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!
If you enjoyed the fun facts and stories, you will definitely enjoy our live quiz tomorrow at 3-45 PM IST.
#JaiBhim
Babasaheb Ambedkar is one of the greatest thinkers ever!
The architect of the Indian Constitution was undeniably a GENIUS!
A thread 🧵celebrating this icon who said "Cultivation of the mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence"
As a member in the viceroy’s council from 1942 to 1946, Dr Ambedkar was instrumental in bringing about several labour reforms.
He changed working hours from 12 to 8 in 1942.
He also introduced DA, medical leaves & periodic revision of pay.
📸@roundtableind
Babasaheb studied for two PhDs in his career in addition to his qualification as a lawyer 🤯
His PhD dissertation in Economics at @LSEnews was titled ‘The Indian Rupee’. A few years ago, @stefeich unearthed a first edition of this work with Ambedkar’s original dedication!
Anil Kumble is one of India's greatest match winners. Today we talk about a a little known story of how a very much vegetarian Kumble ate 2 bears 🐻🐻
Setting the stage - 1995, hot and dry summer in the county championships in England. Kumble is playing for Northamptonshire. A Thread🧵
They were second in the table going to take on the first placed team Warwickshire. Warwickshire, though without Brian Lara, were defending champions and were leading the table at that time.
Few years later, Kumble would dismiss Lara looking like this.
Allan Lamb won the toss for Northamptonshire and decided to bat first. They were skittled out for 152 with only David Capel managing to get to a half century.
David Capel then proceeded to take a 7fer to restrict Warwickshire to 224. Remarkably 140 of them came from Roger Twose.
Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) was incorporated in 1953 by the Government of India as a machine tool manufacturing company.
A watch division came up in Bengaluru in 1961. A guest thread 🧵about HMT by @nandyellidli
If you suffer from #CollectibleLust, the first HMT hand-wound mechanical watch is likely the most coveted treasure among mechanical watch collectors.
Believe me, India boasts a thriving community of enthusiasts!
It is said that Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, now blamed for all the problems that ail our country, dedicated the first batch of hand-wound watches to the people of India - & this the “Janata” line of watches was born!
Maybe true, maybe false…but makes for one heck of a story!
Krishna Kumar was a huge fan of Sunil Gavaskar. When his son was born in 1985, this Dinesh Suitings ad was doing the rounds.
He decided to name his son Dinesh as a way to honour Sunil Gavaskar. Dinesh Karthik represented India over 170 times.
A thread about cricketers named after other cricketers. 👇
Sunil Gavaskar is adored all over Trinidad. When Shadeed had his first daughter, he wanted to name her Sunili. But his wife Christina put her foot down against it - they eventually named her Arima.
But when they had a son - there was no option. He was named Sunil. Sunil Narine has won 2 IPL's for KKR and a T20 world cup for West Indies.
Another West Indian from Windward Islands, Sunil Ambris was also named after Sunil Gavaskar.
Ambris has so far played 20+ times for the West Indies and was part of the 2019 world cup.
Here is the story of how the 1982 Asian Games started a temple ritual that continues to this day.
A thread 🧵
Here's some context: Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, hosts the vibrant Thrissur Pooram festival annually at the Vadakkunathan Temple.
It takes place when the moon aligns with the Pooram star in the Malayalam month of Medam, typically around May.
The Pooram event in Thrissur (kerala) features a stunning spectacle of over 50 decorated elephants adorned with nettipattam (golden headdress), intricately crafted Kolam, ornate bells, and other ornaments.