May 2014 32 (Continued on Page 34) The Oscars on LATAM TV worldwhere theOscars telecasthasbeenanational priority almost from the beginning is Latin America (LATAM). Reportedly, 34 percent of Latin Americans between the ages of 12 and 64 watch award shows regularly when they’re shown on television, with the largest group (43 percent) comprised of female viewers ages 18-24. According to Telefilms’ Tomas Darcyl, one of the largest distributors of Hollywood movies in LATAM, “[Oscar] nominations and Academy Awards are [important] to Telefilms because they add not only viewers but also prestige to all our movies. We see that the growth of a film that is nominated or wins an award and is exhibited during the Oscars is similar in all Latin America.” The importance of the Oscars in LATAM is also proven by the large number of Latin American countries that submitted entries for the 2014 foreign-language category: A total of 10, ranging from Mexico to Venezuela to Argentina. Currently, eight award shows are all the rage in LATAM, including the Oscars and local equivalents like the Argentine Film Critics Association Awards, Mexico’s ARIEL’s Awards and the Latin Grammys. In terms of geographic areas, popularity peaks in Venezuela, with 40 percent of viewers tuning in, followed by Mexico and Brazil with 34 percent each. Unfortunately, in Venezuela, the country that most enjoys the Oscars, the 2014 Awards weren’t broadcast on FTA, but on cable, courtesy of TNT. Interestingly, this year the Oscars awarded more LATAM talents than ever before with Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki honored for Gravity and Mexican-born Kenyan actor Lupita Nyong’o awarded Best Actress in a Supporting Role for 12 Years a Slave. Not that, in the past, LATAM talent was scarce — recall U.S. stars like Bolivian Raquel Welch, Puerto Ricans Jose Ferrer, Rita Moreno and Benicio del Toro; Mexicans Ricardo Montalban, Anthony Quinn, Edward James Olmos and Salma Hayek, and, from Cuba, Andy Garcia. Since the first Oscars telecasts in LATAM, the statuettes have been awarded to 20 Latin Americans. Recalling the history of the Oscars’ international telecasts is not easy because, like much historical data concerning international distribution, the records were lost or never kept. What is known is that from that first broadcast, it took 13 years, until 1966, before the show was telecast in color and three more years before it was broadcast in a few more countries outside Canada and Mexico. In 1953, the 25th annual Academy Awards ceremony was broadcast live nationally in the U.S. and Canada on NBC, while in Mexico it was telecast the following night on Mexico City’s XHGC-TV (now part of Televisa’s TV networks) via kinescope: film from a movie camera mounted in front of a TV monitor, that NBC uniquely called “kine-photo.” At that time this extra coverage was at the statuette and commented, “it looks just like my Uncle Oscar!” Another story is that Bette Davis named it after her ex-husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, Jr. The moniker was picked up by gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky, who used it in one of his articles. However, the Academy officially acknowledged the name “Oscar” for the statuette only in 1939. Reportedly, the model for the 1928 Oscar statuette, by sculptor George Stanley, was Mexican filmdirector and actor Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, who had been recommended for the job byMexican actor Dolores del Rio, who was married to MGM’s art director and one of the original Academy members, Cedric Gibbons (though this has not been confirmed by the Academy). The first national U.S. broadcast in 1953 (previously the Awards were broadcast only on local Los Angeles TV stations and on national radio and hosted by comedian Bob Hope) was on NBC and continued on that network until 1960. From 1961 to 1970, the Oscars telecast moved to ABC, returning to NBC during the period of 19711975. In 1976 it went back to ABC with a contract that was extended to 2020. Throughout the years, the telecast was known as “The Academy Awards Show,” and since 2013, simply as “The Oscars.” VideoAge found one of the first accounts of the i n t e r n a t i o n a l sales of the O s c a r s in an ad in the September 1979 Issue of Television/ Radio Age, by ABC Pictures I nter nat iona l , to license “The 52nd Annual Academy Awards, scheduled for ABC Telecast April 14, 1980 [and] available live by satellite or film or videotape within 36 hours.” As previously mentioned, the first Oscars broadcast in LATAM was reported in 1953 on Mexico’s XHGC-TV. Brazil followed in 1954 and Colombia in 1981 on RCN. However, LATAM’s active involvement with the Academy Awards began in 1948, when Argentina’s Dios se lo pague was given an honorary prize, before the Best Foreign Language Film Award was established in 1956. Argentina has submitted works for the Best Foreign Film since 1961, followed by Peru in 1967 and Venezuela in 1978. While on NBC, the Oscars’ international TV rights were handled by California National Productions, an NBC division created in 1953 that worked closely with NBC and parent company RCA, which later became NBC Films. While on ABC, the international rights were sold by ABC Film, a division established in 1954 that in 1972 became ABC Pictures International. By 1970 the Oscars telecast was licensed in 50 countries and 76 in 1984. By then ABC was sending two satellite feeds internationally: one for live broadcast (which could not bemodified by the licensee) and, the next day, a 90-minute edited version. In both cases the licensees were allowed (and still are) to include called, “extending the network.” According to the presenter of the 26th Awards, the show was also broadcast via kinescope in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, possibly on the station owned by Brazilian publisher and TV pioneer Assis Chateaubriand, whowas a friend of David Sarnoff, president of RCA, parent company of NBC, from whom he purchased the transmitting equipment. But it wasn’t until 1970 that Mexico and Brazil could air the live broadcast of the 42nd Awards. The origin of the Oscars is as colorful as its telecast and dramatic as the films it celebrates. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was organized in 1927 by MGM’s Louis B. Mayer and other U.S. studio heads, originally to mediate labor disputes. At that time the below-theline workers made IATSE the strongest union, which first fell into the hands of racketeers and, later, into those of the mob, which promptly began blackmailing the studios (events recalled in many Hollywood movies, including The Godfather). However, the studios did not always support the Oscars, like in 1953 when three of the film studios refused financial support, forcing theAcademy to look to RCA for sponsorship in exchange for national broadcast rights over its NBC radio and TV networks. The first “Academy Awards of Merit” (the Oscars’ official name) were bestowed in Hollywood in 1929 for the best movies of 1927 and 1928 in 12 categories (for a total of 15 Oscar statuettes). No one really knows how the Oscar statuettes got their name. One story is that in 1931 then-Academy director Margaret Herrick looked (Continued from Cover)
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