 1953 Black-and-White Julius Caesar Edward Carfagno and Cedric Gibbons Hugh Hunt and Edwin B. Willis Martin Luther Paul Markwitz and Fritz Maurischat — The President's Lady Leland Fuller and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox Roman Holiday Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler — Titanic Maurice Ransford and Lyle R. Wheeler Stuart Reiss Color The Robe George Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Walter M. Scott Knights of the Round Table Alfred Junge and Hans Peters John Jarvis Lili Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Arthur Krams and Edwin B. Willis The Story of Three Loves E. Preston Ames, Edward Carfagno, Cedric Gibbons and Gabriel Scognamillo F. Keogh Gleason, Arthur Krams, Jack D. Moore and Edwin B. Willis Young Bess Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary Jack D. Moore and Edwin B. Willis 1954 Black-and-White On the Waterfront Richard Day — The Country Girl Roland Anderson and Hal Pereira Samuel M. Comer and Grace Gregory Executive Suite Cedric Gibbons and Edward Carfagno Edwin B. Willis and Emile Kuri Le Plaisir Max Ophüls — Sabrina Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer Color 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea John Meehan Emile Kuri Brigadoon Cedric Gibbons and E. Preston Ames Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason Desiree Lyle R. Wheeler and Leland Fuller Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Red Garters Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer A Star Is Born Malcolm Bert and Gene Allen Irene Sharaff and George James Hopkins 1955 Black-and-White The Rose Tattoo Hal Pereira and Tambi Larsen Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams Blackboard Jungle Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace I'll Cry Tomorrow Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt The Man with the Golden Arm Joseph C. Wright Darrell Silvera Marty Edward S. Haworth and Walter M. Simonds Robert Priestley Color Picnic William Flannery and Jo Mielziner Robert Priestley Daddy Long Legs Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Guys and Dolls Oliver Smith and Joseph C. Wright Howard Bristol Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing Lyle R. Wheeler and George Davis Walter M. Scott and Jack Stubbs To Catch a Thief Hal Pereira and Joseph McMillan Johnson Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams 1956 Black-and-White Somebody Up There Likes Me Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason Seven Samurai So Matsuyama — The Proud and Profane Hal Pereira and A. Earl Hedrick Samuel M. Comer and Frank R. McKelvy The Solid Gold Cadillac Ross Bellah William Kiernan and Louis Diage Teenage Rebel Lyle R. Wheeler and Jack Martin Smith Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss Color The King and I Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Around the World in 80 Days James W. Sullivan and Ken Adam Ross J. Dowd Giant Boris Leven Ralph S. Hurst Lust for Life Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters and E. Preston Ames Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason The Ten Commandments Walter H. Tyler and Albert Nozaki Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer 1957 In 1957 and 1958, black-and-white and color films competed in a combined Best Art Direction category. Sayonara Ted Haworth Robert Priestley Funny Face Hal Pereira and George Davis Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer Les Girls William A. Horning and Gene Allen Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle Pal Joey Walter Holscher William Kiernan and Louis Diage Raintree County William A. Horning and Urie McCleary Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt 1958 Gigi William A. Horning and E. Preston Ames Henry Grace and F. Keogh Gleason Auntie Mame Malcolm Bert George James Hopkins Bell, Book and Candle Cary Odell Louis Diage A Certain Smile Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Vertigo Hal Pereira and Henry Bumstead Samuel M. Comer and Frank McKelvy 1959 Black-and-White The Diary of Anne Frank Lyle R. Wheeler and George Davis Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss Career Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams The Last Angry Man Carl Anderson William Kiernan Some Like It Hot Ted Haworth Edward G. Boyle Suddenly, Last Summer Oliver Messel and William Kellner Scott Slimon Color Ben-Hur William A. Horning and Edward Carfagno Hugh Hunt The Big Fisherman John DeCuir Julia Heron Journey to the Center of the Earth Lyle R. Wheeler, Franz Bachelin and Herman A. Blumenthal Walter M. Scott and Joseph Kish North by Northwest William A. Horning , Robert F. Boyle and Merrill Pye Henry Grace and Frank McKelvy Pillow Talk Richard H. Riedel Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Levitt |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1960s | 1960s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s) 1960 Black-and-White The Apartment Alexandre Trauner Edward G. Boyle The Facts of Life Joseph McMillan Johnson and Kenneth A. Reid Ross Dowd Psycho Joseph Hurley and Robert Clatworthy George Milo Sons and Lovers Tom Morahan Lionel Couch Visit to a Small Planet Hal Pereira and Walter Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams Color Spartacus Alexander Golitzen and Eric Orbom Russell A. Gausman and Julia Heron Cimarron George Davis and Addison Hehr Henry Grace, Hugh Hunt and Otto Siegel It Started in Naples Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Arrigo Breschi Pepe Ted Haworth William Kiernan Sunrise at Campobello Edward Carrere George James Hopkins 1961 Black-and-White The Hustler Harry Horner Gene Callahan The Absent-Minded Professor Carroll Clark Emile Kuri and Hal Gausman The Children's Hour Fernando Carrere Edward G. Boyle Judgment at Nuremberg Rudolph Sternad George Milo La Dolce Vita Piero Gherardi — Color West Side Story Boris Leven Victor A. Gangelin Breakfast at Tiffany's Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer El Cid Veniero Colasanti and John Moore — Flower Drum Song Alexander Golitzen and Joseph C. Wright Howard Bristol Summer and Smoke Hal Pereira and Walter Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams 1962 Black-and-White To Kill a Mockingbird Alexander Golitzen and Henry Bumstead Oliver Emert Days of Wine and Roses Joseph C. Wright George James Hopkins The Longest Day Ted Haworth, Léon Barsacq and Vincent Korda Gabriel Béchir Period of Adjustment George Davis and Edward Carfagno Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle The Pigeon That Took Rome Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Frank R. McKelvy Color Lawrence of Arabia John Box and John Stoll Dario Simoni The Music Man Paul Groesse George James Hopkins Mutiny on the Bounty George Davis and Joseph McMillan Johnson Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt That Touch of Mink Alexander Golitzen and Robert Clatworthy George Milo The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm George Davis and Edward Carfagno Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle 1963 Black-and-White America America Gene Callahan — 8½ Piero Gherardi — Hud Hal Pereira and Tambi Larsen Samuel M. Comer and Robert R. Benton Love with the Proper Stranger Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Grace Gregory Twilight of Honor George Davis and Paul Groesse Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt Color Cleopatra John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Hilyard M. Brown, Herman A. Blumenthal, Elven Webb, Maurice Pelling and Boris Juraga Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox and Ray Moyer The Cardinal Lyle R. Wheeler Gene Callahan Come Blow Your Horn Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and James W. Payne How the West Was Won George Davis, William Ferrari and Addison Hehr Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills Tom Jones Ralph W. Brinton, Jocelyn Herbert, and Ted Marshall Josie MacAvin 1964 Black-and-White Zorba the Greek Vassilis Photopoulos — The Americanization of Emily George Davis, Hans Peters and Elliot Scott Henry Grace and Robert R. Benton Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte William Glasgow Raphaël Bretton The Night of the Iguana Stephen B. Grimes — Seven Days in May Cary Odell Edward G. Boyle Color My Fair Lady Gene Allen and Cecil Beaton George James Hopkins Becket John Bryan and Maurice Carter Patrick McLoughlin and Robert Cartwright Mary Poppins Carroll Clark and William H. Tuntke Emile Kuri and Hal Gausman The Unsinkable Molly Brown George Davis and E. Preston Ames Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt What a Way to Go! Jack Martin Smith and Ted Haworth Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss 1965 Black-and-White Ship of Fools Robert Clatworthy Joseph Kish King Rat Robert Emmet Smith Frank Tuttle A Patch of Blue George Davis and Urie McCleary Henry Grace and Charles S. Thompson The Slender Thread Hal Pereira and Jack Poplin Robert R. Benton and Joseph Kish The Spy Who Came In from the Cold Hal Pereira and Tambi Larsen Ted Marshall and Josie MacAvin Color Doctor Zhivago John Box and