It's finally (almost) time for the Academy Awards! Or, should we say, The Oscars, which is what the show was rebranded as in 2013.
Whatever it's called, the 88th incarnation of the biggest night in showbiz arrives Sunday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Before you watch this year's batch of Hollywood's "most" esteemed—and primped—stars scoop up their shiny statuettes, check out these fun facts about the history of the awards. You might just impress those you're watching with, virtually or otherwise:
1. The first Academy Awards were held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929.
2. The price of guest tickets for the first Academy awards? A mere $5.
3. Oscar, who? The famous golden statuette is officially named the Academy Award of Merit. According to the Oscars (they'd know), the nickname's origins are unclear. The most widely known story goes that Academy librarian Margaret Herrick, who had the gig in the 1930s, saw the statue and said it looked like her Uncle Oscar. (The Academy didn't adopt the nickname officially until 1939.)
4. Whoever he is, he's hefty. An Oscar statuette is 13½ inches tall with a 5¼-inch base. It weighs 8 1/2 lbs.
5. Since 1929, 2,947 Oscar statuettes have been presented. That means that 25,049 1/2 pounds of Oscars have been collectively lifted by the most acclaimed people in the movie business. Whoa.
6. The design of the Oscar statuette, by Cedric Gibbons, is a knight holding a crusader's sword while standing on a film reel. There are five spokes on the reel representing the five original branches of the Academy: writers, technicians, producers, actors and directors. (Are you now imagining a 25,049 lb. statue? Because we are.)
7. About 50 Oscar statuettes have been created for this year's 87th Academy Awards.
8. The first televised Oscars show was on March 19, 1953. That year, Gary Cooper won the Oscar for best actor for High Noon (and it was accepted by John Wayne). Shirley Booth took home the best actress prize for Come Back, Little Sheba. The first color broadcast was in 1966, when The Sound of Music won best picture.
9. Sorry, Walt Disney classics. The best animated feature category was not added until 2001. Shrek won, because it has layers.
10. Fourteen Oscar shows have been hosted at the Dolby Theatre, including this year's. Other famous things that happen at the theater: the BET Awards, the ESPY Awards and the American Idol finals.
11. The length of the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre is about 500 feet. The width? Thirty-three feet. That's 16,500 square feet of walking and praying that you won't trip.
12. Seventy-two million U.S. viewers tuned into last year's Academy Awards. That's a lot of people. In comparison, this year's Super Bowl had 114.5 million viewers and Sunday's #SNL40 performance had 23.1 million viewers.
13. So, what's being judged? Well, there are rules. Among them, a movie (other than in the foreign language category) must open in the previous year in Los Angeles County, Calif., to qualify. And it must have a run-time of more than 40 minutes.
14. The more-than-5,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are the ones who choose the winners. Among that group, more than 1,000 are actors.
15. Here's more of a #TBT to help jog your memory for future Oscars conversations: Last year, Matthew McConaughey won best actor for Dallas Buyers Club ("Alright, alright, alright"), Cate Blanchett won best actress for Blue Jasmine and 12 Years a Slave won best picture.
Source: Oscars.org
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