According to Statista, approximately 18.7 million Americans watched the Academy Awards broadcast in 2023. That seems low in comparison to the number of viewers in 2014 (40 million), but it represents a significant increase from the deflated numbers of 2021 (just 10.4 million—thanks, COVID!). Will you be watching the Academy Awards on Sunday? We’ve gathered an abundance of stories to help you prepare for the festivities and impress your friends with your knowledge of film history.
Nominated Films, Past and Present
The Indelible Lessons of Erasure
December 27, 2023
A Percival Everett fan weighs in on the novelist’s approach to racial satire and considers the translation of Erasure to the big screen in American Fiction.
My Summer of Watching Little Women
May 11, 2018
What the author learned from her mother, a feminist academic doing a research project on film adaptations of Little Women.
The Annotated Oppenheimer
March 7, 2024
Celebrated and damned as the “father of the atomic bomb,” theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer lived a complicated scientific and political life.
Black Panther and Double-Consciousness
March 28, 2018
Double identity, present in both Marvel's Black Panther and in the critical race theory of double-consciousness, enables black American viewers to see their two identities played out on screen.
Hollywood’s Version of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
November 19, 2020
Ernest Hemingway didn’t care for it.
Teaching Barbie: Scholarly Readings to Inspire Classroom Discussion
August 30, 2023
Barbie is having a(nother) moment. Researchers have been studying the famous doll for years.
Get Out as Fugue of Double Meanings
February 27, 2018
It’s said that the best jokes, like the best mysteries, are ones where the punchline is contained in the set-up. Jordan Peele's Get Out offers a sinister reworking of this maxim.
Casablanca at 75
November 26, 2017
On the 75th anniversary of the premier of Casablanca, let's revisit the art and politics of this venerable American classic.
BlacKkKlansman in Context
August 30, 2018
A new film tells the story of Ron Stallworth, a black police officer who infiltrated the KKK in 1972. What was the context for this odd moment in history?
Freeing Birdman of Alcatraz
March 3, 2024
Neither the Bureau of Prisons nor the Production Code Administration could stop the production of a movie about murderer and ornithologist Robert Stroud.
Leonard Bernstein, Teacher
September 24, 2018
Leonard Bernstein was a famous composer, conductor, and pianist. But by some accounts, his favorite accomplishment was teaching children about music.
History of the Oscars and Film Industry
McCarthyism at the Oscars
January 30, 2020
As José Ferrer was being handed his Oscar—making him the first Latino actor to win—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
When It Comes to the Oscars, the Nomination Is as Good as a Win
January 22, 2016
Research suggests that an Oscar nomination helps boost sales revenue in the weeks following the announcements.
The Last Silent Film Star
June 1, 2018
The silent film star once known as Baby Peggy reminisces about how, decades before #TimesUp, children and women were exploited by Hollywood.
And the Academy Award Goes to…
February 20, 2015
The American motion picture industry honors itself every year with the Academy Awards, now known officially as "The Oscars."
PG-13: Some Material May Be Inappropriate
February 21, 2024
The creation of the PG-13 rating in 1984 can be traced to a few key films: Poltergeist, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins.
Mary Pickford Knew Not to Take the First Offer
November 7, 2019
When the 17-year-old actress auditioned for her first film, director D.W. Griffith offered her $5 a day. That wasn’t good enough for Mary.
How “Talkies” Disrupted Movies for Deaf People
May 2, 2022
The years of silent films are sometimes described as a "golden era" in the cultural history of the American Deaf community.
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Politics and More
How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare
December 2, 2017
A young Richard Nixon started asking studio executives why they didn't produce anti-Communist movies. The studios quickly responded with anti-Red films.
The End of American Film Censorship
February 28, 2018
The Hays Code kept Hollywood on a short leash until the Supreme Court decided in 1952 that films were protected by the First Amendment.
How a Beloved Musical Became a Cold War Weapon
August 8, 2018
The 1962 film The Music Man was seen as so all-American that some hoped it would help win the Cold War by transmitting American values abroad.
The MCU: A Tale of American Exceptionalism
June 8, 2023
Evolving from a hated weapons manufacturer into a technocratic solution to the War on Terror, Iron Man epitomizes a militarized, defensive America.
How Fritz Lang’s Flight from Nazi Germany Shaped Hollywood
May 21, 2020
German expressionism--imported to Hollywood by Jewish exiles--brought a lasting tradition of shadows, duality, and mirroring to mainstream American cinema.
When the CIA Was Everywhere—Except on Screen
April 15, 2021
Hollywood was just fine avoiding all portrayals of the Central Intelligence Agency for years after the agency's founding in 1947.
Why Do Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Films Still Resonate?
February 4, 2018
A miniseries directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder finally has its U.S. premier 45 years later and reminds us of the phenomenon of this great German director.
American Film’s Disappearing Lesbians
May 19, 2018
In the 1990s, lesbian characters were repeatedly transformed into "close friends" in film adaptions of LGBTQ-themed books.
Hollywood’s Asian American Heroes
June 9, 2018
Asian American detectives played by actors Anna May Wong and Keye Luke had a minor but notable place in 1930s and 40s Hollywood.
