"Awards for any of the arts have always struck me as unavoidably capricious and, more often 
than not, given for reasons other than genuine talent.  Time is going to be the final judge of merit 
regardless of what the contemporary awards say." 
 
                       --George Roy Hill, 
                         Best Director 1973 
 
 
     Initially, in 1927 when the Academy Awards began, there were conceptually two "Best 
Pictures:" that which was called "Best Picture" ("WINGS"), representing the most popular film 
of the year, and "Artistic Quality Of Production" ("SUNRISE"), which represented the best 
produced movie.  Best produced?  Artistic quality?  What does this mean?  As the Academy 
official put it, "This is the inescapable and unanswerable conundrum." 
 
     "Why all the fuss?  Is it really worthwhile?  How important is an Oscar anyway?  Besides, 
who needs it?  Well, I suppose no one really needs it; but, believe me, it's awfully nice to have." 
 
                       --Grace Kelly 
                         Best Actress 1954 
 
      Just exactly who are these people who decide who gets the Academy Awards?  There are 
approximately 5000 Academy members, all of whom are supposed to be active in the film 
business (it's an Academy bylaw).  However, since the greater percentage of Academy members 
are older than sixty-five years of age, we might assume most of them are retired or nearing 
retirement.  Thus, there are at least two distinct factions of Academy members--the old and the 
young.  This is what undoubtedly caused "MIDNIGHT COWBOY" to win Best Picture in 1969 
and John Wayne to win Best Actor in the same year (the younger faction must have cancelled 
each other out by spliting their votes between Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight). The way in 
 which these factions of employed and retired editors, grips, production designers, make-up 
artists, directors, etc. make their decisions and agree, disagree, settle on, or cancel each other 
out, has been of great interest to the world for the past sixty-four years.  This is substantiated by 
the Academy Awards annual television broadcast consistantly being one of the highest rated 
shows of the year, as well as the TV show simulcast to the most countries and viewed by the 
largest single audience each year. 
      My friend, Oscar expert Rick Sandford, and I went through the entire list of Best Picture 
winners and cast our own votes among the nominees (as well as all the eligible films; see the 
accompanying list).  He and I agreed with (coincidentally) fourteen of them.  Once again, less 
than 25% (although not the same fourteen films as the money-makers). 
      Therefore, if the "Best Picture" each year generally isn't the biggest grosser and more often 
than not isn't the best produced film of the year, then what is it?  The same unnamed Academy 
official put it as, "An attempt to acknowledge outstanding achievement."   Apparently, Academy 
officials are so nervous that they don't want to be named when even when they state the party 
line. 
      Frequently the "Best Picture" seems to be the "Most Important" film of the year, not in a 
cinematic way, but in a thematic way.  If the story is about an issue that seems "important" that 
year, is reasonably well-handled and makes money (no "Best Picture" has ever been a box office 
dog), then it has a very good chance of winning.  These films are: "WINGS" (1927-28: Men In 
War), "ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (29-30: The Horror Of War), "THE LIFE 
EMILE ZOLA (1937: Judicial Injustice), "MRS.  MINIVER" (1942: Civilians In War), 
"CASABLANCA" (1943: Refugees Of War), "THE LOST WEEKEND" (1945: Alcoholism), 
 "THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES" (1946: Readjusting After The War), "GENTLEMEN'S 
 AGREEMENT" (1947: anti-Semitism), "ALL THE KING'S MEN" (1949: Demogogic 
