Anatomy of an Oscar

Academy Museum Store Exclusives. We designed this collection depicting the statuette's design features: a stylized figure of a knight holding a crusader's sword while standing on a reel of film with five spokes signifying the five original branches of the Academy (actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers). When the Oscar® debuted, it was known as The Academy Award® of Merit. With the original design on paper done by Cedric Gibbons in 1927, it was first seen on the cover the November 1927 Academy magazine. George Stanley started work on statuette design in Fall 1928 through early 1929, and the first statuettes were handed out in 1929.