Terence Marsh Dario Simoni The Agony and the Ecstasy John DeCuir and Jack Martin Smith Dario Simoni The Greatest Story Ever Told Richard Day, William Creber and David S. Hall Ray Moyer and Fred M. MacLean and Norman Rockett Inside Daisy Clover Robert Clatworthy George James Hopkins The Sound of Music Boris Leven Walter M. Scott and Ruby Levitt 1966 Black-and-White Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Richard Sylbert George James Hopkins The Fortune Cookie Robert Luthardt Edward G. Boyle The Gospel According to St. Matthew Luigi Scaccianoce — Is Paris Burning? Willy Holt Marc Frédérix and Pierre Guffroy Mister Buddwing George Davis and Paul Groesse Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt Color Fantastic Voyage Jack Martin Smith and Dale Hennesy Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss Gambit Alexander Golitzen and George C. Webb John McCarthy Jr. and John P. Austin Juliet of the Spirits Piero Gherardi — The Oscar Hal Pereira and Arthur Lonergan Robert R. Benton and James W. Payne The Sand Pebbles Boris Leven Walter M. Scott, John Sturtevant and William Kiernan 1967 Camelot John Truscott and Edward Carrere John W. Brown Doctor Dolittle Mario Chiari, Jack Martin Smith and Ed Graves Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Robert Clatworthy Frank Tuttle The Taming of the Shrew Renzo Mongiardino, John DeCuir, Elven Webb and Giuseppe Mariani Dario Simoni and Luigi Gervasi Thoroughly Modern Millie Alexander Golitzen and George C. Webb Howard Bristol 1968 Oliver! John Box and Terence Marsh Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston The Shoes of the Fisherman George Davis and Edward Carfagno — Star! Boris Leven Walter M. Scott and Howard Bristol 2001: A Space Odyssey Anthony Masters, Harry Lange and Ernest Archer — War and Peace Mikhail Bogdanov and Gennady Myasnikov Georgi Koshelev and Vladimir Uvarov 1969 Hello, Dolly! John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith and Herman A. Blumenthal Walter M. Scott, George James Hopkins and Raphaël Bretton Anne of the Thousand Days Maurice Carter and Lionel Couch Patrick McLoughlin Gaily, Gaily Robert F. Boyle and George B. Chan Edward G. Boyle and Carl Biddiscombe Sweet Charity Alexander Golitzen and George C. Webb Jack D. Moore They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Harry Horner Frank R. McKelvy |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1970s | 1970s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s) 1970 Patton Urie McCleary and Gil Parrondo Antonio Mateos and Pierre-Louis Thévenet Airport Alexander Golitzen and E. Preston Ames Jack D. Moore and Mickey S. Michaels The Molly Maguires Tambi Larsen Darrell Silvera Scrooge Terence Marsh and Robert Cartwright Pamela Cornell Tora! Tora! Tora! Jack Martin Smith, Yoshirō Muraki, Richard Day and Taizô Kawashima Walter M. Scott, Norman Rockett and Carl Biddiscombe 1971 Nicholas and Alexandra John Box, Ernest Archer, Jack Maxsted and Gil Parrondo Vernon Dixon The Andromeda Strain Boris Leven and William H. Tuntke Ruby Levitt Bedknobs and Broomsticks John B. Mansbridge and Peter Ellenshaw Emile Kuri and Hal Gausman Fiddler on the Roof Robert F. Boyle and Michael Stringer Peter Lamont Mary, Queen of Scots Terence Marsh and Robert Cartwright Peter Howitt 1972 Cabaret Rolf Zehetbauer and Hans Jürgen Kiebach Herbert Strabel Lady Sings the Blues Carl Anderson Reg Allen The Poseidon Adventure William Creber Raphaël Bretton Travels with My Aunt John Box, Gil Parrondo and Robert W. Laing — Young Winston Donald M. Ashton and Geoffrey Drake John Graysmark, William Hutchinson and Peter James 1973 The Sting Henry Bumstead James W. Payne Brother Sun, Sister Moon Lorenzo Mongiardino and Gianni Quaranta Carmelo Patrono The Exorcist Bill Malley Jerry Wunderlich Tom Sawyer Philip M. Jefferies Robert De Vestel The Way We Were Stephen B. Grimes William Kiernan 1974 The Godfather Part II Dean Tavoularis and Angelo P. Graham George R. Nelson Chinatown Richard Sylbert and W. Stewart Campbell Ruby Levitt Earthquake Alexander Golitzen and E. Preston Ames Frank R. McKelvy The Island at the Top of the World Peter Ellenshaw, John B. Mansbridge, Walter Tyler and Al Roelofs Hal Gausman The Towering Inferno William Creber and Ward Preston Raphaël Bretton 1975 Barry Lyndon Ken Adam and Roy Walker Vernon Dixon The Hindenburg Edward Carfagno Frank R. McKelvy The Man Who Would Be King Alexandre Trauner and Tony Inglis Peter James Shampoo Richard Sylbert and W. Stewart Campbell George Gaines The Sunshine Boys Albert Brenner Marvin March 1976 All the President's Men George Jenkins George Gaines The Incredible Sarah Elliot Scott Norman Reynolds The Last Tycoon Gene Callahan and Jack T. Collis Jerry Wunderlich Logan's Run Dale Hennesy Robert De Vestel The Shootist Robert F. Boyle Arthur Jeph Parker 1977 Star Wars John Barry, Norman Reynolds and Leslie Dilley Roger Christian Airport '77 George C. Webb Mickey S. Michaels Close Encounters of the Third Kind Joe Alves and Dan Lomino Phil Abramson The Spy Who Loved Me Ken Adam and Peter Lamont Hugh Scaife The Turning Point Albert Brenner Marvin March 1978 Heaven Can Wait Paul Sylbert and Edwin O'Donovan George Gaines The Brink's Job Dean Tavoularis and Angelo P. Graham George R. Nelson and Bruce Kay California Suite Albert Brenner Marvin March Interiors Mel Bourne Daniel Robert The Wiz Tony Walton and Philip Rosenberg Edward Stewart and Robert Drumheller 1979 All That Jazz Philip Rosenberg and Tony Walton Edward Stewart and Gary J. Brink Alien Michael Seymour, Leslie Dilley and Roger Christian Ian Whittaker Apocalypse Now Dean Tavoularis and Angelo P. Graham George R. Nelson The China Syndrome George Jenkins Arthur Jeph Parker Star Trek: The Motion Picture Harold Michelson, Joe Jennings, Leon Harris and John Vallone Linda DeScenna |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1980s | 1980s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s) 1980 Tess Pierre Guffroy and Jack Stephens — Coal Miner's Daughter John W. Corso John M. Dwyer The Elephant Man Stuart Craig and Robert Cartwright Hugh Scaife Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, Harry Lange and Alan Tomkins Michael D. Ford Kagemusha Yoshirō Muraki — 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark Norman Reynolds and Leslie Dilley Michael D. Ford The French Lieutenant's Woman Assheton Gorton Ann Mollo Heaven's Gate Tambi Larsen James L. Berkey Ragtime John Graysmark, Patrizia von Brandenstein and Tony Reading George DeTitta Sr., George DeTitta Jr. and Peter Howitt Reds Richard Sylbert Michael Seirton 1982 Gandhi Stuart Craig and Robert W. Laing Michael Seirton Annie Dale Hennesy Marvin March Blade Runner Lawrence G. Paull and David L. Snyder Linda DeScenna La Traviata Franco Zeffirelli and Gianni Quaranta — Victor/Victoria Rodger Maus, Tim Hutchinson and William Craig Smith Harry Cordwell 1983 Fanny and Alexander Anna Asp — Return of the Jedi Norman Reynolds, Fred Hole and James L. Schoppe Michael D. Ford The Right Stuff Geoffrey Kirkland, Richard Lawrence, W. Stewart Campbell and Peter R. Romero Jim Poynter and George R. Nelson Terms of Endearment Polly Platt and Harold Michelson Tom Pedigo and Anthony Mondell Yentl Roy Walker and Leslie Tomkins Tessa Davies 1984 Amadeus Patrizia von Brandenstein and Karel Černý — 2010 Albert Brenner Rick Simpson The Cotton Club Richard Sylbert George Gaines The Natural Mel Bourne and Angelo P. Graham Bruce Weintraub A Passage to India John Box Hugh Scaife 1985 Out of Africa Stephen B. Grimes Josie MacAvin Brazil Norman Garwood Maggie Gray The Color Purple J. Michael Riva and Bo Welch Linda DeScenna Ran Yoshirō Muraki and Shinobu Muraki — Witness Stan Jolley John H. Anderson 1986 A Room with a View Gianni Quaranta and Brian Ackland-Snow Brian Savegar and Elio Altramura Aliens Peter Lamont Crispian Sallis The Color of Money Boris Leven Karen O'Hara Hannah and Her Sisters Stuart Wurtzel Carol Joffe The Mission Stuart Craig Jack Stephens 1987 The Last Emperor Ferdinando Scarfiotti Bruno Cesari and Osvaldo Desideri Empire of the Sun Norman Reynolds Harry Cordwell Hope and Glory Anthony Pratt Joanne Woollard Radio Days Santo Loquasto Carol Joffe, Leslie Bloom and George DeTitta Jr. The Untouchables Patrizia von Brandenstein and William A. Elliott Hal Gausman 1988 Dangerous Liaisons Stuart Craig Gérard James Beaches Albert Brenner Garrett Lewis Rain Man Ida Random Linda DeScenna Tucker: The Man and His Dream Dean Tavoularis Armin Ganz Who Framed Roger Rabbit Elliot Scott Peter Howitt 1989 Batman Anton Furst Peter Young The Abyss Leslie Dilley Anne Kuljian The Adventures of Baron Munchausen Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo Driving Miss Daisy Bruno Rubeo Crispian Sallis Glory Norman Garwood Garrett Lewis |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1990s | 1990s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s)1990(63rd) Dick Tracy Richard Sylbert Rick Simpson Cyrano de Bergerac Ezio Frigerio Jacques Rouxel Dances With Wolves Jeffrey Beecroft Lisa Dean The Godfather Part III Dean Tavoularis Gary Fettis Hamlet Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo 1991(64th) Bugsy Dennis Gassner Nancy Haigh Barton Fink Dennis Gassner