Politicians), "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY" (1953: The Events Leading Up To War), "ON THE WATERFRONT" (1954: Labor Relations), "THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI" (1957: Prisoners Of War), "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" (1962: One Man's Mission During War), "IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT" (1967: Biggotry Toward Blacks), "PATTON" (1970: War), "THE DEER HUNTER" (1978: War), "KRAMER VS. KRAMER" (1979: Divorce), "GANDHI" (1982: Injustice To Indians), "PLATOON" (1986: The Horrors Of War), and "DANCES WITH WOLVES" (1990: Injustice To Indians).  The hot topics appear to be anything to do with war, biggotry, and injustice to Indians of all kinds.  This accounts for nineteen of the sixty-three winners (five of which are cross-overs to the biggest grosser).  That still leaves over half of the "Best Pictures" unaccounted for.  
     Of this group there are five comedies, nine musicals, and then the other twenty-five films that 
could be categorized as: spectacles, adaptions of best-selling books, family dramas, and warm 
human dramas.  Even still you end up with a couple of oddballs that defy catagorization like 
"THE FRENCH CONNECTION" and "THE STING." 
      Two other factions of Academy members, as the Academy official put it, are the "conserv- 
ative and the sentimental."  Sentimentality has always been a pervasive and important factor in 
winning Academy Awards.  From Mary Pickford receiving Best Actress in 1928-29--a child star 
having grown up, soon to retire, but also co-founder of United Artists and one of the richest 
women in America--she deserved it no matter what her performance in "COQUETTE" was, and 
 George Arliss winning in 1929-30 for "DISRAELI", partly because he was old and partly 
because he was an "important" stage actor, all the way up to Don Ameche getting it for 
"COCOON" in 1985 for being old and acting young, or Paul Newman getting Best Actor 
 for "THE COLOR OF MONEY" 1986 for having been passed over six times before, or Jessica 
Tandy winning Best Actress for "DRIVING MISS DAISY" 1989 because she was old and might 
not have another chance. 
      In several other categories beside "Best Picture" there are pretty good, well precedented, 
ways of predicting the winners.  "Best Cinematography" could easily be retitled "Best Location 
With The Most Sunsets."  "Best Editing" frequently goes to whatever won "Best Picture" even if 
it's an hour too long ("GANDHI," "THE LAST EMPEROR" or "DANCES WITH WOLVES"). 
The really excitingly edited films like "THE ROAD WARRIOR" or "THE TERMINATOR" 
don't win because movies of this nature generally contain violence.  The geriatric Academy 
members don't like violence.  I personally sat through an Academy screening of "ROBOCOP" 
and witnessed many older folks fleeing during the show.  As the anonymous Academy official 
said, "Academy members prefer editing and direction to be invisible."  This explains why neither 
Joseph Von Sternberg nor Martin Scorsese have ever won.  Of course, if something's invisible 
how do you know that it's good? 
      In the field of "Best Documentary," both short subject and feature, if the subject is illness or 
infirmity it's a shoo-in to be the winner.  This attitude has recently crept into the "Best Actor" 
category as well ("RAIN MAN" and "MY LEFT FOOT"). 
      Then there is the idea that the "Best Picture" is really just the longest picture of the year.  If a 
filmmaker has the nerve to produce a film over two hours long then he must be saying 
 something important.  Of the sixty-three winners there are only twenty films under two hours and 
merely three films under 100 minutes: "MARTY" (91 minutes), "ANNIE HALL" (94 minutes) 
and "DRIVING MISS DAISY" (99 minutes).  There are actually twenty-two films that are over 
150 minutes and four films that are 200 minutes or more: "GONE WITH THE WIND" (222 
minutes), "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" (216 minutes), "BEN-HUR" (212 minutes) and "THE 
GODFATHER PART TWO (200 minutes).  
     So, what have we learned so far?  That if your intention is to make a movie that has a good 
chance of winning "Best Picture," it ought to be about war and be over 120 minutes. 
 
      [The Academy Award is] "...The most valuable, but least expensive, item of worldwide 
public relations ever invented by any industry." 
 
