International events: California Antiquarian Book Fair

This year International California Antiquarian book fair “From Author to Oscar” will take place from 12-14 February in Los Angeles. The largest rare book fair in the world will spotlight relation of books and movies.

Since the majority of Best Picture Oscar winners have been based upon literary works, the Library of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has become a good platform for holding research on the topic of movies. The library’s staff accepted the requests of the fair’s organizers and provided the antiquarian book festival with rare artefacts. Among them are rare, first edition copies of books, which became Best Picture Oscar winning films.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ new exhibition "The More the Merrier: Posters from the Ten Best Picture Nominees, 1936 – 1943," is currently being held at the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery in Beverly Hills. The exhibition is marking great changes which are to take place in the Oscar ceremony: this year there will be ten Best Picture nominees instead of five, as had been practiced during last 6 decades. Even the most enthusiastic ceremony’s fans are unlikely to know the fact that the number of Best Picture nominees ranged from 3 to 12 in the Awards years from 1927 to 1943. In 1944 the number was set at 5, as it remained until 2009.