Jim Piazza

A fascinating and well-organized reference of the Academy Awards, from their beginning in 1927-28, to 2003. Full of facts, gossip, opinion and movie critiques, this is a fine read. The authors discuss the scenes, fashions and events at each Oscar, behind-the-curtains scenes, the background info behind each major award, and lists of all the nominees and awards for each year. I especially liked the "Sins of omission" segments, in which the authors mention performances or movies that were show more unfogiveably unnominated. My only quibble is that I would have liked more photographs from the actual ceremonies (most of the photos are stills from the movies) - but this is a minor quibble, and fixing it might have made this book bulky enough to be unwieldy. show less