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.
A school-going kid once visited the Congress party office, where Tamil lyricist Kavirajar Kannadasan asked, "Would you like to work in films, child?" The kid said, "Ask my father."
This child was destined to become one of India's greatest superstars!
A thread on Sridevi! 🧵
It is said that when Sridevi was born, there was a bright red mark on her forehead, and hence people started that a devi had born in the house.
Thus she was named Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan.
Before ruling the box office as a leading star, Sridevi was a phenomenally accomplished child artist.
Here she is, sharing the screen with MG Ramachandran, playing his nephew in a film that also starred J. Jayalalitha!
This film, starring Supriya Pathak & Hugh Grant, is based on a novel by Mircea Eliade.
Its the story of a 23-year-old Mircea who came to Calcutta to study under philosopher Surendranath Dasgupta.
There, he fell in love with Maitreyi - teacher's daughter.
Sounds familiar? A 🧵
In this novel, Mircea fictionalizes how his love story was cut short because Surendranath Dasgupta was unhappy about the relationship. The relationship was "exposed" by Maitreyi Devi's sister.
The novel was published in 1933, a couple of years after Mircea's time in Calcutta.
For some additional context, Maitreyi was a savant! Maitreyi was mentored by Rabindranath Tagore, and she even wrote a book Mongpute Rabindranath (Tagore by The Fire Side) about the time spent with the great poet.
20 years ago, we were reminded that good films need not make money, & films that make good money need not be great!
On June 18, 2004, Lakshya was released, telling the story of an aimless rich youngster who joins the Indian Army & discovers his true goal.
A thread🧵
Lakshya was written by @Javedakhtarjadu: He was told by senior army officers about the declining enrollments to the Indian army each year, prompting him to promise to write a film addressing the issue!
The script marked Akthar's comeback as a scriptwriter after ages!
Lakshya was a departure from the kinds of war movies made at the time like Border, LOC Kargil etc.
In fact, director @FarOutAkhtar's goal was to tell a story about a boy who finds himself in the backdrop of Kargil War.
On June 15, 2001, the world saw the release of a monumental film in scale & vision, with its main plot revolving around a cricket match between India & the British Empire!
A thread 🧵on Lagaan, the film that convinced Aamir Khan to pursue the kind of films he believed in.
After two failed attempts at films, @AshGowariker's confidence was low.
He then conceived a story where a key battle is resolved by a cricket match. He pitched this to Aamir in 4 lines, who told him not to waste time on this.
Lagaan was @AshGowariker’s third foray into direction after his earlier two movies – Pehla Nasha and Baazi.
Baazi is famous for the “Item number” by Aamir Khan. Pehla Nasha had Aamir and SRK in the same movie with some cringe worthy puns
This is freedom fighter Raj Narain, who achieved the greatest electoral upset in India's history.
In the 1977 elections held after the lifting of the Emergency, Raj Narain defeated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
A thread 🧵
The story begins with the 1971 election.
Originally scheduled for 1972, Indira Gandhi called for early elections, catching opposition by surprise.
The opposition quickly recovered and nominated Raj Narain to contest against Mrs. Gandhi in Rae Bareli.
📸 @htTweets
Indira Gandhi was probably displeased with the nomination.
At a campaign rally she said, "Mr. Narain had been chosen by the opposition parties to contest from Rae Bareli because he was a well-known Nehru hater and baiter."