Nancy Haigh The Fisher King Mel Bourne Cindy Carr Hook Norman Garwood Garrett Lewis The Prince of Tides Paul Sylbert Caryl Heller 1992(65th) Howards End Luciana Arrighi Ian Whittaker Bram Stoker's Dracula Thomas E. Sanders Garrett Lewis Chaplin Stuart Craig Chris A. Butler Toys Ferdinando Scarfiotti Linda DeScenna Unforgiven Henry Bumstead Janice Blackie-Goodine 1993(66th) Schindler's List Allan Starski Ewa Braun Addams Family Values Ken Adam Marvin March The Age of Innocence Dante Ferretti Robert J. Franco Orlando Ben Van Os and Jan Roelfs — The Remains of the Day Luciana Arrighi Ian Whittaker 1994(67th) The Madness of King George Ken Adam Carolyn Scott Bullets Over Broadway Santo Loquasto Susan Bode Forrest Gump Rick Carter Nancy Haigh Interview with the Vampire Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo Legends of the Fall Lilly Kilvert Dorree Cooper 1995(68th) Restoration Eugenio Zanetti — Apollo 13 Michael Corenblith Merideth Boswell Babe Roger Ford Kerrie Brown A Little Princess Bo Welch Cheryl Carasik Richard III Tony Burrough — 1996(69th) The English Patient Stuart Craig Stephenie McMillan The Birdcage Bo Welch Cheryl Carasik Evita Brian Morris Philippe Turlure Hamlet Tim Harvey — Romeo + Juliet Catherine Martin Brigitte Broch 1997(70th) Titanic Peter Lamont Michael D. Ford Gattaca Jan Roelfs Nancy Nye Kundun Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo L.A. Confidential Jeannine Oppewall Jay Hart Men in Black Bo Welch Cheryl Carasik 1998(71st) Shakespeare in Love Martin Childs Jill Quertier Elizabeth John Myhre Peter Howitt Pleasantville Jeannine Oppewall Jay Hart Saving Private Ryan Tom Sanders Lisa Dean Kavanaugh What Dreams May Come Eugenio Zanetti Cindy Carr 1999(72nd) Sleepy Hollow Rick Heinrichs Peter Young Anna and the King Luciana Arrighi Ian Whittaker The Cider House Rules David Gropman Beth Rubino The Talented Mr. Ripley Roy Walker Bruno Cesari Topsy-Turvy Eve Stewart John Bush |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 2000s | 2000s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s)2000(73rd) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Timmy Yip — Gladiator Arthur Max Crispian Sallis How the Grinch Stole Christmas Michael Corenblith Merideth Boswell Quills Martin Childs Jill Quertier Vatel Jean Rabasse Françoise Benoît-Fresco 2001(74th) Moulin Rouge! Catherine Martin Brigitte Broch Amélie Aline Bonetto Marie-Laure Valla Gosford Park Stephen Altman Anna Pinnock Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Stuart Craig Stephenie McMillan The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Grant Major Dan Hennah 2002(75th) Chicago John Myhre Gordon Sim Frida Felipe Fernández del Paso Hania Robledo Gangs of New York Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Grant Major Dan Hennah and Alan Lee Road to Perdition Dennis Gassner Nancy Haigh 2003(76th) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Grant Major Dan Hennah and Alan Lee Girl with a Pearl Earring Ben Van Os Cecile Heideman The Last Samurai Lilly Kilvert Gretchen Rau Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World William Sandell Robert Gould Seabiscuit Jeannine Oppewall Leslie Pope 2004(77th) The Aviator Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo Finding Neverland Gemma Jackson Trisha Edwards Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Rick Heinrichs Cheryl Carasik The Phantom of the Opera Anthony Pratt Celia Bobak A Very Long Engagement Aline Bonetto — 2005(78th) Memoirs of a Geisha John Myhre Gretchen Rau Good Night, and Good Luck Jim Bissell Jan Pascale Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Stuart Craig Stephenie McMillan King Kong Grant Major Dan Hennah and Simon Bright Pride & Prejudice Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer 2006(79th) Pan's Labyrinth Eugenio Caballero Pilar Revuelta Dreamgirls John Myhre Nancy Haigh The Good Shepherd Jeannine Claudia Oppewall Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Rick Heinrichs Cheryl Carasik The Prestige Nathan Crowley Julie Ochipinti 2007(80th) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo American Gangster Arthur Max Beth A. Rubino Atonement Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer The Golden Compass Dennis Gassner Anna Pinnock There Will Be Blood Jack Fisk Jim Erickson 2008(81st) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Donald Graham Burt Victor J. Zolfo Changeling James J. Murakami Gary Fettis The Dark Knight Nathan Crowley Peter Lando The Duchess Michael Carlin Rebecca Alleway Revolutionary Road Kristi Zea Debra Schutt 2009(82nd) Avatar Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Kim Sinclair The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro Caroline Smith Nine John Myhre Gordon Sim Sherlock Holmes Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer The Young Victoria Patrice Vermette Maggie Gray |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 2010s | 2010s
Year Film Production designer(s) Set decorator(s)2010(83rd) Alice in Wonderland Robert Stromberg Karen O'Hara Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 Stuart Craig Stephenie McMillan Inception Guy Hendrix Dyas Larry Dias and Doug Mowat The King's Speech Eve Stewart Judy Farr True Grit Jess Gonchor Nancy Haigh 2011(84th) Hugo Dante Ferretti Francesca Lo Schiavo The Artist Laurence Bennett Robert Gould Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Stuart Craig Stephenie McMillan Midnight in Paris Anne Seibel Hélène Dubreuil War Horse Rick Carter Lee Sandales 2012(85th) Lincoln Rick Carter Jim Erickson Anna Karenina Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Dan Hennah Ra Vincent and Simon Bright Les Misérables Eve Stewart Anna Lynch-Robinson Life of Pi David Gropman Anna Pinnock 2013(86th) The Great Gatsby Catherine Martin Beverley Dunn American Hustle Judy Becker Heather Loeffler Gravity Andy Nicholson Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard Her K. K. Barrett Gene Serdena 12 Years a Slave Adam Stockhausen Alice Baker 2014(87th) The Grand Budapest Hotel Adam Stockhausen Anna Pinnock The Imitation Game Maria Djurkovic Tatiana Macdonald Interstellar Nathan Crowley Gary Fettis Into the Woods Dennis Gassner Anna Pinnock Mr. Turner Suzie Davies Charlotte Watts 2015(88th) Mad Max: Fury Road Colin Gibson Lisa Thompson Bridge of Spies Adam Stockhausen Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich The Danish Girl Eve Stewart Michael Standish The Martian Arthur Max Celia Bobak The Revenant Jack Fisk Hamish Purdy 2016(89th) La La Land David Wasco Sandy Reynolds-Wasco Arrival Patrice Vermette Paul Hotte Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Stuart Craig Anna Pinnock Hail, Caesar! Jess Gonchor Nancy Haigh Passengers Guy Hendrix Dyas Gene Serdena 2017(90th) The Shape of Water Paul Denham Austerberry Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin Beauty and the Beast Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer Blade Runner 2049 Dennis Gassner Alessandra Querzola Darkest Hour Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer Dunkirk Nathan Crowley Gary Fettis 2018(91st) Black Panther Hannah Beachler Jay Hart The Favourite Fiona Crombie Alice Felton First Man Nathan Crowley Kathy Lucas Mary Poppins Returns John Myhre Gordon Sim Roma Eugenio Caballero Bárbara Enrı́quez 2019(92nd) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Barbara Ling Nancy Haigh The Irishman Bob Shaw Regina Graves Jojo Rabbit Ra Vincent Nora Sopková 1917 Dennis Gassner Lee Sandales Parasite Lee Ha-jun Cho Won-woo |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 2020s | 2020s
Year Film Production designer(s) Set decorator(s)2020(93rd) Mank Donald Graham Burt Jan Pascale The Father Peter Francis Cathy Featherstone Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Mark Ricker Karen O'Hara and Diana Stoughton News of the World David Crank Elizabeth Keenan Tenet Nathan Crowley Kathy Lucas 2021(94th) Dune Patrice Vermette Zsuzsanna Sipos Nightmare Alley Tamara Deverell Shane Vieau The Power of the Dog Grant Major Amber Richards The Tragedy of Macbeth Stefan Dechant Nancy Haigh West Side Story Adam Stockhausen Rena DeAngelo 2022(95th) All Quiet on the Western Front Christian M. Goldbeck Ernestine Hipper Avatar: The Way of Water Dylan Cole and Ben Procter Vanessa Cole Babylon Florencia Martin Anthony Carlino Elvis Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy Bev Dunn The Fabelmans Rick Carter Karen O'Hara 2023(96th) Poor Things James Price and Shona Heath Zsuzsa Mihalek Barbie Sarah Greenwood Katie Spencer Killers of the Flower Moon Jack Fisk Adam Willis Napoleon Arthur Max Elli Griff Oppenheimer Ruth De Jong Claire Kaufman 2024(97th) Wicked Nathan Crowley Lee Sandales The Brutalist Judy Becker Patricia Cuccia Conclave Suzie Davies Cynthia Sleiter Dune: Part Two Patrice Vermette Shane Vieau Nosferatu Craig Lathrop Beatrice Brentnerová |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Notes | Notes |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Shortlisted finalists | Shortlisted finalists
Finalists for Best Production Design were selected by branch members, who voted for ten finalists which were screened to determine the five nominees.
