2nd Academy Awards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2nd Academy Awards
DateApril 3, 1930
SiteAmbassador Hotel,
Los Angeles, California
Hosted byWilliam C. DeMille
Highlights
Best PictureThe Broadway Melody
Most awardsSeven films each received one award.[A]
Most nominationsIn Old Arizona and The Patriot (5)

The 2nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films released between August 1, 1928, and July 31, 1929. They were held on April 3, 1930, at an awards banquet in the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Radio coverage began with this ceremony, with a local broadcast by KNX, Los Angeles.[1]

As the ceremony was being held more than eight months after the end of the eligibility period, it was decided that the 3rd Academy Awards would be held in November 1930, so as to bring the awards ceremony closer to the relevant time period. As a result, 1930 was the only calendar year in which two Academy Awards ceremonies were held.

The second ceremony included a number of changes over the first. Most importantly, it was the first presentation for which the winners were not announced in advance. Additionally, the number of award categories was reduced from twelve to seven.

The 2nd Academy Awards is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees. Subsequent research by AMPAS has resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges. Chester Morris was the first nominee for best leading actor to be born in the 20th century

Mary Pickford, a founding member of AMPAS and married to its first president, lobbied to be considered for the Best Actress award, inviting the judges over for tea at her home,[2] while other actresses who were considered for the same award were not made aware of their consideration.[3]

The Divine Lady is the only film to ever win the Best Director award without receiving a Best Picture nomination, excluding the first year in which there was an award for Best Director (Comedy Picture).

This is the only year in which no film won more than one Oscar. The Broadway Melody became the second of seven films (Wings, Grand Hotel, Cavalcade, Hamlet, The Sound of Music, and Titanic are the others) to win Best Picture without a writing nomination, and the first of three to win Best Picture and nothing else (Grand Hotel and Mutiny on the Bounty are the others).

Academy Awards of Merit[]

Irving Thalberg, Outstanding Picture co-winner
Frank Lloyd, Best Director winner
Warner Baxter, Best Actor winner
Mary Pickford, Best Actress winner
Cedric Gibbons, Best Art Direction winner
Clyde De Vinna, Best Cinematography winner

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double-dagger (double-dagger).

Outstanding Picture
  • Mary Pickford – Coquette as Norma Besantdouble-dagger
    • Ruth Chatterton – Madame X as Jacqueline Floriot
    • Betty Compson – The Barker as Carrie
    • Jeanne Eagels (posthumous nomination) – The Letter as Leslie Crosbie
    • Corinne Griffith – The Divine Lady as Emma Hart
    • Bessie Love – The Broadway Melody as Harriet "Hank" Mahoney

Honorary awards[]

No Honorary Academy Awards – then called Special Awards – were conferred at the 2nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Multiple nominations and awards[]

The following 9 films received multiple nominations:

Changes to Academy Awards[]

Beginning with the 2nd Academy Awards (1928–1929), the following changes were made by AMPAS.

  • Award categories were reduced from twelve to seven:
    • The awards for Best Director (Comedy Picture) and Best Director (Dramatic Picture) were merged into a single Best Director award.
    • The awards for Best Writing (Adaptation) and Best Writing (Original Story) were merged into a single Best Writing award (these would be split again for the 4th Awards.
    • The awards for Best Engineering Effects, Best Unique and Artistic Production, and Best Writing (Title Writing) were discontinued.

Notable awards and nominations[]

In Old Arizona and The Patriot – with five nominations each – tied the record for the film receiving the most Academy Award nominations. This record was set by 7th Heaven at the 1st Academy Awards (1927–1928). One year later, at the 3rd Academy Awards (1929–1930), the record was broken by The Love Parade, which garnered six nominations. The current record for the film receiving the most Academy Award nominations – with fourteen nominations apiece – is held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). This record has stood for 71 years.

See also[]

References[]

Notes
  1. ^ Jump up to: a b At the 2nd Academy Awards (1928–1929), no film received more than one award. Seven films each received one Academy Award of Merit. To date, this result has never been repeated in subsequent Academy Awards ceremonies.
Citations
  1. ^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved September 10, 2019. The Academy Awards Show.
  2. ^ Whitfield, Eileen (1997). Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-8131-2045-4. OCLC 37465308.
  3. ^ White, Michael (April 28, 1972). "The Actress and the Four-Letter Cliche". The Guardian. London. p. 13. As the elder sister in Broadway Melody she got an Oscar nomination, which in all honesty she doesn't recall at all. 'So many people have said it that it must be true.'

External links[]

Retrieved from ""