10 landmark moments
Game-changing firsts that reshaped awards season.
01 THE FIRST OSCAR EVER GIVEN
On 16 May 1929, just over the boulevard from the site of the Dolby Theatre, the first Academy Awards were held as a $5-a-head dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the idea of MGM founder Louis B. Mayer. Why? “If I got [filmmakers] cups and awards, they’d kill themselves to produce what I wanted.” The awards, revealed in advance, were presented by Douglas Fairbanks in a 15-minute ceremony; because he couldn’t attend, German actor Emil Jannings got his early.
02 THE FIRST PERSON OF COLOUR TO WIN
For her role as maid Mammy in the all-conquering Gone With The Wind, Hattie McDaniel became the first black actor to win an Oscar, in 1940. To accommodate her, the Ambassador Hotel waived its ‘No blacks’ policy, albeit seating her on a segregated table… Unbowed, she said, “I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry.”
03 THE FIRST SPECIAL EFFECTS AWARDS
With 1939 regarded as the high-water mark for Hollywood’s Golden Age, the 1940 ceremony was always set to be competitive. Along with Hattie McDaniel’s win, history was made by the first film to win the new Best Special Effects category: not The Wizard Of Oz, but Indian-based melodrama The Rains Came, with its set-shattering earthquake and flood sequences. With the category encompassing VFX and sound, Fred Sersen and Edmund H. Hansen shared the honour.
04 THE FIRST FEMALE DIRECTOR TO WIN
Only five women have ever been nominated for Best Director. First Italy’s Lina Wertmüller, for Seven Beauties in 1977, then Jane Campion for The Piano and Sofia Coppola for Lost In Translation (both won Best Original Screenplay). In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker, beating ex James Cameron in the process. As the Kodak Theatre rose to its feet, she said, “There’s no other way to describe it – it’s the moment of a lifetime.” Can fifth nominee Greta Gerwig repeat the feat (for Lady Bird) this year?