Every February Oscar Fever hits the entertainment community and film fans around the world, building to the crescend) of the annual Academy Awards Presentation a month later, when hundreds of millions of cinema lovers glue themselves to their television sets to learn who will receive the golden statuettes.

每年2月，全世界的娱乐界和影迷之中都会掀起一股“奥斯卡热”，在一个月后颁发一年一度的奥斯卡奖时达到最高潮;届时，几亿电影爱好者的目光都会牢牢盯着电视机屏幕，以便得知谁将最终赢得那些小金人雕像。

Academy Awards or Oscars, are given annually¹ in the United States by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for excellence² in the creation and production of motion pictures. First presented in 1929, the Academy Awards are among the film industry’s most coveted³ prizes.

学院奖，也称为奥斯卡奖，每年由美国电影艺术与科学学院颁发给电影创作与制作方面的杰出人士。学院奖的颁发始于1929年，它堪称电影界至高无上的荣誉。

The entire academy membership participates in voting for the annual awards.In most award categories a maximum of five entrants are first nominated by the academy members who work in that particular field. From among these nominees⁴ all academy members select the winners by secret ballot⁵. These winners are publicly announced at a formal meeting each spring.

学院的全体成员每年都会参与奖项的投票活动。大多数类别的奖项都最多有5个人围名额，规则是首先由从事某一专门领域的学院成员来进行提名，即演员提名演员，导演提名导演，然后由学院所有成员通过无记名投标的方式，从入围名单中选出获奖者。获奖者名单将会在每年春天举行的正式会议上公开宣布。

The gold-plated bronze human figure, which is 34.3 cm high and weighs 3.9kg, was created by American sculptor⁶ George Stanley based on sketches⁷ made by American motion picture art director Cedric Gibbons.

奥斯卡奖杯是一座高34.3厘米、重3.9千克的镀金铜质人形雕像，是由美国雕刻家乔治·斯坦利根据美国电影艺术指导塞德里克·吉本斯所绘的草图创作的。

Awards are given for best motion picture, foreign language film; performances by male and female actors in both leading and supporting roles; achievement in direction; screenplays, both original and adapted from previous produced or published material and scores and songs composed for films. Other award categories include animated⁸ short subject, documentary feature, and documentary short feature. Excellence in technical disciplines is also recognized,including art direction, cinematography, costume design,make-up, film editing,sound and sound effects editing and visual effects. In addition, special or honorary awards are given for distinguished⁹ careers achievement.

奥斯卡奖颁发的奖项有最佳影片、最佳外语片、最佳男、女主角和配角、最佳导演、最佳原著及改编剧本，以及最佳电影音乐和歌曲。其他奖项类别还包括动画短片、纪录片和纪录短片。电影技术方面的优异表现也会得到认可，这方面的奖项包括艺术指导、摄影、服装设计、化妆、影片剪辑、音响效果和视觉效果等。此外，在电影事业上取得突出成就的人还会获得特别奖或荣誉奖。

Since the earliest years, interest in the Academy Awards has run high, if not at the modern fever-pitch. The first presentation was the only one to escape a media audience, but by the second year enthusiasm for the Awards was so high that a Los Angeles radio station actually did a live, one-hour broadcast. The Awards have had broadcast coverage¹⁰ since. The Awards ceremony is a glittering,popular annual affair that is broadcast to one billion viewers in about 100 countries each spring.

从奥斯卡奖设立的最初年代起，人们对于这一奖项的兴趣就一直非常高涨，只是没有近年来这样狂热而已。第一届奥斯卡颁奖典礼是唯一没有引起媒体和观众关注的一次，但到第二年的时候，人们对奥斯卡的热情已经开始高涨，以致洛杉矶的一家广播电台对颁奖礼进行了一个小时的实况转播。从那时起，这种转播便成了固定节目。如今，奥斯卡奖颁奖典礼已经成为了一场星光四射、广受欢迎的年度盛事，每年春天都要向100多个国家的十几亿电视观众进行现场直播。

How the Oscar received its nickname is not clear.A popular,but unsubstantiated story goes that the moniker caught on after Academy librarian Margaret Herrick said that the statuette resembled her uncle Oscar. Thus, the journalists and Academy staff started to refer to it by this name. Officially, thename Oscar has been used since 1939.

奥斯卡奖的名称由来已经无从查考。一个没有确实证据但却广为流传的说法是这样的:学院图书管理员玛格丽特·赫里克曾说这尊雕像很像她的叔叔奥斯卡，它的名称由此而来。于是，记者和学院成员们便开始以这个名字来称呼它，并从1939年起，将奥斯卡定为这一电影奖项的正式名称。