2019 Oscar Time is Near: This Year’s Facts and Numbers

The Oscar is presented yearly by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., to recognize achievement in the film industry. The awards were first presented in 1929, and winners receive a gold-plated statuette commonly called Oscar. The Academy Awards were first televised in the United States in 1953, and since 1969 they have been broadcast internationally. By the late 20th century, the ceremony had become a major happening, viewed by millions.*

Hollywood’s culture is filled of disadvantages for opportunities and outcomes facing women and racial/ethnic minorities, leading to the prevalence of stereotypes and a lack of diversity on‐screen, according to an article written by Maryann Erigha, Temple University. This can be in part plays a reason why the ceremony has no host for the first time in 30 years.

With the 91st Academy Awards just 10 days away, WalletHub today released its 2019 Oscars Facts report, which includes an infographic filled with fun facts about the event.

Here are some highlights from the report:

• $44M: Total cost of Oscars ceremony
• $10M: Cost of the look for an A-list actress attending the Oscars
• $2.6M+: Cost of a 30-second commercial during the Oscars telecast (50% less than the Super Bowl)
• $24.7K: Cost of the 16,500-square-foot Oscars red carpet
• $400: Current value of the 24-karat gold-plated Oscar statuette
• 2nd time: The Oscar telecast will not have a host (first since 1989)

For a closer look at a variety of issues related to the Academy Awards, from demographics to dollars and cents, WalletHub posed the following question to a panel of leading business and entertainment experts.

Who is going to win the award for Best Actor? Actress? Director? Motion Picture?

Tonia Hughes, Assistant Professor of Photography and Filmmaking, Johnson County Community College

Best Actor: I’m not sure but loved Rami Malek in "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Best Actress: This is a tough one! For me it would be a toss-up between Glenn Close, “The Wife”, Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”, and Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”.

Best Director: Again, for me it would be either Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite” or Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma,” but I haven’t had a chance to see “BlacKkKlansman” and have heard that it is fantastic.

Best Picture: My vote would be “The Favourite” or “Roma”.

Eli Horwatt, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor in Film and Media Studies, Colgate University

“I don't particularly care. But I do think there's a political angle to the awards. Predicting winners isn't so interesting. The winning films do however diagnose the era we are in.”

Jeffrey MIddents, PhD, Associate Professor of Literature, American University

I personally find this year’s choices for Best Actor to be somewhat weak overall – perfectly fine performances but no real standout. Christian Bale or Bradley Cooper give perhaps the best performances, particularly since their movie-star status disappears nicely into those characters so that I forgot at times who they really are. But people love Freddy Mercury and Rami Malek is on a roll for holding together all of Bohemian Rhapsody, so my guess is that he will win.

In contrast, the Best Actress race is fiercely strong this year, and full of deserving performances. While I would have loved Toni Collette to have made this list as well for Hereditary, any of these performances is packed with nuance and power all at once. Even the surprise nomination for Yalitza Aparicio is well-deserved for what otherwise might have been an unrecognized, quiet role. The Oscars often reward a career, however, instead of the individual performance and Glenn Close has never won. I personally disliked The Wife as a movie, but she is extremely good in it and I feel that folks will be voting for her accordingly.

As for Best Picture and Best Director, I study Latin American cinema and, for some reason, have consistently gone against the Mexicans every time in my own home poll, to my own chagrin. I think I have finally learned my lesson, and so I will be rooting for Alfonso Cuarón and Roma, which is very much deserved. If Academy voters can get behind a Netflix film that happens to be in Spanish, the win would be momentous and could actually have an impact on how prestigious movies get distributed.

But the Best Picture race in particular often reflects our moments in time more than any other category, and the fact that this is the one category voted on by all the members means that there is a chance for something else to happen. The movie that delivers the biggest punch in that aspect would be BlackkKlansman, along with Spike Lee finally getting an Oscar nomination after 30+ years of making movies. I would not be surprised or upset if the Academy veered in that direction instead at the last minute.

To view the full 2019 Oscars Facts report visit https://wallethub.com/blog/oscars-facts/19250/

Courtesy: WalletHub

Photo Courtesy: kalhh CC-BY-SA 2.0 from pixabay

*https://www.britannica.com/art...