Unsung Heroes of Oscar

I normally don’t believe praising an individual or those who are there in the lime light for achievements. (Yes I do understand their hard work and I do respect them)If a firm achieves something it’s basically a collective effort rather that the ability of a CEO or any such names… ( i am not saying that a CEO is not playing any role.. but still )

Ok.. Now back to business.. I was watching Oscar this morning and in between some 2-3 minutes caught my attention. I don’t know whether everyone knows the way how Oscar award happens.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses proportional voting (also known as a preferential system) for the selection of Oscar nominees. The idea of a proportional (or preferential) vote is that nominations represent an outcome with multiple winners, and a proportional system more accurately limns the collective judgment of AMPAS voters. In a proportional system, individual voters have more of a chance to have an influence on the outcome.

Under the AMPAS nominating system, the Academy’s approximately 5,500 members receive their ballots in December. Each AMPAS members is allowed to vote as many as five times in their occupational category (actors for actors, directors for directors, writers for writers, etc.). The candidates that the member votes for are listed in declining preference, from the voter’s first choice through the fifth. To determine nominations, the votes will be counted according to the level of preference (first preference before second preference, second before third, etc.).

PricewaterhouseCoopers manually tabulates the responses according to Academy rules. Each year, it takes approximately 1,700 “person-hours” to count and verify the ballots by hand. It takes seven days to count the ballots for nominations and three days to count the ballots for winners.

So forget about the super stars. It’s the PWC Partners from the LA office does this work!!! Three days before the voting they move to an undisclosed location and do the counting manually!! Sunday morning, they’re each picked up by a bodyguard — an off-duty LAPD officer, who shadows them through the day, ensuring no one tries to steal the results. They walk the red carpet, their tuxes accessorizedonly by their Longchamps black leather briefcases, each stuffed with a set of the 24 envelopes. They each stand on either side of the stage, and they hand the appropriate envelope to the presenter before they walk out on stage.

Nice isn’t it ?