District Magazine February 2015 | Page 14

15 Things You Didn’t Know About... The Oscars, the awards of the stars, have taken place since 1929. The ceremony was first televised in 1953 and now over 40 million people view it each year from all over the world. This year all different movies are nominated for the Best Picture including The Imitation Game, Selma, Boyhood, Whiplash, & The Theory of Everything. Here are 15 things you probably did not know about the little gold men & their winners. o N5 To qualify for Best Picture, a film needs to be at least 40 minutes long, have shown at an LA cinema for at least a week in the previous year and have a projection resolution of 2048 x 1080 pixels. o N7 These days a 45-second limit is imposed on speeches. Anyone straying past that mark is played off by the orchestra. o N9 o Meryl Streep picked up her 19th nomination this year, the most of any actor, male or female. N 11 The sealed envelope dates back to 1941. In 1940 the LA Times broke the Academy's embargo and published the names of all the winners before the ceremony. o N 13 14 Nine out of 20 acting nominees this year portray real people. compiled by, Hayden of Haute Table o N1 o N2 o N3 o N4 o N6 o An Oscar statue weighs 8.5 lbs. There are 700 fan bleacher seats on the Red Carpet. The Red Carpet is 500 feet long at the Dolby Theatre. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion has hosted the most Academy Awards. Gone With The Wind is the longest Best Picture winner in history clocking in at 234 minutes. Dolby Theatre holds 3,300 seats on Oscar Night. N8 o N 10 o N 12 o N 14 o N 15 Wes Anderson got his firstever Best Director nomination for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Boyhood only took 39 days to complete. Not a single winner from the 2014 Oscars was nominated this year. The only sequel to ever win an Oscar is The Godfather: Part II.