Entertainment/Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, 16 May 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honour outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. DeMille
The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of gold-plated Britannia metal on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy. Mexican actor Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernandez posed naked to create what today is known as the ‘Oscar’. The statuettes are cast, moulded, and polished by Chicago's R. S. Owens & Company. It was named by Margaret Herrick, the Academy librarian, who remarked in 1931 (upon seeing the statuettes), "Why it looks like my Uncle Oscar!"
In 2002, the Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) became the current venue of the presentation
The most frequent host is Bob Hope with 14 appearances
The official Oscar after-party is the Governors Ball
Chronological
At the first Academy Awards, Best Director awards went to Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights and Frank Borzage for 7th Heaven. The first award for Actor in a Leading Role went to Emil Jannings for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. The first Best Actress award was won by Janet Gaynor for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise. The first Best Picture award went to WINGS
The Broadway Melody – second film to win Oscar for Best Picture (1928/9)
The rumour alleging Rin Tin Tin won the most Best Actor votes at the first Academy Award competition in 1929 is nothing more than urban legend
All Quiet on the Western Front – first screen adaptation of a novel to win Best Picture Oscar (1930)
Grand Hotel (1932) is the only film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture without it or its participants being nominated in any other category
First film to win Oscars for Best Actor and Actress – It Happened One Night (1934), for Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert
It Happened One Night became the first film ever to win the ‘Big Five’ Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing)
In 1935, Shirley Temple became the first child star to be honoured with a miniature Juvenile Oscar, aged six
Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress introduced in 1937
Best Visual Effects introduced in 1938
Edgar Bergen was given an Academy Honorary Award (in the form of a wooden Oscar statuette with a movable mouth) in 1938 for his ventriloquist’s dummy named Charlie McCarthy
Erich Korngold's 1938 Academy Award for his score to The Adventures of Robin Hood marked the first time an Oscar was awarded to the composer rather than the head of the studio music department
Gone with the Wind (1939) won eight Oscars. Longest Best Picture winner (234 minutes)
The first black actress to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel, who won Best Supporting Actress for Gone With The Wind
Alfred Hitchcock won his only Best Picture Oscar for Rebecca (1940)
Preston Sturges won an Academy Award for the original screenplay for The Great McGinty (1940)
Joan Fontaine is the only actress to ever win the Best Actress Oscar in a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Suspicion, 1941). This is the only Oscar-winning performance in a Hitchcock film
Greer Garson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1942 for her role in Mrs. Miniver. She holds the record for the longest Oscar acceptance speech, at five minutes and 30 seconds
Laurence Olivier was the first person to win an Oscar for Best Actor in a film which he also directed, for Hamlet in 1948
Academy Award for Best Costume Design was first given for films made in 1948. Initially, separate award categories were established for black-and-white films and colour films. The two categories merged in 1967
All About Eve (1950) was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture. As of 2014[update], All About Eve is still the only film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations
Humphrey Bogart won his only Oscar for Best Actor in The African Queen (1951)
Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for Best Music Original Song for High Noon (1952)
Secret Love – sung by Doris Day in Calamity Jane (1953). Academy Award for Best Original Song
Marty (1955) is the shortest Best Picture winner (94 minutes)
Anthony Quinn's performance as painter Paul Gauguin in Lust for Life (1956) is the shortest ever to win an Academy Award. He was on screen for only eight minutes and won the Best Supporting Actor award
1956 Academy Award for Best Original Song won by Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera), from The Man Who Knew Too Much, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Sung by Doris Day
David Niven won the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Major Pollock in Separate Tables, his only nomination for an Oscar. Appearing on-screen for only 16 minutes in the film, this remains the briefest performance ever to win a Best Actor Oscar
Ben-Hur received12 Oscar nominations in 1959, and won 11
In 1963, Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field
The Windmills of Your Mind, the theme tune from the film The Thomas Crown Affair, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1968
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The version by B. J. Thomas reached No. 1 on singles charts in the United States
Midnight Cowboy (1969) is the only X-rated film to win Best Picture Oscar
George C Scott turned down as Oscar for Patton in 1970
