Tomorrow night, the world of film will come together to mark nine decades of the Academy Awards. Paul Whitington looks back at some of the crucial moments of 90 years at the Oscars
1929 The First Academy Awards ceremony is held in Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel. It’s a private dinner for 270 industry insiders, but there is no suspense involved as the winners had been announced months earlier. Emil Jannings wins the first Best Actor award.
1930 On April 3, 300 guests cram into the Ambassador Hotel’s Coconut Grove to see just seven statuettes presented. Because of a scheduling change, a second Oscar ceremony is held in November, with Lewis Milestone the big winner for his anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front.
1931 The first child star to receive a nomination, nine-year-old Jackie Cooper, is so exhausted by the experience that he falls asleep on the shoulder of Best Actress-winner Marie Dressler.
1932 The Greta Garbo vehicle Grand Hotel wins Best Picture, while an expanded roster of categories sees the young animator Walt Disney honoured for his Mickey Mouse shorts.
1934 The 6th Academy Awards sees Hollywood newcomer Katherine Hepburn win Best Actress for Morning Glory. She will go on to win three more Best Actress gongs — a record that still stands.
1936 In the last year when the public were allowed to vote by post, Bette Davis is the runaway winner of the Best Actress award for Dangerous.
1941 Rebecca wins Best Picture, James Stewart bags Best Actor for The Philadelphia Story and the secret ballot and sealed envelope are finally introduced after one too many Press leaks.
1944 Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca wins Best Picture and Best Director and the guests aren’t fed in deference to wartime austerity.
1948 A man who invades the ceremony dressed as a gorilla causes the most interest at the 20th Academy Awards. It was a dull year.
1951 In a high-quality year, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard is pipped in most of the big categories by Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve, though Bette Davis is not impressed at losing out to Judy Holliday’s comic turn as a gangster’s moll in Born Yesterday.
1953 The first televised Oscars is broadcast from two locations, with Bob Hope holding down the fort in Hollywood and Frederic March hosting in New York.
1957 When Robert Rich wins Best Story for The Brave One, he isn’t available to receive it. That’s because Rich is a pseudonym for Dalton Trumbo, who’s been blacklisted in the witch-hunts.
1960 Biblical epic BenHur sweeps the board and wins 11 of the 12 Oscars in which it is nominated, including Best Actor for Charlton Heston.
1962 West Side Story is the big film this year, as the ceremony drags on over the two-hour mark for the first time.
1964 There are loud cheers when Sidney Poitier (above) becomes the first black man to win the Best Actor Award, for Lilies of the Field.
1965 Julie Andrews is suddenly a star after she wins Best Actress for her charming performance in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins.
1968 Katharine Hepburn wins her second Best Actress award for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, but doesn’t show up to receive. Her longtime lover, Spencer Tracy, who was also nominated, died the previous year.
1970 While John Wayne (below) finally wins an Oscar, for True Grit, the 42nd Oscars are marred by demonstrations by black musicians upset over orchestra quotas, and Latinos upset about racist portrayals in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
1972 French Connection wins Best Picture, Best Director for William Friedkin and Best Actor for Gene Hackman. Charlie Chaplin makes an emotional return to Hollywood to accept a special award.
1977 Rocky wins Best Picture ahead of Taxi Driver and All the President’s Men.
1979 Now that it’s safe to do so, Hollywood starts having a pop at the Vietnam War. Deer Hunter wins Best Picture and Best Director and Jon Voight and Jane Fonda win Best Actor and Actress for Coming Home.
1980 Meryl Streep, who will become the most-nominated actor of all time (she’s up again this year), wins her first Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer.
1983 Gandhi wins Best Picture, Ben Kingsley wins Best Actor and Meryl Streep is Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice.
1986 Nominated in 11 categories, Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa wins seven Oscars, but the story of the night is the baffling shut-out of Steven Spielberg’s Color Purple, which also got 11 nominations, but wins nothing.
1987 After seven unsuccessful nominations, Paul Newman finally bags an Oscar for reprising the role of pool sharp Fast Eddie Felson in Martin Scorsese’s Color of Money.
1988 The Last Emperor wins nine Oscars, but Cher steals the show by taking to the stage to receive her Best Actress award for Moonstruck wearing a sheer, webbed dress that leaves nothing to the imagination. She trips over her shawl on the way up and loses an earring, but the singer recovers her poise impressively.
1990 Driving Miss Daisy wins Best Picture and Irish fans are thrilled