Year FinalistsRef 1967 Barefoot in the Park, Bonnie and Clyde, The Flim-Flam Man, The Happiest Millionaire, In Like Flint 1968 Funny Girl, The Killing of Sister George, Never a Dull Moment, The Odd Couple, Planet of the Apes 1969 The April Fools, Marooned, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Topaz, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? 1970 Cromwell, Darling Lili, Fellini Satyricon, The Great White Hope, M*A*S*H 1971 Carnal Knowledge, A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection, The Mephisto Waltz, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? 1972 Butterflies Are Free, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Slaughterhouse-Five, Snowball Express, The War Between Men and Women 1973 40 Carats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Lost Horizon, Papillon, The World's Greatest Athlete 1974 The Dion Brothers, The Front Page, The Great Gatsby, Mame, Young Frankenstein 1975 At Long Last Love, Escape to Witch Mountain, Jaws, Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York, Tommy 1976 Freaky Friday, From Noon till Three, Harry and Walter Go to New York, King Kong, A Star Is Born 1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar, New York, New York, 1900, Pete's Dragon, Sorcerer 1978 The Boys from Brazil, Foul Play, Gray Lady Down, Grease, House Calls 1979 The Black Hole, Manhattan, Moonraker, 10, Winter Kills |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Individuals with multiple wins | Individuals with multiple wins
11 wins
Cedric Gibbons
8 wins
Edwin B. Willis
7 wins
Richard Day
6 wins
Thomas Little
Walter M. Scott
5 wins
Lyle R. Wheeler
4 wins
John Box
Samuel M. Comer
F. Keogh Gleason
George James Hopkins
3 wins
Edward Carfagno
Stuart Craig
William S. Darling
John DeCuir
Vernon Dixon
Hans Dreier
Dante Ferretti
Paul S. Fox
Alexander Golitzen
Paul Groesse
John Meehan
Ray Moyer
Francesca Lo Schiavo
Jack Martin Smith
2 wins
Ken Adam
E. Preston Ames
Herman A. Blumenthal
Henry Bumstead
Donald Graham Burt
Gene Callahan
Rick Carter
George Davis
Leslie Dilley
Michael D. Ford
George Gaines
Russell A. Gausman
Nancy Haigh
Harry Horner
William A. Horning
Hugh Hunt
Wiard Ihnen
Emile Kuri
Terence Marsh
Catherine Martin
William Cameron Menzies
Urie McCleary
John Myhre
Gil Parrondo
Robert Priestley
Stuart A. Reiss
Norman Reynolds
Dario Simoni
Robert Stromberg
Richard Sylbert
Joseph C. Wright
Peter Young |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | See also | See also
BAFTA Award for Best Production Design
Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Production Design
ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards
List of Academy Award–nominated films |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | References | References
Best Production Design
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Category:Awards for best production design |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Table of Content | Short description, Superlatives, Winners and nominees, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s, Notes, Shortlisted finalists, Individuals with multiple wins, See also, References |
Academy Awards | Short description | The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The Oscars are widely considered to be the most prestigious awards in the film industry.Attributed to multiple references:
The major award categories, known as the Academy Awards of Merit, are presented during a live-televised Hollywood ceremony in February or March. It is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929. The second ceremony, in 1930, was the first one broadcast by radio. The 1953 ceremony was the first one televised. It is the oldest of the four major annual American entertainment awards. Its counterparts—the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music—are modeled after the Academy Awards.
The Oscar statuette depicts a knight, rendered in the Art Deco style. |
Academy Awards | History | History
The first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with an audience of about 270 people.
The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was (). Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors, and other participants in the film-making industry of the time, for their works during the 1927–28 period. The ceremony ran for 15minutes.
For this first ceremony, winners were announced to the media three months earlier. For the second ceremony in 1930, and the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00pm on the night of the awards. In 1940, the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began. As a result, in 1941 the Academy started using a sealed envelope to reveal the names of the winners.
The term "Oscar" is a registered trademark of the AMPAS. |
Academy Awards | Milestones | Milestones
The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. As he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, the Academy agreed to give him the prize early, making him the first Academy Award recipient. For the first Awards, winners were recognized for multiple films during the qualifying period; Jannings received the award for two films in which he starred, and Janet Gaynor won the first Best Actress award for performances in three films. Beginning with the second ceremony, performers received separate nominations for individual films; no performer has received multiple nominations in the same category since the 3rd Academy Awards.
For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period ran from August 1 to July 31. The 6th Academy Awards' eligibility ran from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933, and as of the 7th Academy Awards, subsequent eligibility periods have matched the calendar year (with the exception of the 93rd Academy Awards, which, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, extended the eligibility period to February 28, 2021).
Best Foreign Language Film, now known as Best International Feature Film, was introduced at the 20th Academy Awards as a special award, and became a competitive category at the 29th Academy Awards.
The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies, except for 2021, have ended with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Traditionally, the previous year's winners for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor present the awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, and vice versa. In 2009, this model was replaced by each acting award being introduced by five previous winners, each of whom introduces one of the nominated performances, referred to as the "Fab 5" presenters format. The Fab 5 model returned in 2024 after a 15-year hiatus.
On February 9, 2020, Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards.
The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2020 and early 2021, was held on April 25, 2021, after it was postponed from its original February 28, 2021, schedule due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema. As with the two previous ceremonies, there was no host. The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. It took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California for the 19th consecutive year, with satellite locations at Union Station also in Los Angeles. Because of the virus impact on films and TV industries, Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson announced that for the 2021 Oscar Ceremony, streaming films with a previously planned theatrical release were eligible. The theatrical requirement was reinstated starting with the 95th Academy Awards. |
Academy Awards | Oscar statuette | Oscar statuette |
Academy Awards | Overview | Overview
The Oscar statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, is given to winners of each year's awards. Made of gold-plated bronze on a black metal base, it is tall, weighs and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
thumb|right|200px|Plaster War-time Oscar plaque (1943), State Central Museum of Cinema, Moscow (ru)
Sculptor George Stanley, who also did the Muse Fountain at the Hollywood Bowl, sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design. The statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years, the bronze was abandoned in favor of Britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy that is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones.