Cabaret (1972) won the most Oscars (eight) without winning Best Picture
Marlon Brando turned down as Oscar for The Godfather in 1972
Tatum O'Neal is the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award, which she won in 1974 at age 10 for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal
The oldest Best Actor winner is 76 year-old Henry Fonda for On Golden Pond in 1982
The Last Emperor was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci (1987). Won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Score (David Byrne)
Jessica Tandy became the oldest actress to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), aged 80
Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture without receiving a nomination for Best Director
Beauty and the Beast (1991) was the first full-length animated film nominated for an Oscar
Schindler’s List was last black and white film to win Best Picture (1993) before The Artist
The oldest actor to be nominated for an Oscar is Gloria Stewart, who was 87 when she was nominated for her role as Old Rose in Titanic (1997)
Titanic tied All About Eve (1950) for the most Oscar nominations (14), and won 11, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben Hur (1959) for the most Oscars won by a single film
Denzil Washington is the second African-American (after Sidney Poitier) to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, which he received for his role in the 2001 film Training Day
In 2002, Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in Monster’s Ball
Adrien Brody is the youngest actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor, for The Pianist (2003)
Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2004) won all the categories for which it was nominated (11)
In 2006, Paul Haggis became the first person in the history of the Academy Awards to write two back-to-back Best Picture Winners, for Crash and the previous year's winner, Million Dollar Baby
Until Heath Ledger's Dark Knight Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2008, Peter Finch was the only actor to be awarded an Academy Award posthumously for his performance in the 1976 film Network
The Artist (2011) is only the second silent film to collect an Oscar for Best Picture, after Wings
Oldest person to win an Oscar – Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners in 2012, aged 82
Trivia
Most Oscars – Walt Disney 26 (22 competitive from 59 nominations, four honorary)
John Williams has won five Academy Awards. With 49 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated person, after Walt Disney
Actress with most Oscars – Katherine Hepburn (four), for Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, On Golden Pond
3 Oscars – Ingrid Bergman, for Anastasia, Gaslight, Murder on the Orient Express
3 Oscars – Walter Brennan, for Come and Get It, Kentucky, The Westerner (all for Best Supporting Actor)
3 Oscars – Jack Nicholson, for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, As Good as It Gets, Terms of Endearment
3 Oscars – Meryl Streep, for Sophie’s Choice, The Iron Lady, Kramer vs Kramer
3 Oscars – Daniel Day-Lewis, for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln
Actors who have won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor – Jack Lemmon, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Nero, Kevin Spacey and Denzil Washington
Actresses who have won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress – Ingrid Bergman, Helen Hayes, Jessica Lange, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep
Shelley Winters and Dianne Wiest are the only actresses to win Best Supporting Actress twice
Sound re-recording mixer Kevin O'Connell holds the record for most Academy Award nominations without a win at 20, having originally set the record in 2006 with his 18th nomination and loss
Meryl Streep has had19 Oscar nominations
Jack Nicholson has most Oscar nominations for a man (12)
The most successful films in Oscar history are Ben-Hur, Titanic and Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King. Each took home 11 awards – although The Return Of The King was the only one of those to take home every award for which it was nominated
Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks won Oscars in consecutive years
John Ford’s four Academy Awards for Best Director (1935, 1940, 1941, 1952) are a record, and one of those films, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture
Most nominations for Best Director – William Wyler (12), Martin Scorsese (8), Billy Wilder (8)
Kenneth Branagh has been nominated for five Academy Awards, the first man to be nominated for five different categories
The Hustons are the only family to produce three generations of Oscar winners: Walter Huston was named Best Supporting Actor in 1948 for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; John Huston was awarded Best Director/Adapted Screenplay for the same movie, and Anjelica Huston received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Prizzi's Honor, 1985
Only two married couples won Oscars for acting roles: Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, 1948) and Vivian Leigh (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951); and Joanne Woodward (The Three Faces of Eve, 1957) and Paul Newman (The Colour of Money, 1986). The only sisters to have won Oscars are Joan Fontaine (Suspicion, 1941) and Olivia de Havilland (To Each His Own, 1946, and The Heiress, 1949)
Kate Winslet was the first actress to receive four Oscar nominations before the age of 30
