The Oscars night is one of the biggest in show business. A time to celebrate the best talent in film, design and sound. A night to laugh, cry and cheer at the most memorable acceptance speeches. A moment for actors like Riz Ahmed to adorably fix his wife Fatima Farheen Mirza’s hair on the red carpet, Benedict Cumberbatch to photobomb U2 after a shot of vodka, courtesy of Ellen DeGeneres, or perhaps for Will Smith to shock the world by slapping Chris Rock on stage...
This year, the 96th Academy Awards are back in all their glory – and will take place, once again, on Sunday, March 10 at the Dolby Theatre.
The Oscars have been held at this iconic venue in the Hollywood & Highland Centre in Los Angeles for more than 20 years. It has also been announced that the 2024 awards ceremony will once again be presented by Jimmy Kimmel, marking his fourth time hosting the awards (the late-night TV presented previously hosted the event in 2017, 2018 and 2023).
Over the years the Oscars have been celebrated in several historic sites in Los Angeles, such as The Roosevelt Hotel, where the Academy Awards first began in 1919. Entertainment Weekly reports that the first awards ceremony was a far more low-key affair to the one we see today, with the divvying out of statues taking just 15 minutes. The first official Best Picture winner was Wings, directed by William Wellman.
Fast forward 11 years and the second ceremony was hosted in the Coconut Grove nightclub, and was broadcasted in a one-hour special on a Los Angeles radio station.
As time went on, the Oscars made a home for itself in the Biltmore Hotel, the Grauman's Chinese Theatre (now known as the TCL Chinese Theatre), the Shrine Auditorium, Marquis Theatre and many more Los Angeles spots.
In 1953, the organisers of the event held their first ever bicoastal broadcast, airing the ceremony for the first time on television from Los Angeles' Pantages Theatre and New York's International Theatre in Columbus Circle. The evening saw director Cecil B. DeMille take home the award for Best Picture for his film The Greatest Show on Earth.
Despite a brief jaunt in Santa Monica in 1961, at the Civic Auditorium, the ceremony settled at the Dolby Theatre, which opened in 2001, and has since seen the likes of Lord of the Rings win a staggering 11 awards and Moonlight scoop the Best Picture trophy (after that La La Land mishap).
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Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
