These days, Australian actors, filmmakers and creatives punch well above their weight when it comes to Oscars glory.
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However, it was in the muddy, bloody, war-torn jungles of the Kokoda campaign that Australia's very first Academy Award was born.
That golden statuette now lives in Canberra and is one of the most significant items in the 3 million-plus-item collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
In March 1943, an Australian newsreel called Kokoda Front Line!, produced by Cinesound Review, shared the Academy Award for Best Documentary in a tie with three other war documentaries (including John Ford's The Battle of Midway).
As well as winning Australia's first Oscar, Kokoda Front Line! remains the only newsreel from any country to have ever won an Academy Award.
Directed by pioneering filmmaker Ken G. Hall and shot by acclaimed war photographer Damien Parer, Kokoda Front Line! detailed the triumphs and struggles of Australian troops from the 39th Battalion fighting Japanese forces in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War.
It was first released in Australian cinemas on 17 September 1942.
The film also introduced Australia to the heroic contributions of the PNG locals, who would come to be known as the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels'.
The Angels provided aid and bravely ferried injured diggers down the challenging terrain of the Kokoda trail to medical care in Port Moresby, often while under enemy attack.
Kokoda Front Line! helped the Australian public to understand the grim reality of the war in the Pacific.
Most people were more familiar with the conflict in Europe, so footage of Australians fighting in gruelling conditions just a few hundred kilometres to our north came as a shock.
As Damien Parer says in a piece directly to camera, which introduces the nine-minute film: "There seems to be an air of unreality like the war's a million miles away. It's not, it's right outside our front door."
Due to wartime restrictions on the civilian use of metals such as copper, director Ken G. Hall initially received a smaller, substitute statue made from gunmetal.
After the war, the Academy sent Hall a genuine trophy depicting the famous Art Deco knight and made from gold-plated copper alloy.
To Kokoda Front Line! for its effectiveness in portraying simply yet forcefully the scene of war in New Guinea and for its moving presentation of the bravery and fortitude of our Australian comrades in arms.
- Oscar inscription
Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the faux Oscar remains unknown.
The inscription on the base of the statuette reads: "To Kokoda Front Line! for its effectiveness in portraying simply yet forcefully the scene of war in New Guinea and for its moving presentation of the bravery and fortitude of our Australian comrades in arms."
Tragically, Damien Parer was killed in action in 1944, when he was shot during fighting in Palau.
He was survived by his widow Elizabeth and his son, also named Damien, who was born a few months after his father's death. Parer was 32 when he died.
Ken G. Hall is considered one of the most important figures of the early Australian film industry. He directed popular films such as the Dad and Dave series, Gone to the Dogs and Smithy.
In an oral history recorded for the NFSA in 1985, Hall said that receiving an Academy Award was "a great joy and delight to all my people and to me".
Hall later donated the Oscar statuette to the NFSA collection. In his will, Hall dedicated the donation to Parer's memory, writing: "To his bravery, skill and endurance ... He made it possible."
When it is not on display, the Academy Award statuette is stored at the NFSA's warehouse facility in a sturdy, custom-made, acid-free cardboard box.
The box is locked in a safe, which is maintained at a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius and 40 per cent humidity.
According to NFSA Collection Management Team Leader Belinda Hunt, the Oscar statuette is in good condition, apart from some flaking.
Each time the trophy goes on display as part of an exhibition or is loaned to another institution, a condition report is completed.
"The Oscar last had a full treatment in 2007," Ms Hunt says.
"It was dusted with a microfibre cloth. The surface coating was [degreased], it had two coats of carnauba wax applied and then it was buffed."
According to Ms Hunt the trophy weighs approximately four kilograms, with most of the weight in the base.
"The Oscar really is as heavy as a lot of the award winners say when they receive it," she says.
The NFSA is currently closed to the public due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the public can read more about Australia's first Academy Award on the NFSA website, or explore our extensive free online collections - including one dedicated to Australian Films at the Oscars.
An excerpt from Kokoda Front Line! is also available to view at nfsa.gov.au/Oscar.
