Academy Awards
Academy Award Winners Who Rejected Their Oscars
It’s become cliche for actors, writers, and directors to say that they don’t care about winning an Academy Award, even if they do. But in the 90-year history of the Oscars, there have been very few people who won a golden knight statuette and then told the Academy of Motion ...read more
9 Actors Who Won an Oscar Playing a Famous Historical Figure
1. Ben Kingsley – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in “Gandhi” (1982) The son of an Indian father and a British mother, Krishna Pandit Bhanji combined his father’s nickname (Benji) and his grandfather’s (King Clove) to come up with his now-famous stage name: Ben Kingsley. After ...read more
Why are the Academy Awards nicknamed the Oscars?
As recognizable as any Hollywood celebrity, the golden Oscar statuette has been around since the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. The iconic trophy depicts a knight holding a sword and standing on a film reel with five spokes, each representing one of the Academy of Motion ...read more
Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar
On March 7, 2010, Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director, for her movie “The Hurt Locker,” about an American bomb squad that disables explosives in Iraq in 2004. Prior to Bigelow, only three women had been nominated for a best director ...read more
At the Oscars, History Wins Big
“Mutiny on the Bounty” (Best Picture, 1936)Director: Frank Loyd Based on a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall that chronicles the true tale of a 1789 mutiny aboard the British ship Bounty, this early Best Picture winner stars Clark Gable as the rebel Fletcher ...read more
Enzo Ferrari makes his debut as a race car driver
On October 5, 1919, a young Italian car mechanic and engineer named Enzo Ferrari takes part in his first car race, a hill climb in Parma, Italy. He finished fourth. Ferrari was a good driver, but not a great one: In all, he won just 13 of the 47 races he entered. Many people say ...read more