On May 16th 1929 the first ever Academy Awards Ceremony took place in Hollywood.
The event which took up the more popular name of 'The Oscars' in 1939 is now a massive annual event which see's stars from across the world gather together to contend for various awards.
The event was held at Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California where 250 people attended.
Its first president and the host of the May 1929 ceremony was the actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Unlike today, the winners of the first Oscars–as the coveted gold-plated statuettes later became known–were announced before the awards ceremony itself.
At the time of the first Academy Awards Ceremony sound had just been introduced to film. Warner Bros. created the first "talkie" movie, which was titled The Jazz Singer. Warner however were left out of the Oscar nominations as it was deemed unfair that they were put up against films without sound.
The first ever winner of the famous Best Picture award was titled Wings, a silent movie directed by William Wellman.
The Red Carpet Spectacular
Over the years the Oscars has become a star studded fashion extravaganza. The entrance of movie stars, dressed to the nines showing off the most stunning of outfits, has become a highlight of the event with press and photographers eagerly lined up to catch the moment they step out on the carpet. It's not just the biggest night of the year for the film industry but a huge one for fashion too.
Best Picture Awards
The big award of the night and the focus of the event is all on the Best Picture award. An incredible achievement for any film to receive a nomination let alone win.
There's been a huge array of incredible worthy winners of the Best Picture Award over the years, infamously at the 89th Academy Awards held in 2016, the wrong nominee was announced as the winner for best picture (La La Land) when the true winner was Moonlight. We've compiled a list of some of our favourite Best Picture winners from over the years:
- 12 Years a Slave
- Argo
- The Kings Speech
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Chicago
- Titanic
- Forest Gump
- Platoon
- Rocky
- The Godfather
- The Sound of Music
- West Side Story
- Rebecca
- Gone With The Wind
