Woody Allen only attended the Academy Awards once, in 2002. YouTube screencap Come Sunday, while the stars are celebrating the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby theater, you won't see four-time Oscar winner Woody Allen there in suit and tie.

The director is notorious for turning down his Oscar invite every year.

The only year he attended was in 2002 following 9/11 when he thanked Hollywood for its support of his hometown.

Rumors abound on Allen's whereabouts on Hollywood's biggest night.

Some say the director stayed home one year to watch basketball while others say he plays a gig with his own band in New York City.

While Allen does schedule performances Monday nights at Michael's Pub on the East Side in his hometown, that's not why he stays away from the West Coast.

Rather, biographer Eric Lax told NPR last year Allen avoids the Oscars for one simple reason: He doesn't believe in it.

"It's really almost impossible, as he puts it, to judge art, that it's so subjective, you can't really say, well, this performance is better than that or that writing is better than this and that, if you get caught in that trap of relying on other people, however great they are, to tell you whether you're any good, you're either going to consciously or subconsciously start playing to that group."

After Allen's 1973 film "Sleeper" wasn't nominated, ABC News quoted him voicing that same sentiment.

"The whole concept of awards is silly," said Allen. "I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don't."