The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Award statuettes. During the 1970s, the Oscar statues were cast in Crystal Lake, Illinois. From 1983 to 2015, approximately 50 Oscars in a tin alloy with gold plating were made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company. () It would take between three and four weeks to manufacture 50 statuettes.
thumb|250x250px|Gints Zilbalodis's Academy Award statuette for Flow (2024) on display at the Latvian National Museum of Art in 2025
In 2016, the Academy returned to bronze as the core metal of the statuettes, handing manufacturing duties to Walden, New York-based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry, now owned and operated by UAP Urban Art Projects. While based on a digital scan of an original 1929 Oscar, the statuettes retain their modern-era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast in liquid bronze from 3D-printed ceramic molds and polished, they are then electroplated in 24-karat gold by Brooklyn, New York-based Epner Technology. The time required to produce 50 such statuettes is roughly three months. R.S. Owens is expected to continue producing other awards for the Academy, and service existing Oscars that need replating. |
Academy Awards | Naming | Naming
The origin of the nickname of the trophy has been disputed, as multiple people have taken credit for naming the trophy "Oscar".
Margaret Herrick, librarian and president of the Academy, may have said she named it after her supposed uncle Oscar in 1931. The only corroboration was a 1938 clipping from the Los Angeles Examiner, in which Herrick told a story of her and her husband joking with each other using the phrase, "How's your uncle Oscar".
Bette Davis, in her 1962 autobiography, claimed she named it in 1936 after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, of whom the statue's rear end reminded her. But the term had been in use at least two years before. In a 1974 biography written by Whitney Stine with commentary from Davis, Davis wrote "I relinquish once and for all any claim that I was the one—so, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the honor is all yours".
Columnist Sidney Skolsky wrote in his 1970 memoir that he came up with the term in 1934 under pressure for a deadline, mocking Vaudeville comedians who asked "Will you have a cigar, Oscar?" The Academy credits Skolsky with "the first confirmed newspaper reference" to Oscar in his column on March 16, 1934, which was written about that year's 6th Academy Awards. But in the newspaper clipping that Skolsky referred to, he wrote that , meaning that the name was already in use.
Bruce Davis, a former executive director of the Academy, credited Eleanore Lilleberg, a secretary at the Academy when the award was first introduced, for the nickname. She had overseen the pre-ceremony handling of the awards. Davis credits Lilleberg because he found in an autobiography of Einar Lilleberg, Eleanore's brother, that Einar had referenced a Norwegian army veteran named Oscar whom the two knew in Chicago, whom Einar described as having always "stood straight and tall". He asserts credit "should almost certainly belong to" Lilleberg.
In 2021, Brazilian researcher Dr. Waldemar Dalenogare Neto found the probable first public mention of the name "Oscar", in journalist Relman Morin's "Cinematters" column in the Los Angeles Evening Record on December 5, 1933. Since the awards didn't take place that year, he said: "What's happened to the annual Academy banquet? As a rule, the banquet and the awarding of "Oscar", the bronze statuette given for best performances, is all over long before this". This information changes the version of Sidney Skolsky as the first to publicly mention the name. |
Academy Awards | Engraving | Engraving
To prevent information identifying the Oscar winners from leaking ahead of the ceremony, Oscar statuettes presented at the ceremony have blank baseplates. Until 2010, winners returned their statuettes to the Academy and had to wait several weeks to have their names inscribed on their respective Oscars. Since 2010, winners have had the option of having engraved nameplates applied to their statuettes at an inscription-processing station at the Governor's Ball, a party held immediately after the Oscar ceremony. The R.S. Owens company has engraved nameplates made before the ceremony, bearing the name of every potential winner. The nameplates for the non-winning nominees are later recycled. |
Academy Awards | Ownership of Oscar statuettes | Ownership of Oscar statuettes
Before 1950, Oscar statuettes were, and remain, the property of the recipient. Since then the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that the statuette be first offered for sale back to the Academy for . If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards predating this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six-figure sums.
In 1989, Michael Todd's grandson tried to sell Todd's Best Picture Oscar for his 1956 production of Around the World in 80 Days to a movie prop collector. The Academy earned enforcement of its statuette contract by gaining a permanent injunction against the sale.
In 1992, Harold Russell consigned his 1946 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Best Years of Our Lives to auction to raise money for his wife's medical expenses. Though his decision caused controversy, the first Oscar ever to be sold passed to a private collector on August 6, 1992, for . Russell defended his action, saying, "I don't know why anybody would be critical. My wife's health is much more important than sentimental reasons. The movie will be here, even if Oscar isn't".
In December 2011, Orson Welles' 1941 Oscar for Citizen Kane (Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay) was put up for auction, after his heirs won a 2004 court decision contending that Welles did not sign any agreement to return the statue to the Academy. On December 20, 2011, it sold in an online auction for .
Some buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury. |
Academy Awards | Other awards presented by the Academy | Other awards presented by the Academy
In addition to the Academy Award of Merit (Oscar award), there are nine honorary (non-competitive) awards presented by the Academy from time to time (except for the Academy Honorary Award, the Technical Achievement Award, and the Student Academy Awards, which are presented annually):
Governors Awards:
The Academy Honorary Award (annual) (which may or may not be in the form of an Oscar statuette);
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (since 1938) (in the form of a bust of Thalberg);
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (since 1957) (in the form of an Oscar statuette);
The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards:
Academy Award of Merit (non-competitive) (in the form of an Oscar statuette);
Scientific and Engineering Award (in the form of a bronze tablet);
Technical Achievement Award (annual) (in the form of a certificate);
The John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation (since 1978) (in the form of a medal);
The Gordon E. Sawyer Award (since 1982); and
The Academy Student Academy Awards (annual).
The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. |
Academy Awards | Nomination | Nomination
From 2004 to 2020, the Academy Award nomination results were announced to the public in mid-January. Prior to that, the results were announced in early February. In 2021, the nominees were announced in March. In 2022, the nominees were announced in early February for the first time since 2003. |
Academy Awards | Voters | Voters
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, is composed of 9,905 voting members .
Academy membership is divided into different branches, with each representing a different discipline in film production. , actors constitute the largest bloc, numbering 1,258 (12.7% of the voting body). Votes have been certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, and its predecessor Price Waterhouse, since the 7th Academy Awards in 1935. In May 2011, the Academy sent a letter advising its then-6,000 or so voting members that an online system for Oscar voting would be implemented in 2013, replacing mailed paper ballots.
All AMPAS members must be invited to join by the Board of Governors, on behalf of Academy Branch Executive Committees. Membership eligibility may be achieved by a competitive nomination, or an existing member may submit a name, based on other significant contributions to the field of motion pictures.
New membership proposals are considered annually. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although as recently as 2007 press releases have announced the names of those who have been invited to join.
In 2012, the results of a study conducted by the Los Angeles Times were published describing the demographic breakdown of approximately 88% of AMPAS' voting membership. Of the 5,100+ active voters confirmed, 94% were Caucasian, 77% were male, and 54% were found to be over the age of 60. 33% of voting members are former nominees (14%) and winners (19%). In 2016, the Academy launched an initiative to expand its membership and increase diversity. In 2024, voting membership stood at 9,905. |
Academy Awards | Rules | Rules
According to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film must open in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles County, California, and play for seven consecutive days, to qualify, except for the Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and awards in short film categories. The film must be shown at least three times on each day of its qualifying run, with at least one of the daily showings starting between 6pm and 10pm local time.
For example, the 2009 Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker, was originally first released in 2008, but did not qualify for the 2008 awards, as it did not play its Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles until mid-2009, thus qualifying for the 2009 awards. Foreign films must include English subtitles. Each country can submit only one film for consideration in the International Feature Film category per year.
Rule 2 states that a film must be feature-length, defined as a minimum of 40minutes, except for short-subject awards. It must exist either on a 35 mm or 70 mm film print, or in 24frame/s or 48frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format, with a minimum projector resolution of 2,048 by 1,080 pixels. Since the 90th Academy Awards, presented in 2018, multi-part and limited series have been ineligible for the Best Documentary Feature award. This followed the win of O.J.: Made in America, an eight-hour presentation that was screened in a limited release before being broadcast in five parts on ABC and ESPN, in that category in 2017. The Academy's announcement of the new rule made no direct mention of that film.
The Best International Feature Film award does not require a U.S. release. It requires the film to be submitted as its country's official selection.
