Academy Awards

Scope and Prestige

The Tony is essentially a local award, given for achievements in the Broadway theater and largely limited to the New York City arena. Movies, by contrast, speak a universal language and have the potential of reaching everyone. Even people who don't live in the United States and don't speak English are aware of the Oscars and their significance.

The Oscar's prestige stems from the status of the Academy within the film industry. The Academy has always been elitist, with membership that constitutes a very small percentage of the film industry. Yet, despite elitism, the Academy's procedures are quite democratic: The Academy, with its various branches, gives equal representation to all artists, regardless of specialty (writers, directors, players). The nomination process is based on peer evaluation: The Acting branch selects nominees in acting, the Directors branch for directing, and so on. However, each Academy member proposes nominees for the Best Picture, and the entire membership votes for the winners in all the categories.

Film artists, like other professionals, attribute the utmost importance to recognition from their peers because they consider them the only experts with the necessary knowledge to make competent evaluation of their work. For most filmmakers, the significant reference group, which sets standards to be emulated and also serves as a frame for judging merits, consists of fellow workers.

Scarcity of Awards

The scarce number of awards also contributes to the Oscar's prestige. In the entire Academy history, about 700 players have been nominated for an Oscar and only 220 have actually won. Every year, [Page 5]only 20 actors are nominated in four categories—Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, and Actress in a Supporting Role—and only four win, one winner for each category. These 20 performances are selected out of thousands of eligible performances.

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