                       --Frank Capra 
                         Best Director 1934, 1936, 1938 
 
 
     On some level an Academy Award simply means more money.  A Best Picture Oscar will 
cause a film to remain in the theaters for several extra months, or, if it has already left the 
theaters, to be re-released.  "ANNIE HALL" is far and away Woody Allen's biggest grosser 
because the Oscars caused it to move beyond his core audience who had all seen it on its original 
release.  He has not had a film that's made as much money before or since. 
      On the other hand, the Academy Award has ended a few film careers, the most notable being 
both George Chakiris and Rita Moreno for their supporting parts in "WEST SIDE STORY." 
This could be due to the actor's agents then asking for inordinate fees for actors that were difficult to cast in the first place.  It may have also made the actors feel that they were above the  parts being offered to them.  A few others that haven't worked very much since winning their Oscars are: Miyoshi Umeki (Best Supporting Actress for "SAYONARA") who finally got the part of Mrs. Livingston on the TV show "THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER" and Haing S. Ngor (Best Supporting Actor for "THE KILLING FIELDS") who is really a doctor and has an alternate means of support.  Actually, the way it appears is that a Best Supporting award is a bad 
omen for performers of foreign extraction.  It doesn't seem to have done much good for F. Murray Abraham either, although his Oscar was in the Best Actor category (or Peter Finch for that matter, but then he was already dead when he got it). 
      It is common practice for studios, and individuals, to run advertisements for their films in the 
industry trade papers attempting to influence (or, more politely, to remind) Academy members 
of their work.  It has not yet been proven that the more advertising you do the better your chances of winning.  In some instances the overwhelming barrage of "For Your Consideration" ads might even have caused Academy members to not vote for someone because they considered their tactics crass. 
      One thing we do know for a fact is that movies released in the beginning of the year do not 
win Academy Awards.  The earliest the film can come out and still be considered is June, and 
then it had better play all summer.  The last two movies to win best picture and be released early 
in the year were "ANNIE HALL" in 1977 and "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" in 1965. 
      My personal disillusionment with the Academy Awards began in 1978 when "THE DEER 
HUNTER" won.  This was the first film to win that I actively disliked.  Admittedly, 1978 is 
one of the worst years for motion pictures on record, but even still this film seems to have won 
strictly on a ruse.  It was not even in release when it was nominated.  It had played one week in 
 L.A. on one screen.  It was still not in general release when it won the award.  But the word on 
the street was that it was "serious and important" and, of course, it was 183 minutes long (56 
minutes longer than the next longest nominee).  Universal Pictures, fearing that they had a very 
expensive bomb on their hands, hired producer Allan Carr to devise a method of selling this 
thematically unfocused behemoth of a film.  Carr's assumption was that with the serious topic of 
war and a long running time the film was bound to win Academy Awards just so long as too 
many people didn't see it and bad-mouth it.  He was right and the film won "Best Picture" (as 
well as four other Oscars).  Since 1978 there is only one film that I agree with as "Best Picture;" 
"PLATOON," and I've gotten into many agruments over this. 
      My personal interest in the Academy Awards stems from the fact that I would like to win 
one, or several actually.  When I saw Mark Lester portray the lead role in "OLIVER!" when I 
was ten years old I thought to myself, "Hey!  He's no older than me.  I can do that."  I have spent 
the better part of my life struggling to be in the movie business.  I believe that most of the people 
in the film business struggled long and hard to be in it.  When someone asked Warren Beatty 
whether he would show up at the 1978 awards, and would he accept if he won, he replied, "If 
people want to get together to tell me that they like me, you bet I'll show up." Beatty didn't win 
that year, but he did win in 1981, he did show up and he did accept. 
       So, I think Oscars are meaningful to help people keep going in a heartless industry.  There's 
something to hope for.  I might have given up long ago if it had not been for the hope of hitting 
big, which is inextricably tied up with winning an Oscar.  Sure many people who deserve it never 
got it, sure there's a slight smell of corruption, sure it's the industry patting itself on the back, 
sure it's all egotism, but who cares?  It's not real anyway, it's movies. 
 
     "However maddening, infuriating, embarrassing and seemingly artificial  these occasions are. 
However drummed up.  The truth of the matter is still pure.  The Academy Awards are in good 
faith.  An attempt to honor a person or a product of our industry.  And they have maintained in 
essence a purity a simple--well, truth." 
 
