The 2022 Oscars take place on the night of this Sunday to Monday. A venerable ceremony which is holding its 94th edition this year. The opportunity to test your cinephilia on the subject by answering our little quiz. Let’s Play!
On the night of March 27 to 28, the 94th Academy Awards took place. A very old lady who remains in the prime of life despite everything. It is to Cedric Gibbons, chief artistic director at MGM in the 1920s, that we owe the superb sleek design of the precious statuette.
Of Irish origin and born to an architect father, he was probably one of the only, if not the only Hollywood executive of the time, to have visited the incredible International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which was held in Paris from April to October 1925.
Under Art Deco influence, the statuette was transformed into a sculpture by an equally talented artist based in Los Angeles, George Stanley. It then represented a knight with a crusader’s sword, placed on a film reel with five rays; each of them representing one of the branches of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (actors, directors, producers, technicians and screenwriters).
Referred to by the official term “Academy Award”, the statuette has been best known by its nickname, “Oscar”, since 1934. The academy itself adopted this nickname in 1939. The origins of it are unclear. .
We were thus able to evoke Walt Disney, who would have used this nickname for the first time. The academy has preferred to retain for posterity the little story of Margaret Herrick, the librarian of the Academy, who let go, when she saw the statuette for the first time, that she looked like her uncle, a certain Oscar.
Still, given its longevity, the history of the Oscars is punctuated with small and great moments. This is an opportunity to check your cinephilia on the subject by testing yourself with the quiz below!
As in 2021, it is a Netflix film that takes the lead for this 94th edition of the Oscars, with 12 nominations: The Power of the dog by Jane Campion is the favorite of 2022. By being nominated for the second time in the best category production, 28 years after The Piano Lesson, the New Zealand filmmaker is making history. Never had the same director been nominated twice.
If there are many films from platforms, this year’s nominations also give pride of place to productions released in theaters. Dune (10 nominations), West Side Story and Belfast (7 nominations) or The Williams Method (6 nominations), all five released on the big screen, are among the particularly nominated films.