The Best Documentary Feature award requires either week-long releases in both Los Angeles County and any of the five boroughs of New York City during the previous calendar year, or a qualifying award at a competitive film festival from the Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival list, regardless of any public exhibition or distribution, or submission in the International Feature Film category as its country's official selection. The qualifying theatrical runs must meet the same requirements as those for non-documentary films regarding numbers and times of screenings. A film must have been reviewed by a critic from The New York Times, Time Out New York, the Los Angeles Times, or LA Weekly.
Producers must submit an Official Screen Credits online form before the deadline. If it is not submitted by the defined deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards in any year. The form includes the production credits for all related categories.
Awards in short film categories (Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film) have different eligibility rules from most other competitive awards. First, the qualifying period for release does not coincide with a calendar year, instead covering one year starting on October 1, and ending on September 30 of the calendar year before the ceremony. Second, there are multiple methods of qualification. The main method is a week-long theatrical release in either New York City or Los Angeles County during the eligibility period. Films also can qualify by winning specified awards at one of several competitive film festivals designated by the Academy, also without regard to prior public distribution.
A film that is selected as a gold, silver, or bronze medal winner in an appropriate category of the immediately previous Student Academy Awards is also eligible (Documentary category for that award, and Animation, Narrative, Alternative, or International for the other awards). The requirements for the qualifying theatrical run are also different from those for other awards. Only one screening per day is required. For the Documentary award, the screening must start between noon and 10pm local time. For other awards, no specific start time is required, but the film must appear in regular theater listings with dates and screening times.
In late December, ballots and lists of eligible films are sent to the membership. For most categories, members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees only in their respective categories, i.e. only directors vote for directors, writers for writers, actors for actors, etc. In the special case of Best Picture, all voting members are eligible to select the nominees. A number of branches are only eligible to vote in Best Picture during nomination voting; this includes a producers' branch, as Best Picture is awarded to a film's producer(s), and other branches which have no corresponding award. In all major categories, a variant of the single transferable vote is used, with each member casting a ballot with up to five nominees (ten for Best Picture) ranked preferentially. In certain categories, including International Feature Film, Documentary and Animated Feature, nominees are selected by special screening committees made up of members from all branches.
In most categories, the winner is selected from among the nominees by plurality voting of all members. Since 2009, the Best Picture winner has been chosen by instant-runoff voting. Since 2013, re-weighted range voting has been used to select the nominees for the Best Visual Effects.
Film companies will spend as much as several million dollars on marketing to awards voters for a film in the running for Best Picture, in attempts to improve chances of receiving Oscars and other film awards conferred in Oscar season. The Academy enforces rules to limit overt campaigning by its members to try to eliminate excesses and prevent the process from becoming undignified. It has an awards czar on staff who advises members on allowed practices and levies penalties on offenders. For example, a producer of the 2009 Best Picture nominee The Hurt Locker was disqualified as a producer in the category when he contacted associates urging them to vote for his film and not another that was seen as the front-runner. The Hurt Locker eventually won. |
Academy Awards | Academy Screening Room | Academy Screening Room
The Academy Screening Room or Academy Digital Screening Room is a secure streaming platform which allows voting members of the Academy to view all eligible films (except, initially, those in the International category) in one place. It was introduced in 2019, for the 2020 Oscars. DVD screeners and Academy in-person screenings were still provided. For films to be included on the platform, the North American distributor must pay , including a watermarking fee, and a digital copy of the film to be prepared for streaming by the Academy. The platform can be accessed via Apple TV and Roku players. The watermarking process involved several video security firms, creating a forensic watermark and restricting the ability to take screenshots or screen recordings.
In 2021, for the 2022 Oscars, the Academy banned all physical screeners and in-person screenings, restricting official membership viewing to the Academy Screening Room. Films eligible in the Documentary and International categories were made available in different sections of the platform. Distributors can also pay an extra fee to add video featurettes to promote their films on the platform. The in-person screenings were said to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible films do not have to be added to the platform, but the Academy advertises them to voting members when they are. |
Academy Awards | Awards ceremonies | Awards ceremonies |
Academy Awards | Telecast | Telecast
thumb|The 31st Academy Awards, Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 1959
thumb|The 81st Academy Awards, Dolby Theatre, 2009
thumb|The 95th Academy Awards, Dolby Theatre, 2023
The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, commonly in late February or early March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. It is the culmination of the film awards season, which usually begins during November or December of the previous year. This is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie dress is the most common outfit for men. Fashion may dictate not wearing a bow tie, and musical performers are sometimes not required to adhere to this. The artists who recorded the nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television broadcast.
The Academy Awards is the world's longest-running awards show televised live from the United States to all time zones in North America and worldwide, and gathers billions of viewers elsewhere throughout the world. The Oscars were first televised in 1953 by NBC, which continued to broadcast the event until 1960, when ABC took over, televising the festivities, including the first color broadcast of the event in 1966, to 1970. NBC regained the rights for five years then ABC resumed broadcast duties in 1976 and its current contract with the Academy runs through 2028.
The Academy has produced condensed versions of the ceremony for broadcast in international markets, especially those outside of the Americas, in more desirable local timeslots. The ceremony was broadcast live internationally for the first time via satellite since 1970, but only two South American countries, Chile and Brazil, purchased the rights to air the broadcast. By that time, the television rights to the Academy Awards had been sold in 50 countries. In 1980, the rights were sold to 60 countries, and by 1984, the television rights to the Academy Awards were licensed in 76 countries.
In 2004, the ceremonies were moved up from late March/early April to late February, to help disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar season in the film industry. Another reason was because of the growing television ratings success coinciding with the NCAA division I men's basketball tournament, which would cut into the Academy Awards audience. In 1976 and 1977, ABC's regained Oscars were moved from Tuesday to Monday and went directly opposite the national championship game on NBC. The earlier date is also to the advantage of ABC, as it now usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period.
Some years, the ceremony is moved into the first Sunday of March to avoid a clash with the Winter Olympic Games. Another reason for the move to late February and early March is to avoid the awards ceremony occurring so close to the religious holidays of Passover and Easter, which for decades had been a grievance from members and the general public. Advertising is somewhat restricted, as traditionally no film studios or competitors of official Academy Award sponsors may advertise during the telecast. As of 2020, the production of the Academy Awards telecast held the distinction of winning one the highest number of Emmys in history, with 54 wins and 280 nominations overall.
After many years of being held on Mondays at 6:00p.m. Pacific/9:00pm Eastern, since the 1999 ceremony, it was moved to Sundays at 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET. The reasons given for the move were that more viewers would tune in on Sundays, that Los Angeles rush-hour traffic jams could be avoided, and an earlier start time would allow viewers on the East Coast to go to bed earlier. For many years the film industry opposed a Sunday broadcast because it would cut into the weekend box office.
In 2010, the Academy contemplated moving the ceremony even further back into January, citing television viewers' fatigue with the film industry's long awards season. However, such an accelerated schedule would dramatically decrease the voting period for its members, to the point where some voters would only have time to view the contending films streamed on their computers, as opposed to traditionally receiving the films and ballots in the mail. Additionally, a January ceremony on Sunday would clash with National Football League (NFL) playoff games. In 2018, the Academy announced that the ceremony would be moved from late February to mid-February beginning with the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020. In 2024, the ceremony was moved to an even earlier start time of 4:00pm PT/7:00p.m. ET, the apparent impetus being the ability for ABC to air a half-hour of primetime programming as a lead-out program at 7:30p.m. PT/10:30p.m. ET.
Originally scheduled for April 8, 1968, the 40th Academy Awards ceremony was postponed for two days, because of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On March 30, 1981, the 53rd Academy Awards was postponed for one day, after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and others in Washington, D.C.
In 1993, an In Memoriam segment was introduced, honoring those who had made a significant contribution to cinema who had died in the preceding 12 months, a selection compiled by a small committee of Academy members. This segment has drawn criticism over the years for the omission of some names. Criticism was also levied for many years regarding another aspect, with the segment having a "popularity contest" feel as the audience varied their applause to those who had died by the subject's cultural impact. The applause has since been muted during the telecast, and the audience is discouraged from clapping during the segment and giving silent reflection instead. This segment was later followed by a commercial break.
