15th Annual Claude DeWayne Hudgens Oscar Gala Cover
Since 2002 I have hosted a Oscar party each year complete with drinks, food & everyone making jokes about the movies they know and the films they have never heard of before. The concept began after my grandfather passed away and I wanted to do something to remember his personality, a classy, slightly glamour focused and cinema fascinated life. An yearly Oscar party was just a perfect fit. On top of the party, the food, drinks and fun is a multi-page ballot booklet complete with a DVD loaded with trailers, posters, nominated songs & scores is provided to each attendee. A booklet that before it matured kept getting larger and more elaborate each year. The key of each year’s Gala though is the cover design.
The cover evolved every year, some years focusing on the movies that were released, others the host of the awards,

something to remember his personality, a classy, slightly glamour focused and cinema fascinated life

and yet still other times a thematic take on the year itself (for example in 2009 after the crash the theme was poverty and frustration using films like Oliver & 1976’s Network.

Each year the cover getting better and more complex or well designed (I like to think at least), each year struggling to develop a better theme or topic than not only the last year but the preceding total years tying never to repeat if at all possible.

Years three through five revolved around the oscar statue and the gala number, so year three there were three statues, year four had four statue segments, year five had five stars. Year six broke the trend and introduced image samples from classic cinema. Year seven was the year of the strike and that was reflected by picket signs and the misspelling of the word Gala.
Year eight was a tribute to Heath Ledger’s take on the Joke in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Year ten was a silver anniversary where the roles of that year were dipped in silver. Year eleven was a celebration of the history of the kiss in cinema, it also coincided with the year I got engaged to my wife. Year twelve took up the theme of redaction, cells of organization, government snooping and connection.
Year thirteen was a reflection on gay rights and the new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences logo. Year fourteen which I was exceedingly proud of was a comment on North Korean hacking of Sony and the burying of The Interview using the colors of socialist propaganda to taint the films of that year as well as a Korean joke at my and the DPRK’s expense.