80 Years Of The Oscar – Official History Of The Academy Awards – Win Your Copy Here!

The Academy Awards are upon us, and it’s a great time to catch up on the history of the whole event.  Abbeville Press are publishers of the only official guide to the Academy Awards, and it is a must own for any serious fan of film.

Written by Robert Osborne, columnist and critic for The Hollywood Reporter, and author of several books on film, the book weighs in at 440 9×12 pages with 755 illustrations, and is a simply massive tome covering every year of the award ceremony.

Here’s the blurb from Abbeville’s site -

With hundreds of photographs and an informative text by Hollywood insider Robert Osborne, 80 Years of the Oscar is the official history of the Academy Awards. Organized by year, 80 Years of the Oscar chronicles the ceremonies themselves, as well as the accomplishments, trends, developments, and events that occurred, both within the Academy and for the film industry as a whole. Osborne comments on each year’s most important films and shares the stories behind them. He also transports readers into the awards show, quoting from notable acceptance speeches and celebrity reactions, as well as regaling readers with anecdotes from each year. 

This really is a fascinating book.  Flipping through it for a few minutes turned into more than an hour of pouring over several years for me.   As noted above, the book is organized by year, and you are really given a feel for that year.  More than just who won, who was nominated, and what the ceremony itself was like, you are really given an understanding of what was going on in film during that year.  What was the industry doing?  Why were certain films, or styles of film, moving to the forefront?  And on and on.

Far more than a mere reference, this is a book that explores the event itself, and the film industry from every angle.  At $75, this is clearly not something that every casual movie fan is going to pick up.  But, for serious fans and students of film, this is required reading.

A work that easily warrants a read as its own education on film, and a reference that should be at hand for everyone who is truly serious about movies and the movie world, 80 Years of the Oscars is not only a great book, but a great investment.

And, here’s your chance to pick one up for yourself.  Leave a comment on this post with your email (for letting you know you’ve won purposes only), and you are entered to win your very own copy.  A winner will be selected at random on March 7th.

Abbeville has also put together an Oscar Quiz – Try your luck.

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