The history of the American Academy of Film Awards is material for a separate film. It would certainly be a historical mega-production and a story about many generations of filmmakers for whom Oscar would be a dream come true.
There are no Oscars without an Academy
The history of the Oscars is inextricably linked with the history of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was established in May 1927 thanks to the idea of Luis B. Mayer, who intended to establish an institution responsible for the contacts of filmmakers with studios. True, he was also thinking about awards for people from the industry - but he was planning something very modest. This opinion was not shared by the popular actor Douglas Fairbanks, who in 1928 became the first president of the Academy. It was thanks to him that a year later, on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the first awards "for outstanding achievements" were presented. The film of the year was then Wings - a production that combined melodramatic and war themes (the action took place during World War I). It was also groundbreaking for the cinematography of the late twenties - in the Wings there were scenes of nudity and a kiss of two men.
First Oscars ceremony
The first awards ceremony lasted a whole… fifteen minutes . Interestingly, who will receive the statuettes was made public three months earlier - so there was no surprise. However, this changed on the next hand. In 1930 it was decided that the press would receive the results for publication on the night of the awards - at 11 p.m. However, when ten years later the Los Angeles Times announced the results to the public before the ceremony began , The Academy decided that this was the end of cooperation with the press. By the way - the failure of the Los Angeles Times to publish the results earlier can be compared to the scandal of 2017, when the winner in the Best Movie category was incorrectly announced as a result of a mistake ...
Oscars like history
In 1929 the statuette was won by Wings - and thus began the Academy's adventure with rewarding historical productions. In ninety years, the statuette distinguishing the best film was won by such productions as: Bunt na Bounty (1935) Bridge over the River Kwai (1957) Ben Hur (1959, he won a total of eleven statuettes!) Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Patton (1970), Amadeus (1984), Schindler's List (1993)…
Great historical shows were especially popular at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. - were then a weapon in the fight between cinematography and television. The popularity of Ben Hur confirmed filmmakers in the (otherwise correct) belief that monumental historical productions will always attract audiences to cinemas.
Wings - the first film ever awarded with an Oscar for Best Picture.
But history also crossed the Academy's plans. Due to unexpected events, the award ceremony had to be postponed three times:in 1938 (due to the floods in Los Angeles), in 1968 (Martin Luther King's funeral), and in 1981 (attempted murder of Ronald Reagan).
And this year, among the titles with a historical background that can boast several nominations are, among others 1917 , Jojo Rabbit , Irishman , Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women .
Poland is not dead yet ...
Poles are not geese, Oscars also win! This year we supported the production of Corpus Christi (which, however, had very strong competition in the form of, for example, Korean Parasite or Spanish Pain and Glow). And did you know that Poles received their first nomination just two years after the first Oscars? At that time, Anton Grot, or rather Antoni Franciszek Grossewski (or Groszewski), for the film Svengali was nominated in the "Interior decoration" category . Grot was born in 1884 in Kiełbasin, and after graduating from the School of Technology in Królewiec, he emigrated to the United States, where he worked, among others for Warner Bros. In total, he could boast of five nominations, although he never received the statuette.
Bronisław Kaper turned out to be a colorful Polish bird in Hollywood , which won an Academy Award in 1962 for the score for the film Lily. Unfortunately, the composer had the worst associations with this award:
I have the worst memories of this Oscar. When I was picking up, my beloved sister wanted to watch the ceremony with her friend on color television. As she ran across the road, a car ran into her. She died on the spot.
Bronisław Kaper (on the left)
Kaper looked after Polish filmmakers - and Polish films - when the competition for the statuettes was fought. He helped organize shows of Polish productions and persuaded members of the Academy to watch them - and so, for example, thanks to his efforts, it was possible to organize Flood shows in the United States. . Jerzy Antczak, on the other hand, was nominated for Nights and Days talked about one of the first days of his stay in the States:
Jadzia and I were sitting helplessly in a hotel room when the phone rang. I pick up the phone, say "hello", and on the other hand someone is playing the piano "Poland has not died yet ..." And after a while I hear:"Here, Bronio Kaper.
Videos across borders
The category that ignites the minds of Poles every year, ie "non-English language film" (from this year "international film") appeared for the first time at the ceremony in 1948. The Italian Street Children won the award directed by Vittoria De Siki. The first Polish film to receive an Oscar nomination was Knife in the Water Roman Polański. Although he lost to an extremely strong rival - Eight and a half Fellini, the production was widely commented around the world - the director was offered to make an American version, and a still from the film appeared on the cover of Time magazine in September 1963. Anyway - American reviewers were generally delighted with Polish productions that were among the five nominees - for example Noce i dnie have been hailed as the Polish Gone with the Wind and a Los Angeles Times reviewer praised:
I hope this unique film will not go unnoticed in the pursuit of Oscar, among far more highly advertised foreign films.
However, there was also some controversy - on the occasion of the nomination for the Promised Land Wajda said that the Hollywood press conference was dominated by allegations that the film was anti-Semitic. At that time, the most protested is an Israeli journalist who said:"I do not have to watch it, it is enough that this film comes from Poland".
It was loud about every Polish film that was among the nominated productions. But only one nomination was turned into the statuette for the best non-English language film - of course Ida Paweł Pawlikowski, which was awarded in 2015.
Oscars and controversy
Smaller or greater - controversy accompanies the Oscars every year. In a ceremony in 1936, screenwriter Dudley Nichols refused to accept an Oscar for the script for The Damned - it was supposed to be an expression of solidarity with the screenwriters who were on strike at the time. Anyway, this is not the only example of not accepting an award from the Academy. Suffice it to recall the boycott of Marlon Brando, who - when he received an Oscar nomination for his role in The Godfather - sent Sacheen Littlefeather of the American Indian Movement to the ceremony who spoke on his behalf from the stage.
Hattie McDaniel - the first African American in the history of the award
Unfortunately - most of the controversy is related to the strange decisions of the Academy itself. For example:in 1940, black Hattie McDaniel went to the role for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gone with the Wind (the film won a total of eight awards at that ceremony). Of course, the mere fact of being awarded McDaniel was not strange - but the behavior of the Academy was strange. First, she did not want to invite the actress to the Hotel Ambassador awards ceremony in Los Angeles, arguing that she had a strict hotel policy towards guests (ie:no black people were allowed in there) . Ultimately, thanks to the persuasions of David O. Selznick himself, the actress was able to take part in the ceremony - but she was ordered to sit at the back of the room, in a designated place. So she couldn't celebrate the victory with other actors and actresses.
Almost eighty years after those events, it is still loud about the under-representation of minorities in nominated films. This shows that despite so many years of operation, the Academy still has a lot to work on, and they will certainly be a permanent element of the Oscar award for a long time ...