Of all the thousands of achievement awards presented each year, none captures the world's imagination in the same compelling way as the Oscar. What other public ritual is more eagerly witnessed yearly by such vast numbers of devotees as Hollywood's Academy Awards ceremony? What other medium is so central a mythmaker for modern man, so prolific a source of powerful images and icons? Loved by audiences everywhere, the movies are exuberantly celebrated here by the glittering Oscar. Created in 1927 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as its award for artistic distinction in filmmaking, the Oscar promotes excellence by recognizing it publicly.This new edition - expanded and updated - is the official history of the Academy Awards - right up to those given in 1992, their sixty-fifth year. And because of the Academy's exceptional historical and pictorial archives, this book is unrivaled in illustration, accuracy, and completeness.This book opens with a history of the founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, details the organization's aims, and covers the background of the establishment of these highly coveted awards. The rest of the book is divided into decades, with lively introductions that present accomplishments, evaluate trends, track new developments, and capture the thrills of the film industry's most significant and popular event.Beginning with the very first awards in 1928, Robert Osborne sets the scene for each subsequent year's award ceremony by presenting the range of movies in competition, highlighting the speculation on possible winners, and describing the staging and memorable moments of the evening's events. Each year is then brought to a close by a complete listing of all the Oscar nominations (and the winners!) in not only the familiar categories of best picture, actor, actress, supporting actor and actress, direction, film editing, music, costumes, special effects, short subjects - but in all of the many more specialized categories that have been added, or dropped, over the years.Each year is handsomely illustrated with evocative stills from many of the best films and candid shots of the stellar participants in the grand ceremony. Altogether, the book is illustrated with some 600 rare photographs in black and white and color, and it even includes all of the original movie posters for every year's best picture. With illustrations that are themselves worth the price of the book, this is an unparalleled reference volume for the film buff and scholar and an invaluable resource that comes right from the source. Read Less