Academy Awards (Oscar awards) – Academy Awards aka Oscar Awards was first presented on May 16, 1929. There were 15 categories under which the award was presented and the whole event lasted for 15 minutes. Today the Academy award has grown magnanimously and presents awards in 24 categories. It is held in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.  The first ever Academy award was given to Emil Jannings for the Best Actor category for his performance in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He had to leave to Europe before the ceremony and hence the academy agreed to give him the award before the event. Thus he became the first ever person to receive the Academy Award.

The winners get a Oscar statuette. The statuette is made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in art deco style holding a crusader’s sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. Since 1950 the Oscar statuette cannot be sold by the winner or their heirs before offering it to the Academy for US $1.

The 2014 Academy awards ceremony is the 86th edition. It is to be held on the 2nd of March 2014. You can see the nominations for this year here

Source: Wikipedia