The 8th Academy Awards to honour films released during 1935 were held on March 5, 1936, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California and hosted by AMPAS president Frank Capra. This was the first year in which the awards were called "Oscars".

8th Academy Awards
DateMarch 5, 1936
SiteBiltmore Hotel
Hosted byFrank Capra
Highlights
Best PictureMutiny on the Bounty
Most awardsThe Informer (4)
Most nominationsMutiny on the Bounty (8)

The Academy voters, who felt guilty about not awarding Bette Davis a Best Actress award the previous year, assigned her one for Dangerous, which was viewed as a lesser picture.[1] Davis, who showed up to the posh formal ceremony in an informal checkered dress, felt it was a consolation prize that should have been awarded to Katharine Hepburn.[1]

Despite receiving eight nominations, the most of the year, Mutiny on the Bounty became the last film to date to win Best Picture and nothing else (following The Broadway Melody and Grand Hotel), and the only film to receive three nominations for Best Actor.

This was the second and last year that write-in votes were permitted; A Midsummer Night's Dream became the only film to win a write-in Oscar, for Best Cinematography. Miriam Hopkins' Best Actress nomination for Becky Sharp was the first acting nomination for a color film.

The short-lived category of Best Dance Direction was introduced this year; it lasted just three years before the Directors Guild of America successfully lobbied for its elimination.

Winners and nominees edit

Frank Lloyd; Best Picture co-winner
Irving Thalberg; Best Picture co-winner
John Ford; Best Director winner
Victor McLagen; Best Actor winner
Bette Davis; Best Actress winner
Ben Hecht; Best Original Story co-winner
Hal Mohr; Best Cinematography (write-in) winner
D. W. Griffith; Honorary Academy Award recipient

Awards edit

Nominees were announced on February 7, 1936. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.[2][3]

Academy Honorary Award edit

  • D. W. Griffith – "For his distinguished creative achievements as director and producer and his invaluable initiative and lasting contributions to the progress of the motion picture arts".

Multiple nominations and awards edit

Films with multiple wins
Wins Film
4 The Informer
2 A Midsummer Night's Dream

Trivia edit

A fictitious version of the 8th Academy Awards was a major scene in the 1937 film A Star Is Born, in which the character of Esther Blodgett (stage name Vicki Lester), played by Janet Gaynor, wins the Academy Award for Best Actress, only to have her inebriated husband, fallen movie star Norman Maine, played by Fredric March, crash the party and make a scene. Both Gaynor and March were real-life recipients of Academy Awards, for Best Actress and Actor respectively, and were nominated for their roles in said movie.

The film shows a ceremony similar to the real one of the day, much smaller and more private than the televised event that occurs today.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 833. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.
  2. ^ "The 8th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e "The Official Academy Awards Database". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Select "1935" in the "Award Year(s)" drop-down menu and press "Search".