Glenn Close and Richard Burton had multiple Oscar nominations, but have never won
Alfred Hitchcock was nominated five times, but never won Oscar for Best Director
Alfred Newman was a major American composer of music for films. He received 43 Academy Award nominations making him (currently) the third most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards behind John Williams and Walt Disney. He won nine Oscars
Deborah Kerr was nominated six times for an Academy Award as Best Actress but never won
Elizabeth Taylor won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her performance in BUtterfield 8 in 1960, and for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966
Nora Ephron is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally… and Sleepless in Seattle
George C Scott and Marlon Brando are the only two actors to have turned down an Oscar
Peter O'Toole is the only actor to refuse an honorary Oscar
Peter Ustinov won Best Supporting Actor for roles in Spartacus and Topkapi
Cecil Beaton won two Oscars for costume design
James Dean is the first person to be nominated posthumously for an Oscar and the only person to be nominated posthumously for two Oscars
Michael Caine won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars, for The Cider House Rules and Hannah and her Sisters
Michael Caine is one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s.The other is Jack Nicholson
William Wyler won Oscar for Best Director, and the film also won Best Picture – Ben-Hur (1959), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman
Maurice Jarre received three Academy Awards and was nominated a total of eight times, all in the category of Best Original Score. Oscars for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India
James Horner has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score (Titanic) and Best Original Song (My Heart Will Go On) in 1998, and has been nominated for Oscars an additional eight times
Peter O'Toole has been nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the most-nominated actor never to win the award
Georgio Moroder has won three Academy Awards: Best Original Score for Midnight Express (1978); Best Song for Flashdance...What a Feeling, from the film Flashdance (1983); and Best Song for Take My Breath Away, from Top Gun (1986)
Gary Cooper received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning twice for Sergeant York and High Noon
Greta Garbo was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Anna Christie (1930) – ‘Garbo talks’, Romance (1930), Camille (1937) and Ninotchka (1939) – ‘Garbo laughs’
Bing Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way, and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's the next year. He was also nominated for an Oscar in The Country Road
Howard Shore won won three Academy Awards for his work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Academy Award for the Best Film in a Foreign Language is the only Oscar awarded to an entire country
Turning Point (1978) and The Colour Purple (1986) each received 11 nominations but won no awards
Godfather: Part II is the only sequel to win Best Picture
The most nominated character is Henry VIII (three nominations)
Five people have been nominated for playing the same character twice: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth I); Bing Crosby (Father Chuck O'Malley); Paul Newman ('Fast' Eddie Felson); Peter O'Toole (Henry II); and Al Pacino (Michael Corleone)
Only one actress has won an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex: Linda Hunt in The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)
Laurence Olivier and Roberto Benigni are also the only people to have won Best Actor in a film they directed: Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Olivier for Hamlet (1948)
Liza Minnelli is the only Oscar winner whose parents (Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli) also both won Academy Awards
Woody Allen has been nominated 24 times and won four Academy Awards: three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director (Annie Hall). He has more screenwriting Academy Award nominations than any other writer
Cedric Gibbons won 11 Oscars for Art Direction
Alan Menken is best known for his scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards
In 1962 Bette Davis became the first person to secure ten Academy Award nominations for acting. Won for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938)
Alan Jay Lerner won Oscars for Gigi (two) and An American in Paris (one)
Steven Spielberg’s Best Director Oscars – Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan
Marilyn Monroe never received an Oscar nomination
To qualify for Best Picture, a film needs to be at least 40 minutes long
Fanny and Alexander won 1983 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)
AR Rahman won two Academy Awards (Best Original Score and Best Original Song) for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009
Best Original Song (1939) Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. Music: Harold Arlen. Lyrics: Yip Harburg
Cecil Beaton won an Oscar for Best Costume for My Fair Lady (1964)
Robert Bolt won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay for Doctor Zhivago (1965) and A Man for All Seasons (1966)
James Bond Oscars – Goldfinger (1964) for Best Sound Effects, Thunderball (1965) for Best Visual Effects, Skyfall (2012) for Best Original Song and Best Sound Editing
