The Academy Awards ceremony, the “Oscars” to its friends, turns seventy-nine this year. Born near the dawn of the sound film, Oscars have crowned annual kings and queens of the silver screen, cemented reputations, raised stars’ paychecks, and spawned controversies over the years. And it’s all about to happen again.
The earliest Oscars presided over a difficult period in Hollywood: the advent of sound created considerable upheaval in the film industry, and those early awards ceremonies not only acknowledged important work but also helped to stabilize the business of the business.