How do you make an Oscar? Get an exclusive peek behind the scenes
Patrick RyanROCK TAVERN, NY ‒ It never gets old watching the Oscars on TV, especially if you're the person who made the trophy.
"You're always trying to zoom in like, 'Who made that one?!' " jokes Ivan Goodman, manufacturing manager at the UAP fine arts foundry, where the priceless statuettes have been fastidiously produced for the last decade.
"I watch the Oscars every year with my daughters and I tell them, 'I made those at work!' " says craftsman Miguel Lucero, who's tasked with coating each wax model in a ceramic shell – just one of myriad steps it takes to build the iconic hardware.
"It's so complicated," Lucero adds. "I think a lot of people would be surprised how long the process is to actually finish one Oscar."
The average person might assume that Oscars are mass-produced and camera-ready as soon as they roll off an assembly line. But every statue is handmade by a group of more than a dozen artisans, with production lasting roughly six months from start to finish for each year's batch.
"It takes a village to raise an Oscar!" Goodman says. "The Oscar for 'best Oscar' is an award that we've thought about for the team."
The UAP workshop, which is located an hour and a half outside New York City, typically collaborates with artists on one-off metal sculptures that are later housed in museums, galleries and public spaces. But the Oscars are one of the only projects they return to annually, allowing the team "to really sit with the work year in and year out," Goodman says.
"Each Oscar is a sculpture of its own, and it’s treated in the same way as we approach a 20-foot bronze artwork that's going to the Whitney Museum," Goodman explains, strolling through a lofty concrete workspace dotted with towering aluminum busts. "It's the same level of care that we put into everything we make here."
The casting process begins with wax figures, which are dipped into vats of ceramic slurry and silica sand to create a hard, heat-resistant casing around the Oscar. Think of it like breading poultry: "The Oscar is basically a chicken cutlet – it just takes 20 people to make it," Goodman quips.
From there, the wax Oscar is melted out and replaced with molten bronze. Once it cools, the ceramic shell is broken off so the solidified statue can be sanded and polished to fix any imperfections.
"Layer after layer, you start losing details on the face," says finishing team lead Salvador Guzman Jr. "The most difficult part is the lips because they’re so tiny. But it's all about patience and taking your time. Having it perfect is what the Academy expects ‒ nothing less!"
In the final step, the bronze statuettes are plated with gold at Epner Technology in Brooklyn. The most common question that Goodman gets from friends and family: " 'Is it solid gold?' That's the usual one. They're like, 'Hey, it's Hollywood! They've got money!' "
People are also shocked by the proportions of the prize, which stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds.
"Whenever anybody picks one up, they’re astounded by the weight of them," general manager Jake Joyce says. "I don’t think anybody assumes that they're solid bronze."
Guzman is still holding out hope that someday, his team will get tickets to the Academy Awards ceremony. But for now, crafting the little gold men is the next best thing.
"It's a little taste of Hollywood, you know?" Guzman says. "Having a chance to work alongside the Academy, holding those things throughout the day here in the shop – it means a lot. Most people don’t have a chance in their lifetimes to hold an Oscar, but we do. I cherish these moments, knowing we have a part of history."
Recently, "we were talking about what’s the most recognizable sculpture in the world: Is it the David or the Oscar?" Goodman says of Michelangelo's masterpiece. "It's obviously the Oscar. Everybody knows him."