                       --Kathrine Hepburn, 
                   Best Actress 1932-33, 1967, 1968, 1981 
 
     "It is no small comfort to know in advance that the lead line in one's obituary will read, 
'Academy Award winner, etc., etc., etc.'" 
 
                       --Gregory Peck 
                          Best Actor 1962 
 
 

 THE ACADEMY'S BIGGEST BLUNDERS: 
 
*    The first six years of the Academy Awards consisted of half of one year and half of another. 
A letter from the Academy to its members in 1928 states, "The ruling of the committee 
confines the nominations to achievements in pictures first publicly exhibited in Los Angeles 
Metropolitan district (previews excepted) from August 1, 1927, to August 1, 1928."  Janet 
Gaynor won the first Best Actress Oscar for three films: SUNRISE," "STREET ANGEL" and 
"SEVENTH HEAVEN," while Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for two: "THE 
LAST COMMAND" and "THE WAY OF ALL FLESH." It was simply expected back then that 
an actor would make several pictures a year and the more good performances they gave in that 
year the better their chances of winning the award.  In the LOS ANGELES DAILY TIMES dated May 6, 1927 there is an advertisement for the premiere of "SEVENTH HEAVEN" and in the July 8, 1927 L.A. DAILY TIMES there is an advertisement for the premiere of "THE WAY OF ALL FLESH." That means that both "THE WAY OF ALL FLESH" and "SEVENTH HEAVEN" 
 were not eligible for awards.  "SEVENTH HEAVEN" also won Best Screenplay and Best 
Director.  Also that same year, "CHANG" was nominated for "Artistic Quality Of Production" 
but is advertised in the L.A. DAILY TIMES as premiering on June 24, 1927 and thus not 
eligible, either.  Their own rules just didn't seem to mean anything to the Academy in that first 
year.  (Note: The 1927-28 Academy Award ceremony was held on may 16, 1929, nine months 
after the calender year had ended, so it's no wonder they couldn't remember what was eligible). 
 
*    At the 1934 Oscar ceremony (for the films of 1933), MC Will Rogers announced the winner 
of the Best Director award by saying, "Come on up and get it, Frank." Unfortunately, there were 
two men named Frank nominated, Frank Capra and Frank Lloyd.  Both stood and went to the 
podium.  It was established there that in fact the winner was Frank Lloyd.  Frank Capra had to go sit down.  This may well have inspired him because the next year he won for "IT HAPPENED 
ONE NIGHT." 
 
*    In 1956 there were two films released that were entitled "HIGH SOCIETY," one with Frank 
Sinatra, Grace Kelly, and Bing Crosby that was a musical remake of "THE PHILADELPHIA 
STORY," and one with The Bowery Boys.  As fate would have it "HIGH SOCIETY" got 
nominated for Best Motion Picture Story, meaning original story.  A remake is not eligible for 
this award, so the nomination went to the Bowery Boys movie.  The nominated writers, Edward 
Bernds and Elwood Ullman (frequent writers for The Three Stooges), knowing that it was an 
embarrassing mistake and had their names removed from the final ballot.  But that wasn't the end of 
the controversy with this specific award.  The winner was one Robert Rich for "THE BRAVE 
 ONE" which was in fact a pseudonym for blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo.  Since he had left 
the country and no one knew that this was his pseudonym there was no one to pick up the Oscar. 
 It sat on the podium for the remainder of the ceremony.  Trumbo finally recieved the award in 
1975. 

THE WINNERS OF THE MOST AWARDS: 
 
*    Walt Disney won 31 awards: 12 cartoon awards, 7 Live-Action Short Subjects, 4 Feature 
Documentaries, 3 Short Subject Documentaries, 3 Special Honoraries, 1 Special Effects, and an 
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award. 
 
*    Gordon Hollingshead won 12 awards: 10 Live-action Short Subjects, 1 Documentary Short 
Subject, and 1 Assistant Director award (This award was only given from 1932-33 to 1937). 
 
