"Its Academy Award Season..."

     As the  day in which every Motion Picture enthusiast across the world sits and watches quality television programing comes near, let us look back to the simple times as they were called and look back to other academy awards. If I recall correctly, the first AMPAS Oscar© ceremony occurred on Thursday May 16, 1929. This was a private banquet which took place in the Blossom Room in the Roosevelt hotel in Hollywood. The Banquet hosted a total of 270 people with the ceremony only lasting 15 minutes. The show was hosted by the then AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks. Surprisingly enough, it is the only Academy Awards Ceremony which was not broadcasted through Radio or Television. The Best Picture Award went to Lucien Hubbard for Paramount Pictures - Wings. 

     Moving a bit more ahead in the timeline, we celebrate the 25th Academy Awards hosted at the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood California taking place on March 19, 1953 and was was hosted by Bob Hope. What makes this ceremony special is the Best Picture winner that year, "The Greatest Show on Earth" Directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille for Paramount Pictures took home the oscar. Thats not all, The American magazine "Premier" placed that movie on its list of 10 worst Oscar Winners. Thats not all, The british Film Magazine "Empire" rated it #3 on their list of the 10 worst oscar winners and it has the lowest spot on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 81 films to win Best Picture. On a more positive note, "The Bad and the Beautiful" won 5 Awards that night making it the most wins ever for a film not nominated for best picture. It is also only the 2nd film to  have the most wins in 1 night not nominated for best picture, this excluding the years where there were ties for the most wins of course. 

    Now we move on 10 years into the future to the 35th Academy Awards Hosted By Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on April 8, 1963. That year, " of Arabia" took home the Oscar for best picture. Host Frank Sinatra almost missed the ceremony that night because he had forgotten his parking sticker and was turned away from the arrivals area by the security guards. So what he did was park his car elsewhere and run to the ceremony barely making it on time. Mutiny on the Bounty was the first and only as of 2012 remake to a previous Best picture winner to be nominated for best picture. That night "Lawrence of Arabia" received 10 nominations  and 7 wins. "To Kill a Mockingbird" received 8 nominations and only won 3. 

   Stepping into the portal of time and landing just last year, we find ourselves at the 84th academy awards. This ceremony occurred a the then-Kodak now Dolby theater at the Hollywood and Highland center in Hollywood California hosted by Bill Crystal. That year, "The Artist" won for Best Picture over Hugo and numerous other pictures. What makes it special is the fact that it was the first silent picture to win Best Picture since 1927's "Wings." "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" received much controversy being called the worst Best Picture Nomination ever even called the worst picture of 2011. That year, the annual "In Memoriam" tribute, was presented by host Bill Crystal. Singer Ezperanza Spalding performed Louie Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" along side the Southern California Children's Chorus during the tribute. (Video of the Memoriam is posted at the close of this post) Steve Jobs was mentioned in the memoriam as he was the co-founder of Pixar. That night, "The Artist" received 10 nominations with 5 wins, Hugo received 11 nominations with 5 wins. 

     Well, this concludes our travel from the first Academy Awards to the latest ceremony in our time. Without these great filmmakers, future filmmakers don't have someone to inspire them. I know that the Director I am inspired by has never won an Academy Award but to have an inspiration in filmmaking, that has no award, not saying that I will replace Tim Burton in the future, if that was the case, someone might have replaced Alfred Hitchcock a few times since his passing, I just want to have a basis from which to create my movies, from which to get ideas from. Also Composer Danny Elfman, he has never won an Academy Award but his music inspires my ideas far beyond any other composers music. Theres always a song that goes along with any sequence. From Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to his latest Frankenweenie (Oscar Nominated for Best Animated Feature) With these words said by Tim Burton himself I sign off for the week. Have a wonderful weekend folks and stay safe during the Awards Ceremony on Sunday.  

"It's good as an artist to always remember to see things in a new, weird way."

-Tim Burton

VIDEO:84th Academy Awards "In Memoriam"