Every Single Official Oscar Poster Since 1960.

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Here are all of the Official Academy Awards Posters from 1960 through 2014. Although the Oscars go back 85 years, they didn't begin producing promotional posters until 1960. You may have seen others, but these are the "official" posters as stated by The Academy.  As you can see, some are hideous and others are beautiful, and all are incredibly inconsistent.

You will notice how they sometimes refer to the awards show as the Academy Awards, and at other times, The Oscars. Sometimes they mention the year, sometimes the number. Occasionally the date is added and at other times, the times of the telecast. They first added the website (.com) to the posters in 2005 and since then used that sporadically. Once in awhile the poster will feature the host. In 2006, the 78th Academy awards, they ran two different posters (the female and the male clutching the statuette) and this year they have also released two different posters.

Below are all 54 in chronological order beginning with the first in 1960. Enjoy!




























Last year, for the 85th annual Academy Awards show, the most beautiful unofficial poster received much attention and rightly so. I even wrote a blog post on that stunning poster by Olly Moss so one could see the details. Check out the Olly Moss 85th Oscar Poster here

And this year they have two official posters for the 86th Annual Academy Awards. One named "liquid", the other, "Spotlight":

And, most recently added:


And there you have it. The 54 (actually 55 with the new Ellen one) Official Oscar Posters to date.

Please do not reproduce these without linking back to this post. If you wish to write your own post you can find the Oscar posters in the Academy's digital archives.

A Close-Up Look At The 85 Years of Oscar Poster By Olly Moss and A List Of The Movies It References.

One of my favorite graphic designers, Olly Moss, worked with The Academy and Gallery 1988 to create the official "85 Years of Oscars" poster for the 85th Academy Awards.

The poster (which is enlarged in sections below for you) contains Oscar Statuettes that have been re-imagined and drawn to symbolize the Oscar winning movie. Especially unique are the Oscar statuette drawings for Schindler's List (The little girl in the red coat), and for The Artist (black and white). Olly says "The brief was one of the hardest I’ve ever had; find a way to reference every single Best Picture winner from the last 85 years."

Here's a key to the Best Picture Winners referenced in the poster for you:


I have enlarged each Oscar statuette from the poster for you below.

1927-1947:

1948-1967:

1968-1987:

1998-2007:

2008-2012:


The poster debuted as part of Gallery 1988's Academy Awards project.
Olly Moss

A Look At How The Oscar Statuette Is Made & Fun Academy Awards Facts.

In honor of tonight's 85th Annual Academy Awards, here's a reprise of a post that looks at how the coveted statuette is actually made, from start to finish.



The exterior of R.S. Owens in Chicago:


Casting, Buffing and polishing:



The metal is heated to 960 degrees before pouring into the cast.

The Oscar, removed from the cast, and ready to be polished and buffed:

The rough seams are sanded:

And the statue is polished:



Electroplating:


being dipped into the nickel (the second step, it's first dipped into copper):

Dipped into the 24k plate, the fourth step (the third step is dipped into silver):




Engraving and Mounting:


Affixing the engraved plate to the base:

a close up look at base:

Placing the felt pad on the base:




Oscar Fun Facts:

• The official name of the statuette is the Academy Award® of Merit

• Oscar is 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds

• The First Recipient was Emil Jannings, named Best Actor for his performances in “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh” in 1929

• Number of Awards Presented to date as of 2011: 2,809 statuettes



• It was designed by Cedric Gibbons, chief art director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley.

• The Oscar statuette depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy (actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers.)

• How Oscar received his nickname is not exactly clear.
The most popular story is that Margaret Herrick, an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the Academy staff began to refer to it as Oscar. Although the nickname was used with increasing frequency during the late 1930s, the Academy didn't officially use the name Oscar until 1939.

• The Oscar statuette hasn't been altered since his molten birth, except when the design of the pedestal was made taller in 1945.

The 85th Oscars airs tonight at 7pm Eastern time and 4pm Pacific time