*    Cedric Gibbons won 11 times for Art Direction. 
 
*    Billy Wilder won 9 awards: 6 for Writing, 2 for Director, 1 for producing the Best Picture. 
 
*    Alfred Newman won 9 for Music Scoring (Alfred's brother, Lionel Newman, was nominated 
12 times for music awards and finally won his one and only award in 1969.  Lionel's son, Randy 
Newman, was nominated for Music Scoring and Best Song in 1981, but did not win either). 
 
*    Edith Head won 8 for Costume Design. 
 
*    Edwin B. Willis won 8 for Art Direction. 
 
*    Fredrick Quimby won 7 for Best Cartoon. 
 
*    Richard Day won 7 for Art Direction. 
 
*    Dennis Murren won 6 for Special Effects. 
 
*    Walter M. Scott and Thomas Little both won 6 for Art Direction. 
 
*    Francis Ford Coppola won 5 awards: 3 for Writing, 1 for Director, 1 for producing the Best 
Picture. 
 
*    Douglas Shearer and Fred Hines both won 5 for Sound. 
 
 *    John Barry won 5: 4 for Original Score, 1 for Best Song. 
 
*    Irene Sharaff won 5 for Costume Design. 
 
*    Charles Brackett won 5: 3 for Writing, 1 for producing the Best Picture and one Honorary. 
 
*    Kathrine Hepburn won 4 for Best Actress (the most ever won in the acting categories). 
 

*    John Ford won 4 for Direction (the most for any director.  The two runners-up are:  William 
Wyler with 3 and Frank Capra with 3). 
 
*    Frederico Fellini won 4 Best Foriegn Film awards (although the producers Carlo Ponti and 
Dino De Laurentiis probably retain two of them). 
 
*    Joseph Ruttenberg and Leon Shamroy both won 4 for Cinematography. 
 
*    John Box, George James Hopkins, Keogh Gleason, and Sam Comer all won 4 for Art 
Direction. 
 
*    Joseph L. Mankiewicz won 4: 2 for Writing, 2 for Direction. 
 
*    Richard Edlund, L. B. Abbott, and Glen Robinson all won 4 for Special Effects. 
 
*    Henry Mancini, John Williams, John Green, Andre Previn, Johnny Mercer, and Dimitri 
Tiomkin all 4 for Music. 
 
*    Ben Burtt won 4 for Sound Effects Editing. 

*    Oliver Stone won 4: 2 for Direction, 2 for Writing 

*    Ingrid Berman won 3: 2 for Best Actress, 1 for Best Supporting Actress. 
 
*    Walter Brennan won 3 for Best Supporting Actor (he is the biggest winner in the supporting 
field). 
 
*    Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, and Dustin Hoffman have all 
won 2 awards for Best Actor. 
 
*    Luise Rainer, Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, Olivia De Havilland, Elizabeth Taylor, and Sally 
Field all have won 2 Best Actress Oscars. 
 
*    Jack Lemmon, Robert DeNiro, and Jack Nicholson all won 2: 1 for Best Actor, 1 for Best 
 Supporting Actor. 
 
*    Helen Hayes, Maggie Smith and Meryl Streep all won 2: 1 for Best Actress, 1 for Best 
Supporting Actress. 
 
*    Shelly Winters is the only one to win 2 Best Supporting Actress Awards. 
 
*    Anthony Quinn, Peter Ustinov, and Jason Robards have all won 2 Best Supporting Actor 
Oscars. 
 
*    Barbra Streisand has won 2: 1 for Best Actress, 1 for Best Song. 
 
*    The film to win the most Oscars in total is "BEN-HUR" with 11. 

*    The film to get the most nominations is "ALL ABOUT EVE" with 14. 
 
 
     "My memories of that night [winning the Academy Award] include someone saying, 'Don't 
scratch it.  There may be chocolate underneath.'" 
 
                       --Martin Balsam
                         Best Supporting Actor 1965