Ever since, the Oscars have been controversial. Walt Disney received 26 awards – the record to date – while Alfred Hitchcock was never recognised, except with an honorary statuette. While hosting one of the Academy Awards, Bob Hope is said to have quipped, “If we have any of these statues left over, we’ll just send them to Walt Disney.”

Whatever the internal politics of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, there is clearly no doubt that Oscars are coveted and alluring. The poster for this year’s Awards depicts the golden outline of the unmistakable statuette shimmering from a jet-black background. “We all dream in gold”, it says.

Oscar’s model

The striking statuette itself has changed precious little since the first 1929 ceremony presided over by Douglas Fairbanks, the ‘King of Hollywood’ and the Academy’s first president, at the Spanish Colonial-style Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The golden icon had been designed, on paper, by Cedric Gibbons, chief art director at MGM, and transformed into a sculpture by the LA artist George Stanley.