THIS IS the week leading up to the biggest night of the Oscars and everyone, including the nominated stars, the Hollywood and the audience seem to be in high hopes and anticipation. The Indian urban crowd loves Hollywood movies and as the Descendents (the movie nominated for the Academy) is running in movie halls here; it is interesting to watch it even though it are gearing up for the 84th Academy awards.

To be aired live on February 26, this time the noticeable hype around the most awaited award ceremony is missing. People are talking about it but it is not actually making headlines compared to yesteryears practice. This is not just for some security measure but as reported in detroitnews.com, it is actually a strategy.

As reported, the producers of the highly awaited and anticipated award ceremony, wants to keep the level of anticipation high and maintain the intrigue and mystery of the ceremony. Brian Grazer and Don Mischer, who are producing the Academy Awards ceremony ABC, recently denied speaking about the award ceremony. Not only that, one of the evening’s host Billy crystal would also appear just once in the Entertainment Weekly for a pre-Oscar interview. However, amid all the hush hush, the fact that Michael Douglas would also be a host is definite, much to the joy of many people.

The Kodak theatre, the seat of all the activity would this time be decorated as “a timeless movie theatre” says the producer of the event. The whole decoration would be in tune with the three best picture nominees — "The Artist," "Hugo" and "Midnight in Paris" that pays a tribute to the bygone golden era of cinema in Hollywood. While this is the only relevant information revealed before the actual night, we can give a few insights about the origin of the awards.

The first Academy Award ceremony was held on May 16, 1929. The statute measures just 13½ inches high and is made of tin, copper and antimony and a thick coating of 24 carat gold. Most interesting is the origin of the nickname ‘Oscar’. It is actually said to have started when actress Bette Davis remarked that the statue resembled her then husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson but many critics write this off. Whatever, the story may be Titanic, till date, remains the film that got the highest number of Oscar nominations. The countdown begins.