If you still have some semblance of respect for the awards industry, or if you can appreciate what an institution like the Oscars represented in the past, before it mutated into a media juggernaut–this news is for you!
Over at Oscar.com, you can follow a daily countdown of past years’ winners and events, complete with candid photos and anecdotes. The countdown has already reached 1964, and the image on the site’s front page is exemplary of just why this gold trophy held so much importance over the years: Sidney Poitier accepting the Best Actor award for Lilies of the Field, the first African American actor to win an Oscar for a lead role, and only the second win by an African American on record at the time (the first went to Hattie McDaniel for her supporting role in Gone with the Wind). Although awards shows operate as self-fulfilling prophecies, some can still be counted on to award talent where merit is due, and sometimes succeed in recognizing newcomers that otherwise would have remained obscure. A look back through Oscar’s history reminds us of the role it has played in recognizing, but also, fostering the industry we love (and sometimes…
If you still have some semblance of respect for the awards industry, or if you can appreciate what an institution like the Oscars represented in the past, before it mutated into a media juggernaut–this news is for you!
Over at Oscar.com, you can follow a daily countdown of past years' winners and events, complete with candid photos and anecdotes. The countdown has already reached 1964, and the image on the site's front page is exemplary of just why this gold trophy held so much importance over the years: Sidney Poitier accepting the Best Actor award for Lilies of the Field, the first African American actor to win an Oscar for a lead role, and only the second win by an African American on record at the time (the first went to Hattie McDaniel for her supporting role in Gone with the Wind). Although awards shows operate as self-fulfilling prophecies, some can still be counted on to award talent where merit is due, and sometimes succeed in recognizing newcomers that otherwise would have remained obscure. A look back through Oscar's history reminds us of the role it has played in recognizing, but also, fostering the industry we love (and sometimes hate) today.
You can access all the retrospectives the site has posted to date, starting with the first Academy Awards in 1929, and follow the rest of the countdown until you arrive at the 83rd annual Academy Awards, airing on Sunday, February 27th, 2011.
[via Oscar.com]