In terms of broadcast length, the ceremony generally averages three and a half hours. The first Oscars, in 1929, lasted 15minutes. At the other end of the spectrum, the 2002 ceremony lasted four hours and twenty-three minutes.Ehbar, Ned (February 28, 2014). "Did you know?" Metro. New York City. p. 18. In 2010, the organizers of the Academy Awards announced winners' acceptance speeches must not run past 45seconds. This, according to organizer Bill Mechanic, was to ensure the elimination of what he termed "the single most hated thing on the show"—overly long and embarrassing displays of emotion. In 2016, in a further effort to streamline speeches, winners' dedications were displayed on an on-screen ticker.
During the 2018 ceremony, host Jimmy Kimmel acknowledged how long the ceremony had become, by announcing that he would give a brand-new jet ski to whoever gave the shortest speech of the night, a reward won by Mark Bridges when accepting his Best Costume Design award for Phantom Thread. The Wall Street Journal analyzed the average minutes spent across the 2014–2018 telecasts as follows: 14 on song performances; 25 on the hosts' speeches; 38 on prerecorded clips; and 78 on the awards themselves, broken into 24 on the introduction and announcement, 24 on winners walking to the stage, and 30 on their acceptance speeches.
Although still dominant in ratings, the viewership of the Academy Awards has steadily dropped. The 88th Academy Awards were the lowest-rated in the past eight years (although with increases in male and 18–49 viewership), while the show itself also faced mixed reception. Following the show, Variety reported that ABC was, in negotiating an extension to its contract to broadcast the Oscars, seeking to have more creative control over the broadcast itself. Currently and nominally, AMPAS is responsible for most aspects of the telecast, including the choice of production staff and hosting, although ABC is allowed to have some input on their decisions. In August 2016, AMPAS extended its contract with ABC to 2028: the contract neither contains any notable changes nor gives ABC any further creative control over the telecast. |
Academy Awards | TV ratings | TV ratings
thumb|Academy Awards Viewership 1974–2023, in millions
Historically, the telecast's viewership is higher when box-office hits are favored to win the Best Picture award. More than 57.25million viewers tuned to the telecast for the 70th Academy Awards in 1998, the year of Titanic, which generated a box office haul during its initial 1997–98 run of in the US, a box-office record that would remain unsurpassed for years. The 76th Academy Awards ceremony, in which The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (pre-telecast box office earnings of ) received 11 Awards, including Best Picture, drew 43.56million viewers. The most-watched ceremony based on Nielsen ratings to date, was the 42nd Academy Awards (Best Picture Midnight Cowboy), which drew a 43.4% household rating on April 7, 1970. Hoping to reinvigorate the pre-show and ratings, the 2023 Oscars organizers hired members of the Met Gala creative team.
By contrast, ceremonies honoring films that have not performed well at the box office tend to show weaker ratings, despite how much critical acclaim those films have received. The 78th Academy Awards, which awarded a low-budget independent film (Crash with a pre-Oscar gross of ) generated an audience of 38.64million with a household rating of 22.91%. In 2008, the 80th Academy Awards telecast was watched by 31.76million viewers on average with an 18.66% household rating, the lowest-rated and least-watched ceremony at the time, in spite of celebrating 80 years of the Academy Awards. The Best Picture winner of that particular ceremony was another independent film (this time, the Coen brothers's No Country for Old Men).
Whereas the 92nd Academy Awards drew an average of 23.6million viewers, the 93rd Academy Awards drew an even lower viewership of 10.4million, the lowest viewership recorded by Nielsen since it started recording audience totals in 1974. The 94th and 95th editions drew 16.6 and 18.7million viewers, respectively, still below the audience of the 92nd edition. |
Academy Awards | Archive | Archive
The Academy Film Archive holds copies of every Academy Awards ceremony since the 1949 Oscars, as well as material on many prior ceremonies, along with ancillary material related to more recent shows. Copies are held in a variety of film, video and digital formats. |
Academy Awards | Venues | Venues
In 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented at a banquet dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. From 1930 to 1943, the ceremony alternated between two venues: the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard and the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood then hosted the awards from 1944 to 1946, followed by the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles from 1947 to 1948. The 21st Academy Awards in 1949 were held at the Academy Award Theatre at what had been the Academy's headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.
From 1950 to 1960, the awards were presented at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. With the advent of television, the awards from 1953 to 1957 took place simultaneously in Hollywood and New York, first at the NBC International Theatre (1953) and then at the NBC Century Theatre, after which the ceremony took place solely in Los Angeles. In 1961, the Oscars moved to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. In 1969, the Academy moved the ceremonies back to Downtown Los Angeles, to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Music Center. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the ceremony returned to the Shrine Auditorium.
In 2002, Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, previously known as the Kodak Theatre, became the presentation's current venue. |
Academy Awards | Categories | Categories |
Academy Awards | Current categories | Current categories
+ List of current Awards of Merit categories by year introduced, sortable by category Year introduced Category 1927/28 Best Picture 1927/28 Best Director 1927/28 Best Actor 1927/28 Best Actress 1927/28 Best Cinematography 1927/28 Best Production Design 1927/28 Best Adapted Screenplay 1929/30 Best Sound 1931/32 Best Animated Short Film 1931/32 Best Live Action Short Film 1934 Best Film Editing 1934 Best Original Score 1934 Best Original Song 1936 Best Supporting Actor 1936 Best Supporting Actress 1939 Best Visual Effects 1940 Best Original Screenplay 1941 Best Documentary Short Film 1943 Best Documentary Feature Film 1947 Best International Feature Film 1948 Best Costume Design 1981 Best Makeup and Hairstyling 2001 Best Animated Feature Film
In the first year of the awards, the Best Directing award was split into two categories, Drama and Comedy. At times, the Best Original Score award has also been split into separate categories, Drama and Comedy/Musical. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the Art Direction (now Production Design), Cinematography, and Costume Design awards were split into two categories (black-and-white films and color films). Prior to 2012, the Production Design award was called Art Direction, while the Makeup and Hairstyling award was called Makeup. Prior to 2020, the International Feature Film award was called Foreign Language Film.
In August 2018, the Academy announced that several categories would not be televised live, but recorded during commercial breaks and aired later in the ceremony.
Following dissent from Academy members, they announced that they would air all 24 categories live. This followed several proposals, among them, the introduction of a Popular Film category, that the Academy had announced but did not implement. |
Academy Awards | Upcoming categories | Upcoming categories
+ List of upcoming Awards of Merit categories Year introduced (planned) Category 2026 Best Casting2028 Best Stunt Design
In February 2024, the Academy announced it would introduce an award for Achievement in Casting from the 98th ceremony in 2026, having rejected the category in 1999. In April 2025, it announced that Best Stunt Design would be introduced from the 100th ceremony in 2028, having rejected the proposal for a Best Stunt Coordination award every year from 1991 to 2012. |
Academy Awards | Discontinued categories | Discontinued categories
+ List of discontinued Awards of Merit categories by year introduced, sortable by category Year introduced Year discontinued Category 1927/28 1927/28 Best Director, Comedy Picture 1927/28 1927/28 Best Director, Dramatic Picture 1927/28 1927/28 Best Engineering Effects 1927/28 1927/28 Best Title Writing 1927/28 1927/28 Best Unique and Artistic Production 1927/28 1956 Best Original Story 1931/32 1935 Best Short Subject – Comedy 1931/32 1935 Best Short Subject – Novelty 1932/33 1937 Best Assistant Director 1935 1937 Best Dance Direction 1936 1956 Best Short Subject – 1 Reel 1936 1956 Best Short Subject – 2 Reel 1936 1937 Best Short Subject – Color 1963 2019 Best Sound Editing 1995 1998 Best Original Musical or Comedy Score |
Academy Awards | Proposed categories | Proposed categories
The Board of Governors meets each year and considers new award categories, including:
Best Popular Film: proposed in 2018 for presentation at the 2019 ceremony; postponed and yet to be implemented
Best Title Design: rejected in 1999 |
Academy Awards | Special categories | Special categories
The Special Academy Awards are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole. They are not always presented on an annual basis. |
Academy Awards | Current special categories | Current special categories
Academy Honorary Award: since 1929
Academy Scientific and Technical Award (three different awards): since 1931
Gordon E. Sawyer Award: since 1981
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: since 1957
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: since 1938 |
Academy Awards | Discontinued special categories | Discontinued special categories
Academy Juvenile Award: 1934 to 1960
Academy Special Achievement Award: from 1972 to 1995, and again for 2017 |
Academy Awards | Criticism and controversies | Criticism and controversies |
Academy Awards | Accusations of commercialism | Accusations of commercialism
Due to the positive exposure and prestige of the Academy Awards, many studios spend around 25 million dollars and hire publicists specifically to promote their films during what is typically called the "Oscar season". This has generated accusations of the Academy Awards being influenced more by marketing and lobbying than by quality. William Friedkin, an Academy Award-winning film director and former producer of the ceremony, expressed this sentiment at a conference in New York in 2009, describing it as "the greatest promotion scheme that any industry ever devised for itself".
