All you need to know about origin of the Oscar statue

The first statute was made in gold-plated bronze but in the later years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences switched to Britannia metal, a pewter-based alloy.

Dressed in gold, the Oscars statue is one of the most eminent trophies in the world which stands thirteen and a half inch tall.

Who designed the statue?

According to the Academy Awards' official website, after the establishment of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, the organisation set out to discuss its goals in Los Angeles. It was then decided to introduce an annual award.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Art Director MGM Cedric Gibbons had sketched a statue of a knight standing on a teel of a reel of a film holding a crusader's sword, by a linen napkin.

Mexican actor and filmmaker Emilio 'El Indio' Fernandez had also claimed that he made a model of the statue during his stay in Hollywood in the 1920s, but his claims were never officially acknowledged by the Academy.

"The statuettes are solid bronze and plated in 24-karat gold," the Academy says on its website.

Why is it called 'Oscar'?

The statue, officially named as the Academy of Merit, is known as Oscar, the name which was officially adopted by the Academy in 1939.

According to the publication, a popular belief is that on seeing the trophy for the first time, Academy librarian Margaret Herrick said that it resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the name resonated.

As the usage of the name spread, in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name in an article while writing about Katharine Hepburn’s first Best Actress win.

How and where it is made?

The statue was originally cast, molded and polished at CW Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, in 1982 and the production was later assigned to the RS Owens & Company in Chicago.

Since 2016, the statues have been produced by the Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry, a 1,05,000 sq ft factory in Rock Tavern, New York. The entire process of making the statues takes three months starting from the creation of a digital Oscar, which is made using a 3D printer.

The figure is then covered in wax and once it cools off, each wax statue is coated with a ceramic shell and after keeping them intact for weeks, they are then fired at 871.11 degree Celsius.

According to Indian Express, the statues are then cast in liquid bronze, cooled, sanded and polished, and then sent to Brooklyn to be electroplated in 24-karat gold by Epner Technology.

Though the awards are given only in 24 categories, 50 statues are produced each year, in case there is a tie or multiple winners in any category.

While the production of each statue costs about Rs 33,078.40 ($400), the official regulation of the Academy states that the winners or anyone else cannot sell it in the market. It mandates that any resale requires for it to be first offered back to the Academy for $1.

Apart from the production cost or their resale strategy, Oscars are principally priceless!