Oscar at 100: Oscar Dictionary
Volume 1: Best Picture, 1929-Present
Volum2: Best Actors, 1929-Present
Proposal
Emanuel Levy, Ph.D.
Registered with the Library of Congress
Oscar Books:
There have been ten books or so about the Oscars, including my pioneering chronicle, And the Winner Is: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, first published in 1986. This book, thus far, the most comprehensive of all texts, was updated in 2000 under the title Oscar Fever: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, and in 2003 as All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards.
Two recent manuscripts are:
Dave Karger, 50 Oscar Nights, TCM publication
Anecdotal chronicle based on interviews with 50 Oscar winners about their experience of winning during Oscar night and beyond.
Michael Schulman, Oscar Wars
A gossipy book about the different, varioys (expensive, nasty, and personal) marketing campaigns to win the Oscar.
The proposed two volumes of Oscar Dictionary will be definitive and up to date. The target publication date is November December 2027, which would allow for proper marketing in time for the 100th anniversary Oscar telecas, in March 2028 vuia YouTube
Oscar at 100: Volume 1: Best Picture
This volume will examine chronologically the 600 films (0r so) that have been nominated for and/or won the Best Picture (and the closely related to it Best Director).
No one (not even the Academy library) knows exactly how many films have been nomimated as the number has varied from year year. Though for seven decades, the number was standardtized to five pictures per year, in the first decade, there were years in which 3 films, 10 films, and even 12 films were nominated. Then in 2009, the Academy decided to expand the number of nominees to films that receive 5 perecnt of the votes, which resulted in years in which there were 8 or 9 nomimnees.
Then again, in 2020, the Acdaemy standardized the category to imclude the top 10 films that have received the largest numbers of votes from Academy members.
Oscar at 100: Volume 2
Volume 2 will consist of profiles of all the performers who have been nominated for and/or have won the Oscar Awars in the four acting categories: Best Actress and Best Actors (from the very first year, 1929), Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actors (which was estabished in 1936).
