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When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, movies had just begun to talk. The first ceremony took place in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
The best actress and actor awards went to Janet Gaynor for “Seventh Heaven” and Emil Jannings for “The Last Command”.
The Warner Bros. film “The Jazz Singer” was honoured with a special award as the “pioneering outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry”. The Academy had ruled that it was ineligible for competition for best picture because it was thought it would be unfair to let sound films compete with silents.
“Gone With The Wind”: 1939 was one of the most celebrated years in American film history, encompassing such classics as “The Wizard of Oz”, “Stagecoach”, “Mr Smith Goes to Washington”, “Ninotchka”, “Wuthering Heights” and “Goodbye, Mr Chips”.
“Gone with the Wind”, director Victor Fleming’s almost four-hour long blockbuster film, was the longest feature released up to that time, and it was the major Oscar winner of the year. It was also the first colour film to win for best picture.
The film earned 13 nominations and won eight competitive awards (and two special citations) both records for the time. It would hold this record until “Gigi” (1957) won nine Oscars.
Both lead acting awards were presented to British performers for the first time in Academy history. Newcomer Vivien Leigh won for her portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind”, and Robert Donat won for his title role in “Goodbye, Mr Chips”.
Most Awards: The 1959 epic “Ben Hur” set a new Academy Award record by winning 11 Oscars, a benchmark matched nearly four decades later by the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic”, which reaped 11 awards from 12 nominations. 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” also won 11 Oscars from 11 nominations.
American actress Meryl Streep holds the record for most acting nominations, 14, and has won twice. Katharine Hepburn earned 12 nominations but won four times. Ingrid Bergman is next with three Oscars. Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male star with 12 nominations and three wins. Walter Brennan also won three, but from only four nominations.
Last year’s lead-acting Oscars were won by Forest Whitaker for his portrayal of Ugandan ruler Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” and Helen Mirren for her role as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in “The Queen”. Martin Scorsese’s cops-and-gangsters thriller “The Departed” won for best picture and he won the Oscar for best director.
—Reuters
