1st Academy Awards

The 1st Academy Awards were presented on May 16, 1929 at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets cost $5 and fewer than 250 people attended. The whole ceremony lasted only 15 minutes. Unlike later events, the winners had been announced months prior to the ceremony. This was also the only Academy Award ceremony not to be broadcast in some way.

Unlike later ceremonies, awards could be granted to an actor or director for multiple works within a year. Emil Jannings, for example, was given the Best Actor award for his work in both The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command.

Awards

For a complete list of nominees and winners, see: 1st Academy Awards nominees and winners

Best Production/Picture

Winner: Wings

Nominations: The Racket, Seventh Heaven, The Way of All Flesh, The Last Command.

Artistic Quality of Production

Winner: Sunrise

Nominations: Chang, The Crowd

Best Actor

Winner: Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command

Nominations: Richard Barthelmess in The Noose and The Patent Leather Kid

Best Actress

Winner: Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise

Nominations: Louise Dresser in A Ship Comes In and Gloria Swanson in Sadie Thompson

Best Director of a Drama

Winner: Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven

Nominations: Herbert Brenon for Sorrell and Son, King Vidor for The Crowd

Best Director of a Comedy

Winner: Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights

Nominations: Ted Wilde for Speedy and Charles Chaplin for The Circus

Best Writing (original)

Winner: Ben Hecht for Underworld

Nominations: Lajos Biro for The Last Command

Best Writing (adaptation)

Winner: Benjamin Glazer for Seventh Heaven

Nominations: Alfred Cohn for The Jazz Singer, Anthony Coldeway for Glorious Betsy

Best Cinematography

Winner: Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for Sunrise

Nominations: George Barnes for The Devil Dancer, The Magic Flame, and Sadie Thompson

Best Engineering Effects

Winner: Roy Pomeroy for Wings

Nominations: Ralph Hammeras for (various) and Nugent Slaughter for (various)

Art Direction

Winner: William Cameron Menzies for The Dove and Tempest

Nominations: Rochus Gliese for Sunrise, Harry Oliver for Seventh Heaven

Special Awards

Charles Chaplin won an honorary award for The Circus.

Warner Brothers won an honorary award for The Jazz Singer.

References

• Academy Awards® Winners (1927/8 - 1939). The Greatest Films. Retrieved on 30 April, 2005.
• The Story of the First Academy Awards. The MediaDrome. Retrieved on 1 May, 2005.
• 1927/28 (1st). The Academy Awards Database. Retrieved on 1 May, 2005.
• OSCAR.com - 79th Annual Academy Awards - History. OSCAR.com. Retrieved on 09 October, 2007.

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