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What is the Oscar statuette's official name?
'Oscar' is a nickname whose origin is debated.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences calls the award an Academy Award of Merit, and its published rules use that wording for the categories. The statuette is 13.5 inches tall and weighs about 8.5 pounds, made of solid bronze with 24-karat gold plating. During World War II, metal shortages led to painted plaster statuettes for three years.
Cedric Gibbons, an MGM art director, designed the figure, and Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley turned the design into three dimensions. The statuette depicts a knight holding a sword and standing on a film reel, whose five spokes are usually said to stand for the Academy's original branches.
The nickname's origin is uncertain. A popular story credits Margaret Herrick, the Academy's librarian, who is said to have remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. Other claimants exist, and the Academy officially adopted the name in 1939. Other stories credit the actress Bette Davis or the columnist Sidney Skolsky with popularising the name, and none of these accounts is settled. Because the name was informal for years before the Academy adopted it, even its first use is hard to date.
The Academy's page lists 3,140 statuettes presented as of its last update, and new ones are cast each January by Polich Tallix in New York's Hudson Valley.