Oscars

Intro

This is an assembly on the Oscars, but could equally be used to look at ‘Awards’ generally !

Oscars Facts

1. The first Oscars (the Academy Awards) took place in 1929 and only lasted 15 minutes (some speeches take nearly this long now!!)

2. The 2003 movie Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won 11 Oscars, winning every category it was nominated for – the only movie ever to do this.

3. The Oscar winners have to agree not to sell their Oscar statuette without first offering it to the Academy.

4. The most Oscars won by a person was 22 by Walt Disney.

5. The actor / actress with the most Oscars are Kathryn Hepburn with 4 Oscars – and 3 Oscars for Daniel Day-Lewis, who was the first three-time recipient of the Best Actor Oscar, with ‘Lincoln’.

YouTube Clip

Weeping Oscar acceptance speeches – https://youtu.be/pOtvsT2CWj0 (accessed January 2019)

Every Oscar Winner Who Cried (from Film Slice) – https://youtu.be/pOtvsT2CWj0

Award Speeches

This will need some preparation if you choose to use students. You will need 2-3 of them and need to work with them to get them to give an ‘Oscar Acceptance Speech’. Alternatively, you’ll need to be a good actor / actress or you need to get in a 2-3 people who are…

The game is to get people to give their very own Oscar acceptance speech. The speeches must be no longer than 2 minutes long and the best one as voted by the assembly ‘wins’. 

Point

Having an award or getting an Oscar is a great achievement. You should be incredibly proud of the awards you get in your life. I’ve got awards for exams and university, for sport, for courses and training. It’s all good but it’s not the most important thing in life!

People live life for all kinds of reasons and things like money, fame, power, sex and all kinds of other priorities that don’t really bring lasting satisfaction. So many actors, musicians, singers, stars, famous people have died early or said that fame and fortune wasn’t what they thought it was. They wanted something more…

In the Bible there was a man called Paul. He used to kill Christians. He was a big name, was kind of famous in a way. He had lots of power, people under his control and could do whatever he wanted. He was living the life, living for what he thought was right.

But then one day the Bible says he had a dramatic experience where he met with God and was totally changed. He ended up being one of the key people that wrote a lot of the Bible and set up loads of churches. But he had a pretty bad time – he was shipwrecked, rejected, hated, beaten, tortured, imprisoned and one day killed because of his beliefs. Here’s what he said:

“Living life for God is the only race worth running, the only award worth having. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is the shouting—God’s applause! Depend on it, he’s an honest judge. He’ll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for his coming.”

(The Message version of the Bible, 2 Timothy 4)

Charlie Chaplin Parody

Charlie Chaplin parody – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc6ZQ0GNUc0

Charlie Chaplin Ladder Tribute – Ladder Gag

Someone once said “Don’t climb the ladder of success, only to find it’s leaning against the wrong wall.” You could also say, don’t climb the ladder, only to fall off once you’ve reached the top!

The Oscars and all the awards you win are great. But Christians believe there is more to life and that living for God is the only award and reward worth having because it makes a difference in this life and in the next life.