The most interesting facts about the Academy Award ceremony

There is nothing left until the Oscar ceremony, and we decided to find interesting facts for you that you may not have known about.

Nominees in 24 nominations will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) today — January 13, 2020.

© rexfeatures

© rexfeatures

© rexfeatures

Large Oscar statues, 2.5 to 8 meters high and weighing up to 550 kilograms, which are installed along the red carpet, are made of fiberglass. Then they are lined with the thinnest aluminum sheets and covered with yellow paint. They are not painted with gold, not in order to save money, just a special yellow paint looks better in the spotlight than gold.

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At other times of the year, during the peak tourist season, a red carpet understudy is spread out in front of the cinema for a few days, which is allowed to pass for photographing. This liberty in Los Angeles began to be allowed, following the example of the organizers of the festival "Palme d'Or" in Cannes.

Before entering the building where the award ceremony is held, even the stars are subjected to a thorough inspection. First, the police check the limousines in which the actors drive up to the cinema, and then at the entrance to the red carpet, all the celebrities present invitations and pass through a metal detector.

In order for the stars not to get confused about who is sitting where, posters with their portraits and names are placed on the chairs. Actors who have played together in the same film are put next to each other, but their marital status is also taken into account: spouses and just partners will also sit in the hall with each other.

Currently, the process of counting the votes cast for the nominees is conducted by specialists of the auditing company Price Waterhouse Coopers. Two experts of the company and four of their assistants process more than 6 thousand ballots sent by members of the American Film Academy. For the duration of the work, which takes three days, they are in a strictly classified place. Before the Oscars are presented at the ceremony, only two Price Waterhouse Coopers experts know the names of the winners. Even assistant auditors are allowed only before the procedure of preliminary counting of votes.

After the winners in each category are determined, cards with their names are placed in envelopes that are opened on stage during the ceremony. Employees of Price Waterhouse Coopers make two sets of such envelopes and place them in special briefcases. On the eve of the Oscar ceremony, two briefcases are delivered to the ceremony venue at different times and by different routes, which are also kept strictly secret.

The only case when the Oscar was awarded for the performance in the film of the role of a person who in turn also received an Oscar took place when in 2005 Cate Blanchett was awarded for the role of Katharine Hepburn in the film The Aviator.

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A record number of times — 18 — the Oscar ceremony was hosted by the famous American comedian Bob Hope. In the photo Bob Hope and actor Marlon Brando.

No Russian-language feature film has ever won more than one Academy Award. Soviet and Russian films have won the Oscar four times in the category "Best Foreign Language Film" and once each in the categories "Best Documentary Film" and "Best Animated Short Film".

The film Tchaikovsky by Igor Talankin was nominated for two Oscars at once in 1971: as the best foreign language film and for the adaptation of musical accompaniment by the famous American composer of Russian origin Dmitry Temkin — but did not receive a statuette.

Also, the film "War and Peace" by Sergei Bondarchuk immediately claimed two awards, being presented in the nominations "Best Picture in a foreign language" and "Best Work of a production designer". At the end of the 41st ceremony, the film received an award in the category "Best Foreign Language Film".

"The Old Man and the Sea", an animated film by Yaroslavl director Alexander Petrov based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, was awarded an Oscar in 2000.