With a discerning eye and a wealth of experience, Bruce Davis transforms what could have been dry and academic into an erudite and witty saga. He buries a number of myths and rumors surrounding the Oscars, and reveals how the organization survived its chaotic early years. THE ACADEMY AND THE AWARD is a major contribution to Hollywood history—and a great read.
—Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian

Wide ranging in his objective perspective, but always humanly intimate, Davis examines the in-house records of the Board of Governors, memos of its Presidents, and letters from the Academy’s more activist members, with much added flavoring and gossip. Davis’s seminal history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reads with all the honed stagecraft and drama of an Oscar nominated screenplay.
—John Bailey, cinematographer, Academy President 2017-2019

In this entertaining, well-researched history, Bruce Davis traces how a marginal organization that teetered on the brink of bankruptcy for years became a major cultural institution that awards a coveted prize.
—Charles Solomon, Author of The Man Who Leapt Through Film

There are few people who know (and can explain) the inner machinations of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but if anyone can do it, Bruce Davis is that man. I am thrilled that there is finally a serious history of the organization and the people behind it, with names that you'll recognize and those you won't. This is the definitive history of the Academy: it deserves a place on one's shelf, or inside one's Kindle. Mr. Davis’s magnum opus is essential reading for any serious cinephile.
—Robert Harris, Motion Picture Archivist

With the skill and wit of a great story teller, Bruce Davis transports us into the secret boardrooms filled with powerful moguls and charismatic stars, the screenwriters and directors, the cinematographers and visionary scientists who frame-by-frame crafted the movies into the art form we cherish today. Here is the fascinating tale of how the coveted golden statuette of Oscar almost wasn’t and came to be. How I wish I had known this history when I joined the Academy. Pure magic!
—Kathy Bates, Oscar recipient, past Academy Governor

I recommend this book to everyone who loves the movies and the Oscars!
—Walter Mirisch,, Academy President 1973-1977

This wonderful book is often funny, sometimes shocking, and always incredibly informative as we get the inside story at the Academy, from its humble beginnings at the Biltmore, to today.
—Ed Begley, Jr., Actor, past Academy Governor

In his thirty-year career at the Academy, serving as its Executive Director for twenty of those years, Bruce Davis headed the organization's staff and guided its Board of Governors in the conducting of the world’s best-known arts awards. He saw the possibilities in a derelict structure in Beverly Hills, and oversaw its conversion into the resplendent home of the Academy's Herrick Library. He led the Academy Awards back into Hollywood after a forty-year absence, and established, also in Hollywood, what now stands as one of the world's major film archives.