10 interesting Oscar facts, from youngest winner to trophy price

Catch up on some Oscars trivia, ahead of the 2023 ceremony.

The 95th edition of the Academy Awards is all set to take place on Monday, March 13. All eyes will be on the ceremony to honour the best movies, performances, music and film technology of the year gone by. Ahead of the big evening, here is some trivia from the 93-year history of the Academy Awards.

The first ceremony

The inaugural Academy Awards took place in May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.

The first recipients 

Janet Gaynor won the Best Actress award while Emil Jannings was adjudged the best actor.

Why is the trophy called an Oscar? 

Till 1939, the trophies handed out by the Academy were known as the  Academy Awards of Merit. But after Margaret Herrick, the Academy's executive director, compared the award to her uncle Oscar, it became popular by that name.

How much does it weigh?

The Oscar award weighs a hefty eight-and-a-half pounds.

Can award winners sell it?

According to the Academy's rules, winners or their heirs cannot sell the statuette "without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00".

Youngest and oldest Oscar winners

Youngest - Tatum O'Neal. She was 1o years old when she won Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1974.

Oldest -  Anthony Hopkins. He won the Best Actor Oscar for The Father (2020), at the age of 83.

Most expensive Oscars dress

Jennifer Lawrence famously fell on the Oscars stage in 2013, wearing a $4 million Dior gown, believed to be the most expensive dress in Oscars history.

The iconic Dior dress Jennifer Lawrence wore when she won her Oscar in 2013 remains the most expensive dress ever worn at the ceremony pic.twitter.com/vzTth061f5

— Jennifer Lawrence Updates (@JenniferUpdates) September 27, 2020

Longest film to win Oscar

Russian film War and Peace, spanning 414 minutes, was awarded the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1967.

Posthumous winners (actors)

In Oscars history, only two actors -- Heath Ledger  and Peter Finch -- have been awarded the trophies posthumously.

Actress with most the Oscars

Katharine Hepburn, star of films like The Lion in Winter, won four Oscars in a career spanning six decades.