Thread by @IWTKQuiz

On this day in 1929 the first ever Academy Awards ceremony was held.

Here are the nominations for the most interesting and memorable Oscar stories. 👇🏾

The first movie ever to win Best Picture at the Oscars was Wings.

It was also the only silent movie to win Best Picture. Set during World War I, it contained stunning aerial views and plane battle sequences considered cutting edge for that time.

Did you know?

Wings was one the first movies in which two men are seen kissing on screen (not a full blown make out, that took more time). It was also among the first movies to portray nudity on screen.

Watch:

You might argue that The Artist, which won Best Picture in 2011 is also a silent movie.

Even though it was silent with no dialogues, it had music and sound effects with dialogues at the very end.

The first Oscars were a tame affair. Only 250-odd people attended the ceremony in the Blossom ballroom of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel in LA.

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The only Oscar to ever win an Oscar was this guy. He didn't win just once, he had two of them.

Oscar Hammerstein II (yes, the same guy with Rodgers) won for Best Original Song.

The first win came for his song, "The last time I saw Paris" from Lady Be Good in 1940

Oscar (the musician, not the statue) was kind enough to admit that this song wasn't actually written for the movie but generally imported.

The second Oscar won by Oscar was for the song "It might as well be spring" from State Fair in 1945

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is the only movie to have won in every category it was nominated for. 11 on 11 including Best Picture in 2003.

17 years ago. Doesn't seem that long, does it?
The trilogy has aged well, just like you dear reader.

Two other movies also won 11 Oscars in addition to LoTR RoTK.

Titanic (in 1997) and Ben Hur (in 1959).

The only other sequel movie besides Lord of the Rings: Return of the King to win Best Picture was the Godfather II in 1974.

On the other side, two movies AJMed like nobody's business with 11 Oscar nominations and no wins to their credit.

The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985)

You know about the youngest (Tatum O'Neal at 10 ) and the oldest (Christopher Plummer at 82) Oscar winners for acting.

The oldest in any category is James Ivory (yup, one half of Merchant-Ivory) at the age of 89 for "Call Me By Your Name" in 2018.

In 2013, two actresses made history as the youngest and oldest nominees ever for Best Actress.

Quvenzhané Wallis, 9 (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and Emmanuelle Riva, 85 (Amour).

The odds were ever in Jennifer Lawrence's favour as she won for Silver Linings Playbook.

Peter O'Toole was nominated for Best Actor 8 times. Didn't win.

He got an honorary Oscar in 2003 at the age of 70 and said "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride my foot! I have my very own Oscar now to be with me 'til death do us part."

The Oscar and O'Toole parted ways in 2013.

Richard Burton and Glenn Close came close to Peter O'Toole with seven Leading Actor Oscar nominations each.

Afsos, no wins.

Walt Disney was nominated for 59 Oscars and won 26 of them (four were honorary but the remaining twenty two were based on merit).

The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco holds the largest collection of Oscars outside Hollywood.

More on Best Picture winners.

Marty (1955) was the shortest at 91 minutes, while Gone with the Wind (1940) at 232 minutes was the longest.

Remember this for the next time you complain about the length of Indian movies. Mind it!

You all remember the Moonlight / La La Land envelope fiasco. Not the first time in Oscar history.

In 1964, Sammy Davis Jr. was given the wrong envelope for Best Adaptation or Treatment score. Thankfully the winner he read out wasn't nominated. The mistake was soon corrected.

Oscar families. The first of two families with three generations of Oscar winners are the Coppolas.

Carmine Coppola in 1975 for Best Original Score, Godfather II
Francis Ford Coppola in 1971 for writing Patton
Sofia Coppola in 2003 for Best Screenplay, Lost in Translation

Second three generation Oscar family.

Walter Huston in 1948, Best Supporting Actor for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
John Huston in 1948 for Best Director for the same movie
Angelica Huston in 1985, Best Supporting Actress for Prizzi's Honor

Liza Minnelli, who won Best Actress in 1973 for Cabaret is the only person who has both parents also as Oscar winners.

Her mum, Judy Garland won an honorary Oscar in 1939 while her father, Vincente Minnelli, won Best Director for Gigi in 1959.

Oscar winner Renée Zellweger won her second Oscar for playing Oscar winner Judy Garland.

Major Oscarception right there.

Wait. That's not the first time that has happened.

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett won her second Oscar playing Oscar winner Katherine Hepburn.

Second Oscarception. Whew.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won Best Director EVER for The Hurt Locker in 2009.

In addition to Bigelow, only four other women have ever been nominated for Best Director.

Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties, 1976)
Jane Campion (The Piano, 1993)
Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, 2017)

Nine other movies directed by women were nominated for Best Picture but the women did not receive Best Director nominations.

Six black men - nominated for Best Director Oscars but not yet won

John Singleton, "Boyz N the Hood" (1991)
Lee Daniels, "Precious" (2009)
Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave" (2013)
Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight" (2016)
Jordan Peele, "Get Out" (2017)
Spike Lee, "BlackKklansman" (2018)

You might remember #OscarsSoWhite - that's happened for a reason.

The Academy has promised to make changes in representation of genders and races among nominees and winners.

Hattie McDaniel was the first black winner - Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind in 1940

The first black man to win an Oscar was Sidney Poitier (Best Actor, 1964 - Lilies of the Field) Halle Berry was the first black woman (Best Actress, 2002 - Monster's Ball)

No thread on Oscars is complete without referencing the legendary Meryl Streep who has received 21 nominations and won three awards.

1980 - Best Supporting Actress for Kramer v/s Kramer
1983 - Best Actress for Sophie's Choice
2012 - Best Actress for The Iron Lady

The final tweet on this glorious thread has to be the best opening sequence ever in an Oscar ceremony.

Hugh Jackman's INCREDIBLE opening sequence in a recession-downsized Oscar is the stuff dreams are made of.

Watch and enjoy the glorious Wolverine!

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