From the golden statuettes to the winners, here are 10 things that you probably don't know about the oldest entertainment awards ceremony.

1. Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is commonly known by its nickname "Oscar". While the origins of the moniker are not clear, the academy adopt the nickname officially in 1939, 10 years after the award was first presented.

2. The statuette stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 lbs. Since then, a total of 2,947 statuettes have been presented.

3. The statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was replaced by Britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy which is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24 carat gold.

4. The first Academy Awards were presented in May, 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It was first televised in 1953, and now the event can be seen in more than 200 countries.

5. The youngest Oscar winner was Tatum O'Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress for "Paper Moon" in 1973 when she was 10 years old. The oldest winner is Christopher Plummer. He received the Best Supporting Actor at the age of 82 for his work in "Beginners" in 2010.

6. With her nomination last year for "Into the Woods," Meryl Streep has been nominated for a record 19 times. She has won three Best Actress.

7. Liza Minnelli is the one and only Oscar winner whose parents both earned Oscars. She won Best Actress for "Cabaret" in 1973. Her mother Judy Garland received an honorary award in 1939 and her father Vincente Minnelli won Best Director for "Gigi" in 1958.

8. The statuettes are technically property of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As a result, before an Oscar winner can sell his trophy, he must first offer to sell it to the Academy for one dollar. This rule is to discourage winners from selling the awards for financial gain.

9. Only three films have won all of the "Big Five" Academy Award categories: "It Happened One Night" in 1934, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1975 and "The Silence of the Lambs" in 1991. The "Big Five" categories are: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.

10. "Ben-Hur," "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" are the most successful films in Oscar history, each winning a shocking 11 Oscars.

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