Which Movies & People Won The First Oscars At The 1st Academy Awards (2024)

12 lucky individuals and movies won the very first Oscars 95 years ago at the 1st Academy Awards. The 2024 Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, are just around the corner. With a stacked lineup of 2024 Oscar nominees across all categories, the 96th Academy Awards are sure to be an exciting night. The award show may be a grand spectacle now, but the very first Oscars, which took place on May 16, 1929, before the ceremony and the awards themselves were ever colloquially known as "Oscars," was a much more lowkey affair.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, which honored films released between August 1, 1927, and July 31, 1928, was hosted by Academy President Douglas Fairbanks at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The event only lasted 15 minutes and remains the only ceremony in the award show's history not to be broadcast on radio or television. A lot has changed since the very first Oscars in terms of the number of categories as well as their names, qualifications, and regulations, so here's a breakdown of all 12 awards and winners at the 1st Academy Awards.

Wings Was The First Movie To Win Best Picture

The Category Was Called Outstanding Picture At The Time

At the 1st Academy Awards, the 1927 silent and synchronized sound film Wings won Best Picture, then called Outstanding Picture. After the first two Oscar ceremonies, the name of this category was changed to Outstanding Production in 1930. It underwent several name changes over the years until it was given its current name, Best Picture, in 1962. Until 1950, the award for Best Picture was presented to the production company, which in Wings' case was Paramount Famous Lasky (now Paramount Pictures).

Wings was a romance war epic directed by William A. Wellman with a screenplay by Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton. Wings starred Charles "Buddy" Rogers as Jack and Richard Arlen as David, two World War II combat pilots embroiled in a romantic rivalry over a woman named Mary (Clara Bow). Wings competed against two other films in this category: The Caddo Company's The Racket and Fox's 7th Heaven.

Sunrise Won The Only Oscar For Best Unique and Artistic Picture

This Category Was Eliminated After The 1st Academy Awards

At the 1st Academy Awards, there were two categories for Best Picture: the aforementioned "Outstanding Picture" and "Best Unique and Artistic Picture." Both of these awards were considered the highest honors of the night, but when the Academy dropped the Best Unique and Artistic Picture category at the 2nd Academy Awards the following year, Outstanding Picture was retroactively considered the most prestigious award of all. The first and only winner for Best Unique and Artistic Picture was the 1927 synchronized sound western Sunrise. The award was presented to Fox, the production company behind Sunrise.

Sunrise was directed by German director F. W. Murnau in his American film debut, with a screenplay by Carl Mayer based on the 1917 short story "The Excursion to Tilsit" by Hermann Sudermann. George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston in nameless roles, Sunrise tells the story of a farmer (O'Brien) who is persuaded to drown his wife (Gaynor) by a city girl (Livingston) so they can be together. Sunrise competed against two other films for Best Unique and Artistic Picture: Paramount Famous Lasky's Chang and MGM's The Crowd.

Lewis Milestone & Frank Borzage Won The First Best Director Oscars

There Were Two Best Director Categories At The Time

Another category that was notably different at the 1st Academy Awards was Best Director, which was split into two different categories back then based on film genre: "Best Directing (Comedy Picture)" and "Best Directing (Dramatic Picture)." At the 2nd Academy the following year, the genre distinction for directing was permanently discarded, and the categories merged to become Best Director. At the 1st Oscars, though, the winner for Best Director (Comedy) was Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights, while Best Director (Drama) went to Frank Borzage for 7th Heaven.

Two Arabian Knights is a 1927 silent comedy film starring William Boyd, Mary Astor, and Louis Wolheim. The film follows two American soldiers who are captured by Germans during World War I and become prisoners of war. Despite their mutual disdain, they bond during their captivity and plot their escape together. Milestone competed against Charlie Chaplin for The Circus and Ted Wilde for Speedy for Best Comedy Director.