Tim Dirks, editor of AMC's Filmsite, has written of the Academy Awards:
A recent technique that has been claimed to be used during the Oscar season is the whisper campaign. These campaigns are intended to spread negative perceptions of other films nominated and are believed to be perpetrated by those who were involved in creating the film. Examples of whisper campaigns include the allegations against Zero Dark Thirty suggesting that it justifies torture and the claim that Lincoln distorts history. |
Academy Awards | Accusations of bias | Accusations of bias
Typical criticism of the Academy Awards for Best Picture is that among the winners and nominees there is an over-representation of romantic historical epics, biographical dramas, romantic dramedies and family melodramas, most of which are released in the U.S. in the last three months of the calendar year. The Oscars have been infamously known for selecting specific genres of films to be awarded. The term "Oscar bait" was coined to describe such films. This has led, at times, to more specific criticisms that the Academy is disconnected from the audience, e.g., by favoring "Oscar bait" over audience favorites or favoring historical melodramas over critically acclaimed films that depict current life issues.
Despite the success of The Dark Knight, the film did not receive a Best Picture nomination at the 81st Academy Awards. This decision received substantial criticism and was described as a "snub" by many publications. The backlash to the decision was such that, for the 82nd Academy Awards awards in 2010, the Academy increased the limit for Best Picture nominees from five to ten, a change known as "The Dark Knight Rule". |
Academy Awards | Lack of diversity | Lack of diversity
The Academy Awards have long received criticism over its lack of diversity among the nominees. This criticism is based on the statistics from every Academy Awards since 1929, which show that only 6.4% of Academy Award nominees have been non-white and since 1991, 11.2% of nominees have been non-white, with the rate of winners being even more polarizing. For a variety of reasons, including marketability and historical bans on interracial couples, a number of high-profile Oscars have been given to yellowface portrayals, as well as performances of Asian characters rewritten for white characters. It took until 2023 for an Asian woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress, when Michelle Yeoh received the award for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The 88th awards ceremony became the target of a boycott, popularized on social media with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, based on activists' perception that its all-white acting nominee list reflected bias. In response, the Academy initiated "historic" changes in membership by 2020. Some media critics claim the Academy's efforts to address its purported racial, gender and national biases are merely distractions. By contrast, the Golden Globe Awards already have multiple winners of Asian descent in leading actress categories. Some question whether the Academy's definition of "merit" is just or empowering for non-Americans.
The Academy's Representation and Inclusion Standards have been criticized for excluding Jews as a distinct underrepresented class. |
Academy Awards | Miscategorization of actors | Miscategorization of actors
The Academy has no rules for how to categorize whether a performance is leading or supporting, and it is up to the discretion of the studios whether a given performance is submitted for either Best Actor/Actress or Best Supporting Actor/Actress. This has led to situations where a film has two or more co-leads, and one of these is submitted in a supporting category to avoid the two leads competing against each other, and to increase the film's chances of winning. This practice has been derisively called "category fraud".
For example, Rooney Mara was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Carol (2015), despite her having a comparable amount of screentime to Cate Blanchett, who was nominated for Best Actress. Another example is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), where Brad Pitt was nominated for and won Best Supporting Actor, even though he played an equally important role to Best Actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio. In both these cases, critics argued that the studios behind the films had placed someone who was actually a leading actor or actress into the supporting categories to avoid them competing against their co-lead. |
Academy Awards | Symbolism or sentimentalization | Symbolism or sentimentalization
Acting prizes in certain years have been criticized for not recognizing superior performances so much as being awarded for personal popularity, to make up for a "snub" for a work that proved in time to be more popular or renowned than the one awarded (a 'make-up Oscar'), or as a "career honor" to recognize a distinguished nominee's entire body of work (a "legacy Oscar"). |
Academy Awards | Recognition of streaming media film | Recognition of streaming media film
Following the 91st Academy Awards in February 2019 in which the Netflix-broadcast film Roma had been nominated for ten awards including the Best Picture category, Steven Spielberg and other members of the Academy discussed changing the requirements through the Board of Governors for films as to exclude those from Netflix and other media streaming services. Spielberg had been concerned that Netflix as a film production and distribution studio could spend much more than for typical Oscar-winning films and have much wider and earlier distribution than for other Best Picture-nominated films, while still being able to meet the minimal theatrical-run status to qualify for an Oscar.
The United States Department of Justice, having heard of this potential rule change, wrote a letter to the Academy in March 2019, cautioning them that placing additional restrictions on films that originate from streaming media services without proper justification could raise anti-trust concerns against the Academy. Following its April 2019 board meeting, the Academy Board of Governors agreed to retain the current rules that allow for streaming media films to be eligible for Oscars as long as they enjoy limited theatrical runs. |
Academy Awards | 2022 Chris Rock and Will Smith slapping incident | 2022 Chris Rock and Will Smith slapping incident
During the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, Chris Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head with a G.I. Jane reference. Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Rock across the face, then returned to his seat and told Rock, twice, to "Keep my wife's name out [of] your fucking mouth!" While later accepting the Best Actor award for King Richard, Smith apologized to the Academy and the other nominees, but not to Rock. Rock decided not to press charges against Smith.
On April 8, 2022, the Academy made an announcement via a letter sent by president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson informing the public that Will Smith had received a ten-year ban from attending the Oscars as a result of the incident. |
Academy Awards | Refusals of the award | Refusals of the award
Some winners critical of the Academy Awards have boycotted the ceremonies and refused to accept their Oscars. The first to do so was screenwriter Dudley Nichols (Best Writing in 1935 for The Informer). Nichols boycotted the 8th Academy Awards ceremony because of conflicts between the Academy and the Writers' Guild. Nichols eventually accepted the 1935 award three years later, at the 1938 ceremony. Nichols was nominated for three further Academy Awards during his career.
George C. Scott became the second person to refuse his award (Best Actor in 1970 for Patton) at the 43rd Academy Awards ceremony. Scott described it as a "meat parade", saying, "I don't want any part of it".
The third person to refuse the award was Marlon Brando, who refused his award (Best Actor for 1972's The Godfather), citing the film industry's discrimination against and mistreatment of Native Americans. At the 45th Academy Awards ceremony, Brando asked actress and civil rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather to read a 15-page speech in his place, detailing his criticisms, for which there was booing and cheering by the audience. In 2022, Littlefeather was accused by her sisters of misrepresenting her ancestry as Native American. |
Academy Awards | Disqualifications | Disqualifications
Seven films have had nominations revoked before the official award ceremony:
The Circus (1928) – The film was voluntarily removed by the Academy from competitive categories, to award Charlie Chaplin a special award.
Hondo (1953) – Removed from the Best Story ballot after letters from the producer and nominee questioned its inclusion in the category.
High Society (1955) – Withdrawn from screenwriting ballot after being mistaken for the 1956 film of the same title.
The Godfather (1972) – Initially nominated for eleven awards, its nomination for Best Original Score was revoked after it was discovered that its main theme was very similar to music that the score's composer had written for an earlier film. None of its other nominations were revoked, and it received three Oscars, including Best Picture.
A Place in the World (1992) – Removed from the Best Foreign Language Film ballot after it was discovered that the country which submitted the film exercised insufficient artistic control.
Alone Yet Not Alone (2014) – The film's title song, "Alone Yet Not Alone", was removed from the Best Original Song ballot after Bruce Broughton was found to have improperly contacted other members of the Academy's musical branch; this was the first time that a film was removed from a ballot for ethical reasons.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2017) – Sound mixer Greg P. Russell's nomination was rescinded one day before the Awards when it was discovered he had improperly contacted voters by telephone. In this case, the nominations for the other three nominated sound mixers, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth, were allowed to stand.
One film was disqualified after winning the award, and had the winner return the Oscar:
Young Americans (1969) – Initially won the award for Best Documentary Feature, but was later revoked after it was revealed that it had opened theatrically prior to the eligibility period.
One film had its nomination revoked after the award ceremony when it had not won the Oscar:
Tuba Atlantic (2011) – Its nomination for Best Live Action Short Film was revoked when it was discovered that the film had aired on television in 2010, before its theatrical release. |
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