During a dinner at his home, M-G-M studio chief Louis B. Mayer and his guests talked about creating an organized group to benefit the film industry. A week later, 36 invitees from all the creative branches of the film industry dined at Los Angeles's Ambassador Hotel to hear a proposal to found the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Articles of incorporation were soon presented and officers were elected with Douglas Fairbanks as president.
Academy Story
1928
1928
Awards of Merit
One of the first Academy committees was the Awards of Merit. The seven-person committee suggested to the Board that awards be presented in 12 categories. The Academy published its first book in 1928 - Report on Incandescent Illumination, based on a series of Academy-sponsored seminars attended by 150 cinematographers. A second book, Recording Sound for Motion Pictures, was published in 1931, based on a lecture series on sound techniques.
1929
1929
The First Oscars
The first Academy Awards ceremony was a May 16 banquet at the Roosevelt Hotel's Blossom Room with 270 attendees. Recipients were announced three months earlier; the next year the Academy kept the results secret but gave an advance list to newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. This continued until 1940 when the Los Angeles Times published the winners in its evening edition - readily available to arriving guests. That prompted the sealed-envelope system in use today. By the second year, enthusiasm for the Awards was such that a Los Angeles radio station produced a live broadcast.
1930
1931
1931
1932
1932
1933
1933
1934
1935
1935
A Source Of Security
Film Editing, Music Scoring, and Song were added to the categories honoring films released in 1934. The year also brought the first write-in campaign, seeking to nominate Bette Davis for her performance in "Of Human Bondage." (Academy rules now prohibit write-ins on the final ballot.) Also that year, the Academy retained the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse to tabulate the ballots and ensure the secrecy of the results. The firm, now called PricewaterhouseCoopers, continues to tabulate the voting to this day.
1937
1937
Strong Support
The first Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress Academy Awards are presented for performances in films of 1936. The honors went to Walter Brennan for "Come and Get it" and Gale Sondergaard for "Anthony Adverse."
The Academy Players Directory was published, including photos of actors and the name of their agent or industry contact. The directory was published by the Academy until 2006, when it was sold to a private company.
1938
1938
Time For Thalberg
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award was presented for the first time at the ceremony held in 1938. The honor went to Darryl F. Zanuck.
For the first time, the Oscar ceremony was delayed when massive flooding in Los Angeles pushed the date back one week.
By 1938 the Academy's Research Council, a forerunner of today's Science and Technology Council, had 36 technical committees working to address issues related to sound recording and reproduction, projection, lighting, film preservation and cinematography.
1939
1944
1945
1945
1946
1947
1949
1953
1955
1955
1957
1958
1958
1959
1959
1960
1960
1961
1961
1963
1963
1964
1967
1967
1968
1968
HAPPINESS AND TRAGEDY
Grants were awarded to film-related organizations and colleges for internships, film festivals and other projects, following the establishment of a scholarship program for film students in the mid 1960s.
The Oscar ceremony was postponed from April 8 to April 10 out of respect for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had been assassinated a few days earlier, and whose funeral was held on April 9.
1969
1970
1970
1972
1973
1974
1974
AN EVENTFUL ADDITION
Several named public lecture programs were developed, beginning with the Marvin Borowsky Lecture, which was established in 1974 in honor of the late screenwriter and university professor. Over the years, five more lecture series have been added, in the names of Marc Davis, John Huston, Jack Oakie, George Pal and George Stevens, and each having a focus related to its namesake. Guest speakers for the various lectures have run the gamut from Jerry Lewis to Carl Sagan.
1975
1975
SPREADING OUR WINGS
The Academy dedicated its new headquarters at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills on December 8. The Academy's scope of public programming expanded to make full use of the facility’s state-of-the-art theater and large lobby. A series called Film Classics Revisited launched the next decade featuring discussions with the cast and crew, a successful format that became the norm.
There were also many tributes to screen legends, from Groucho Marx to Mickey Mouse, with exhibitions presented in the main lobby. Public events grew more expansive each year, with a wider range of film screenings and exhibitions, and new seminars on specific aspects of filmmaking.
1977
1977
1979
1979
1981
1982
1983
1983
1985
1985
1986
1988
1988
1989
1989
1990
1990
A SECOND HOME
Due to the growing holdings of the library and film archive, they moved to a new location – a 40,000 square-foot building at the corner of La Cienega and Olympic boulevards that had once housed a Beverly Hills water treatment facility. The building was officially dedicated in January 1991 and, in 2002, was renamed the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in honor of the Academy's first president.
1992
1992
1993
1993
1997
1997
2000
2000
ACADEMY FILM SCHOLARS PROGRAM
After the Film Festival Grants Program began the previous year, the Academy Film Scholars Program was launched with two $25,000 grants awarded annually to support the creation of new works of film scholarship by established scholars, writers, historians and researchers.
2001
2001
2002
2002
AN ANIMATED YEAR
The Academy’s film archive moved to a new facility, the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study at 1313 Vine Street. The complex was built in the 1940s as the Don Lee-Mutual Broadcasting building, and sound stages were converted into vaults to house the archive's holdings. The Center now houses the Science and Technology Council and other departments and has a 286-seat theater.
The Animated Feature Film Award was established, with “Shrek” winning for films released in 2001. The ceremony took place at the new Kodak Theatre, built with input from the Academy. The Oscars are still held at the same location, now known as the Dolby Theatre.
2003
2003
THE SCI-TECH COUNCIL LAUNCHES
The Academy Board of Governors created the Science and Technology Council, which served to reestablish the Academy's role as an industry-wide center for motion picture technology initiatives.
U.S. forces invaded Iraq on the Thursday before the telecast. The show went on as scheduled, but the red carpet was limited to the area immediately in front of the theater entrance, the red carpet bleachers were eliminated and the majority of the world’s press was disinvited. The next year, the red carpet was back in full force.
2005
2005
2009
2009
2012
2012
A DREAM FULFILLED
The Academy announced plans for a museum devoted to motion pictures, to be located next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus in the landmarked Wilshire May Company building. The Museum will curate and present the work of Oscar winners and nominees, as well as the legions of global artists who make movies.
2013
2013
2017
2017
2019
2019
2022