The three-year-old daughter of late Australian actor Heath Ledger, who has been nominated for an Academy Award this year, will be the ultimate owner of an Oscar statuette if her father is honored on Sunday, but his family is due to accept the award on his behalf.

 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday it had decided to offer Matilda Ledger the statuette after she turns 18 if her father turns out to be the winner of the rare posthumous Academy Award for his acclaimed performance as the villainous Joker in last summer’s Batman blockbuster, “The Dark Knight.”

 

Heath Ledger, who died last year at the age of 28 as a result of a prescription drug overdose, is widely believed to be the favorite in the race for the best supporting actor Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony, which is due to take place on February 22 in Hollywood. Practically, the late actor was the winner of every other prize in the mentioned category this season.

 

If he wins the award, Heath Ledger will become the second actor to be honored with a posthumous Oscar, following Peter Finch, who won in 1976 for the production “Network.” The late actor’s family will accept the honor on his behalf if he wins and will have to travel from Ledger’s home town of Perth, located in Western Australia, in order to attend the ceremony.

 

“We have had Oscars awarded to a minor directly and Oscars awarded posthumously but generally there has been a spouse or an oldest child of legal age” to collect them, explained Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy. “I don’t think we have ever had a situation like this,” he added.