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            ‘Cimarron’ was the first film to receive more than six Academy Awards nominations and nominated for the Big Five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing). Among these, the movie won the Best Picture in the year 1930-31. Although it didn’t win Best Director, it won most of the major non-acting awards. It is, technically, the first film to win ‘Best Picture’ as previously, in the first three years, the award had been termed ‘Best Production’.

            Based on Edna Ferber’s novel, it is about a typical American frontier family, and the rise of Oklahoma to statehood. The movie was directed by Wesley Ruggles.

            ‘Cimarron’ starred Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, and featured Estelle Taylor and Roscoe Ates. Epic in scope, spanning forty years from 1889 to 1929, it was a critical success, although the movie did not regain its production costs during its initial run in 1931.

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               The award for the Best Picture in the year 1929-30, was won by the movie called ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. It was the first major anti-war film of the sound era, faithfully based upon the timeless, best-selling novel by Erich Maria Remarque, who had experienced the war first-hand as a young German soldier.

               The film won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. The other two nominations were Best Writing, and Best Cinematography. It was the first film to win both Best Picture and Best Director, a feat that became common in later years. This movie was directed by Lewis Milestone. The movie stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.

               The film includes a series of scenes that portray the futility of war from the sympathetic point of view of young German soldiers in the trenches during the Great War.

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               ‘The Broadway Melody’ of 1929, establishing an archetype for decades of movie musicals to follow, became the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. The film won the second Academy award in the year 1930. The film was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical.

               ‘The Broadway Melody’ was a substantial success. It was the top grossing picture of 1929. The movie was written by Norman Houston and James Gleason from a story by Edmund Goulding, and directed by Harry Beaumont. Its original music was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, including the popular hit “You Were Meant for Me”.

               ‘The Broadway Melody’, follows the adventures of the Mahoney Sisters, Hank (Bessie Love) and Queenie (Anita Page). Bessie Love was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

               The movie was mainly appreciated by the jazz lovers of Hollywood.

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               William Wellman’s ‘Wings’ was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

               It was a silent movie, which marks an era of heightened melodrama, when filmmaking hadn’t yet fancied itself subtle. The movie was the only fully silent film that won an Academy Award.

               This 1927 war movie, which starred Clara Bow, Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen, was screened at the ceremony, accompanied by a live organ. The film’s background was that of World War I. The movie revolves around two couples, and how their lives are disrupted by World War I.

               The film’s director, William Wellman, was a prominent figure in Hollywood. His two best remembered films are ‘Wings’ and the 1937 version of ‘A Star Is Born’.

               The movie was produced by Lucien Hubbard, and released by Paramount Pictures.

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               The first Academy Awards ceremony was organised on May 16th, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, away from the public eye. It was a very private affair, with only two hundred and seventy people as guests. The awards were given out at a banquet, set up at the hotel’s Blossom Room. The tickets for each of the guests, cost five dollars.

               The first Oscar ceremony comprised of 12 categories, apart from two special honours. The awards were meant to honour people responsible for cinematic achievements in 1927 and 1928. There was very little element of surprise at the first Oscar Awards ceremony, as the names of the winners had already been declared three months earlier. The ceremony ran for just 15 minutes.

               Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards. The Academy has, since 1941, used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners.

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               The Academy Awards, affectionately known as the Oscars are the most coveted awards in the film world. The Oscar ceremony is one of the most awaited events of the year.

               The Academy Awards are a set of 24 awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry, given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), located in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

               The most recognised trophy in the world, the Oscar statuette has stood on the mantels of the greatest film-makers of the world since 1929.

               Winners are chosen from 24 categories that include best picture, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, directing, original screenplay, adapted screenplay, cinematography, production design, editing, original score, original song, costume design, makeup and hair-styling, sound mixing, sound editing, visual effects, foreign-language film, animated feature film, animated short film, live-action short film, documentary feature, and documentary short subject.