7th Heaven is a 1927 synchronized sound romantic drama starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Set in Paris, 7th Heaven follows a working-class sewer cleaner named Chico (Farrell) who meets an abused sex worker named Diane (Gaynor) and pretends to be her husband to prevent her arrest before falling in love for real. Borzage competed against Herbert Brenon for Sorrell and Son and King Vidor for The Crowd for Best Drama Director.

Emil Jannings Won The First Best Actor Oscar For Two Performances

Jannings Won For His Performances In The Way of All Flesh & The Last Command

At the 1st Academy Awards, the acting categories had very different rules and distinctions. There were no supporting actor or actress categories, and actors could be nominated in the lead (and only) acting categories for multiple performances in different films. At the first Oscars, the award for Best Actor went to Emil Jannings, who won for his performances in The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command. Jannings competed against Richard Barthelmess for The Noose and The Patent Leather Kid, and Charlie Chaplin for The Circus.

Now considered a lost film, The Way of All Flesh is a 1927 silent drama directed by Victor Fleming. Jannings played August Schilling, a bank clerk and devoted family man who gets lured into a brawl with a gangster by a seductress on a train. In The Last Command, a 1928 silent romance drama directed by Josef von Sternberg, Jannings played Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, an exiled Russian general who finds himself playing an extra in a Hollywood war movie directed by a former revolutionary.

Janet Gaynor Won The First Best Actress Oscar For Three Performances

Gaynor Won For Her Performances In Sunrise, 7th Heaven, & Street Angel

The rule about nominations for multiple performances applied to the Best Actress category as well. At the 1st Academy Awards, Janet Gaynor won Best Actress for three separate performances: Sunrise, 7th Heaven, and Street Angel. As mentioned, Gaynor played the farmer's wife in Sunrise and Diane in 7th Heaven.

In Street Angel, a 1928 synchronized sound drama also directed by Borzage, Gaynor played a young woman named Angela, who gets caught trying to steal money to buy medicine for her ill mother after her failed attempt at sex work. Gaynor starred opposite Farrell once again in Street Angel, in which he played a vagabond painter named Gino. Gaynor competed against Louise Dresser for A Ship Comes In and Gloria Swanson for Sadie Thompson for Best Actress.

Every Other Oscar Winner From The 1st Academy Awards

There Were Only Six More Categories At The First Oscars

Other than the two Best Picture categories, two Best Director categories, the Best Actor category, and the Best Actress category, there were only six other categories at the 1st Academy Awards, making 12 total. These remaining categories were: "Best Writing (Original Story)" (not to be confused with the current award for Best Original Screenplay), "Best Writing (Adaptation)" (now known as Best Adapted Screenplay), "Best Art Direction" (now known as Best Production Design), "Best Cinematography," "Best Engineering Effects" (equivalent to Best Visual Effects), and "Best Writing (Title Writing)." Best Cinematography is the only category that still exists under the same name.

In 1958, Best Writing (Original Story), which essentially recognized the conceptualization and treatment of a film's plot rather than the screenplay, merged with the ongoing Best Original Screenplay award (introduced in 1940) to honor only the screenplay. Best Engineering Effects was discontinued the following year but is essentially the modern-day equivalent of the current Best Visual Effects category. The Best Writing (Title Writing) category was also eliminated for all subsequent ceremonies. Nominees for Best Cinematography, Best Engineering Effects, and Best Title Writing did not have to be recognized for a specific film.

Two Special Awards were also distributed at the 1st Academy Awards. The first Honorary Award was presented to Charlie Chaplin to recognize his total contribution to the film industry as an actor, writer, and director. The second Honorary Award was given to Warner Bros. for their achievements in pioneering talking pictures with the 1927 musical "talkie" The Jazz Singer. The nominees and winners/recipients for these additional Oscars categories and Special Awards at the 1st Academy Awards can be found below:

Oscars

The Oscars, also known as The Academy Awards, is an annual awards show celebrating workers in the film industry for their artistic and technical abilities. The Oscars are often considered the most prestigious awards show in the industry and date back to 1929. The 96th Academy Awards will be held on March 10, 2024, and be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC.

Dates

March 10, 2024

Location

Los Angeles, CA

Network

ABC