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How
It Started
When
the first Academy Awards were handed out on May
16, 1929, movies
had just begun to talk.
That first Awards ceremony took place during a
banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel. The attendance was 250 and tickets
cost $10.
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| The first presentation of the Irving G.
Thalberg Memorial Award was made in 1937, with the honor
going to Darryl F. Zanuck.The Academy Award for Special
Effects was added in 1939 and was first won by 20th Century-Fox
for THE RAINS CAME.In 1941, the documentary film
category appeared on the ballot for the first time. In
1947, long before the Awards ceremonies would become the
global event that they are today, the Academy brought
foreign countries into the field of Oscar recognition.
That year the first Award to honor a foreign language
motion picture was given to the Italian film, SHOE-SHINE.
The following year the Academy placed Costume Design
on the ballot. |
The Jean
Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established in 1956
and presented that year to Y. Frank Freeman. In
1963, the special effects award was split into two:
Sound Effects and Special Visual Effects, in recognition
of the fact that the best sound effects and best
visual effects did not necessarily come from the
same film. The most recent additions, Makeup and
the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for technological contributions,
were established in 1981. In 2001, the Feature Animation
category was added and has been presented for the
first time this year.
There have only been three circumstances that interrupted
the scheduled presentation of the Academy Awards.
The first was in 1938 when destructive floods all
but washed out Los Angeles and delayed the ceremonies
one week. The Awards ceremony was postponed two
days in 1968 out of respect for Dr. Martin Luther
King, who had been assassinated a few days earlier
and whose funeral was held on April 8, the day set
for the Awards. In 1981, the Awards were postponed
for 24 hours due to the assassination attempt on
President Ronald Reagan.Attendance at the Annual
Academy Awards is by invitation only. No tickets
are put on public sale. |
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