Featured Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Topics: Oscars, Academy Awards, Hollywood, Celebrity
William Morgan
Topics: Oscars, Academy Awards, Hollywood, Celebrity
The pinnacle of the movie awards season is finally here, with the good, the bad, and the unlikely to win of Hollywood donning their best couture and taking to the red carpet in the hopes of bagging that all-important Oscar.
Many will be hoping to stop Ryan Coogler's vampire horror flick Sinners from capitalizing on its record-breaking 16 Academy Award nominations, as well as Paul Thomas Anderson's black comedy One Battle After Another which has received nods in 13 categories.
But when the roughly 50 Oscar statuettes are handed out across the 24 categories, recognizing filmmaking excellence from makeup to the highly-anticipated award for best picture, many are people unaware that they come with strings attached.
There are actually a number of 'regulations' passed down by the Academy that have even been tested, and reinforced, in court that stipulate exactly what each winner is allowed to do with their gold-coated statuette - and one of these rules is particularly strict.
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Under basically no circumstances are any of the Oscar winners allowed to sell, or in any other way dispose of, their Academy Award. This has been in place since 1951, although, there is one exception to this rule.
It might seem surprising that there would even need to be a rule regarding selling these highly coveted 'Awards of Merit', some of which have been awarded every year since the Academy Awards began in 1929.
But there are a number of reasons that an Oscar might change hands, though legally the main one is if it is bequeathed to someone else after death. Which the Academy is perfectly fine with, so long as they don't then try to sell it.
Or, they might just be particularly strapped for cash. Yet either way, the regulations state that selling it is simply not allowed, unless they let the Academy purchase it back for just a dollar.
The rules say: "Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00."
This has even been taken to court, after Joseph Tutalo sold the Oscar that his uncle, Joseph Wright, had won in 1943 for $79,200, but the Academy sued Tutalo and the auction house for breach of contract.
A California judge ruled in their favor and forcined the person who won the auction to return the statue.
The website adds: "This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest."
But in a sign that this rule is very much at the discretion of the organizers, in 1999 pop legend Michael Jackson was allowed to purchase the best picture Oscar awarded to David Selznick in 1939 - for a staggering $1.5 million.