Heath Ledger as he appears as the Joker shown with with an inset of his daughter Matilda.
(Christopher Peterson/BuzzFoto/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
If Heath Ledger is named best supporting actor at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, his daughter, 3-year-old Matilda Rose Ledger, will become the owner of the Oscar statuette.
But it won't really be hers until her 18th birthday on Oct. 28, 2023 — and even then, only if she signs a contract.
Matilda, daughter of the late Ledger and actress Michelle Williams, has been designated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the eventual owner of her father's Oscar, should he win for his portrayal of the Joker in "The Dark Knight."
The actor died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs last year at the age of 28.
But Ledger's nomination, and his daughter's young age, led to one of the trickiest situations the academy has dealt with in its eight decades of awarding posthumous Oscars.
"It's complicated, because there are two different questions that have to be answered," says Bruce Davis, executive director of the academy. "First, we have to decide who gets the job of accepting the award onstage on the night of the ceremony. And then there's the question of the eventual disposition of the posthumous statuette, which may not stay with the person who accepts it."
In Ledger's case, says Davis, the second question was the hardest to answer.
Academy tradition calls for a posthumous statuette to go to the spouse, or, if there is no living spouse, to the oldest child. Ledger wasn't married, and Matilda is his only child.
Yet because she is only 3, Matilda is legally unable to sign the winner's agreement — a contract required of all nominees that says the recipient will not resell his or her Oscar without first offering it back to the academy for $1. The agreement is the academy's way of limiting what might otherwise be a lively secondary market in Oscars.
"From our point of view, somebody has to sign the winner's agreement, and a 3-year-old can't do that," says Davis. "Nor can a parent sign any kind of legal document that obligates a child to do something once they turn 18. I didn't know that before we looked into it, but it's a good law."
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