News > Why are the Academy Awards called the Oscars?
Why are the Academy Awards called the Oscars?
11/03/2024 02:46 PM | Click to read full article
The statuette given to winners is technically called the Academy Award of Merit. It’s based on a design by Cedric Gibbons. He sketched a knight holding a sword and standing in front of a film reel. In 1928, they began the process of turning that idea into a statue. No one is quite sure exactly when or why the Academy Award of Merit began to be known as an Oscar. One popular theory is that Margaret Herrick thought that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar.
