Attention everyone! If you are a budding actor or actress trying to make to the big league and stand on the podium of Hollywood's biggest night, this news might just be for you.
A study reveals, if you want to win a prestigious Academy award it is best to be an American actor portraying the nation's culture in a film.
The paper was published in British Journal of Psychology.
The researchers conducted a large scale analysis of the distribution of the Academy awards for best actress and best actor in a leading role by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, popularly known as the Oscars as well as by London based British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs) since 1968.
The research covered a total of 908 prize winners which included 97 winners and 383 nominees for the Oscars and 97 winners and 331 nominees for the BAFTAs.
They aim to see the best performances in feature films from all around the world.
The results showed that the awards were dominated by the American actors.
The actors have been winning more than 50 percent of all the prizes across Oscars and BAFTAs. But, if they share a social group membership with the judges, higher are the chances of them grabbing the trophy.
U.S. based actors won 52 percent of all the BAFTAs and 69 percent of all the Oscars. While British actors won 18 percent of all the Oscars but 34 percent of all the BAFTAs.
"We know a lot about the factors that increase people's capacity to show exceptional performances. However, a somewhat different question is what makes a given creative performance likely to be seen as exceptional. This was the question we addressed in this research," said Dr. Niklas K. Steffens from the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland.
The study's main author adds, "These results show that whether we see a given performance as extraordinary is not just a function of the objective quality of that performance. For perceivers are much more likely to recognise a performance as truly brilliant when perceivers and performers share membership in a social group."
The data also showed that the nationality of the nominees also made a difference. American actors received 67 percent of all nominations but 78 percent of all the awards, While in BAFTAs, British actors got 31 percent of all the nominations and 42 percent of all the awards.
Another important determinant of success at winning these awards was the subject matter of the movie.
In the Oscars, American artists accounted for 26 percent of award winners whose performance was in films about non-U.S. culture but for 88 percent of award winners whose performance was in films about American culture.
"There is a widespread belief that our perception of makes a creation original and outstanding is given by its objective qualities, but in fact it is heavily influenced by the social groups we are members of, and which provide the basis for making sense of the world," Dr. Steffens said on this pattern.
