Category The Oscars

            ‘Moonlight’ is a 2016 drama film written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on the play ‘In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue’ by Tarell Alvin McCraney.

            The film is largely centred around the character of Chiron, and his life in Miami, starting as a shy child, continuing as an awkward teenager, and ending as a hardened adult.

            These stages of his life are presented in three acts, each one named for Chiron’s preferred name at that point: Act i: Little; Act ii: Chiron; Act iii: Black.

            The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning for Best Picture (producers Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner), Best Supporting Actor (Ali), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Jenkins and McCraney).

            Infamously, the movie was subject to the most notorious mix-up in the history of the Academy Awards, as an envelope switch resulted in ‘La La Land’ being announced as the Best Picture winner before its producer Jordan Horowitz announced the mistake.

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            ‘Spotlight’ won in the Best Picture category at the 88th Academy Awards. The movie is a biographical directed by Tom McCarthy, and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer. The film follows the real life story of the investigative team of the ‘Boston Globe’ (a leading news source) during the early 2000’s, as they researched and released the first major report on child abuse in the Catholic Church, a series which won them the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003.

           The story begins with Marty Baron’s arrival in Boston as the new editor of the Globe, and him assigning the Spotlight investigative team to follow a trail of lawsuits pertaining to a priest accused of child abuse some years in the past. As they dig deeper, meeting with traumatized victims, and complicit lawyers, they discover that the menace of child abuse runs deeper than anyone suspected.

            ‘Spotlight’ won the Academy Award for Best Picture along with Best Original Screenplay from six nominations total, making ‘Spotlight’ the first film from Open Road Films to win in either category.

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           ‘Birdman’ is a 2014 movie directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts.

            The movie follows Riggan Thomson (Keaton), a washed-up actor best known for playing superhero Birdman in a series of movies, as he tries to revive his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about Love’.

            Along the way, he faces various difficulties, both on and off stage, as he battles his own ego.

            At the 87th Academy Awards, ‘Birdman’ won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Michael Keaton was nominated for Best Actor, Edward Norton and Emma Stone were nominated in Best Supporting Acting categories, and it also received nominations for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

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            The movie, ‘12 Years a Slave’ was released in the year 2013. It is an adaptation of the 1853 slave narrative memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, a New York born African-American man who was kidnapped by two men and sold into slavery. The film was directed by Steve McQueen. The screenplay was written by John Ridley.

            The movie narrates the story of Northup, a violinist in Saratoga. He’s a loving husband, a devoted father, and a respected man of his community.

            His ill fate begins when two conmen trap him and sell him as a slave. He is given a new name ‘Platt’ and thus begins twelve years of misery, agony, and punishing work as Platt is sold from master to master. Still, he desperately holds on to hope that somehow, he will win his way to freedom, and get back to his family.

            ‘12 Years a Slave’ won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Nyong’o, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ridley.

            ‘Argo’ is a thriller directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, and produced by Affleck, Grant Heslov, and George Clooney. It is a somewhat fictionalized account of a real CIA operation in 1980 to extract six Americans during the height of the Iranian hostage crisis.

            The movie follows the storyline as a group of revolutionaries storm the United States embassy in Iran and take a number of staff as hostages. Six employees in a neighbouring building manage to escape, however, and take up refuge in the official residence of the Canadian ambassador. Ten weeks later, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Affleck) is asked by the CIA to help get them out of the country. With limited options, and the Iranian revolutionaries stepping up their search for the missing Americans, it’s up to the men led by Mendez and their CIA contact, Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston), to get the six employees out.

            The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

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            ‘The Artist’ is a 2011 French romantic-comedy-drama film emulating the style of cinema in the 1920s. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, and produced by Thomas Langmann, the movie stars Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.

            The movie tells the story of George Valentin, a star of the silent screen in 1920’s Hollywood whose career goes into decline with the Great Depression, and the advent of talking pictures. He falls in love with a young actress named Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, whose Hollywood career arc is the exact opposite of Valentin’s.

            The movie is completely shot in black and white. At the 84th Academy Awards, ‘The Artist’ received ten nominations, winning five awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Hazanavicius, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Jean Dujardin, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score.

            At the 65th British Academy Film Awards, the film won seven awards, including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards, the film won three.

           ‘The King’s Speech’ won in the Best Picture category at the 83rd Academy Awards. It is an extraordinary period film, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham-Carter.

            The film depicts the early years of Prince Albert (Duke of York), the man who would be King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The movie follows his struggle with a severe speech impediment that kept him from carrying out public speaking engagements. His wife Elizabeth, Duchess of York (Bonham-Carter), enlists the services of a failed Australian actor turned speech therapist Lionel Logue (Rush) to help her husband. Logue’s unconventional methods do indeed begin to make some progress.

            At the Academy Awards, ‘The King’s Speech’ won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director (Hooper), Best Actor (Firth), and Best Original Screenplay (Seidler). The film had received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year.

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            ‘The Hurt Locker’ is an American war movie, released in 2008. The movie is set in the second year of the Iraq War.

            Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the movie chronicles the lives of three US soldiers in Iraq: Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner), Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).

            The trio makes up an Iraq war explosive ordnance disposal team, basically a bomb squad. The movie does not address the ever-controversial politics of the war, instead focusing on the day-to-day lives of the characters.

            For the film, Bigelow sought to immerse audiences into something clearly realistic and raw. It was nominated in nine categories at the 82nd Academy Awards, and won in six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original, Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing.

            Kathryn Bigelow also became the first female director to win Best Director.

            ‘The Hurt Locker’ received universal acclaim, with Jeremy Renner’s performance receiving praise from critics.

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            ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is a British dramatic film, released in 2008. The movie was directed by Danny Boyle. Set and filmed in India, the movie was loosely based on the novel ‘Q & A’ by Vikas Swarup. It’s a Western movie made in Mumbai. It does, however, have several references to Indian culture and Bollywood movies.

            The movie tells the story of Jamal Malik who is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees on the Indian version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’. There’s just one problem: he is living in a slum and working at a minimum wage job, and nobody can see how he knew any of the answers. As they go through each question, he shows how events in his childhood and life contributed to his knowing almost every single one.

            The movie won eight out of ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Best Picture and Best Director. Composer A.R. Rahman collected two Oscars for original score and original song. Gulzar shared the award with A. R Rahman for original song. Resul Pookutty also won the Oscars for Best Sound Mixing, along with Richard Pryke, and Ian Tapp

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            ‘No Country for Old Men’ is unique among the Academy Award winning movies. The movie was based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy. It was written and directed by the Coen Brothers.

             When a Vietnam veteran discovers two million dollars while wandering through the aftermath of a Texas drug gone horribly awry, his decision to abscond with the cash sets off a violent chain reaction in a stripped-down crime drama from Joel and Ethan Coen.

             The film was honoured with numerous awards: it received three British Academy of Film awards, two Golden Globes, and Academy Awards for Best Picture (Ethan and Joel Coen), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (the Coen brothers), and Best Supporting Actor (Bardem). Many regard it as a masterpiece, as well as one of the classics.

            The American Film Institute listed it as an AFI Movie of the year, and the National Board of Review selected the film as the best of 2007.

            ‘The Departed,’ is a 2006 American crime-thriller film and remake of the 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller ‘Infernal Affairs’. ‘The Departed’ was directed by Martin Scorsese, written by William Monahan, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nichoson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin.

             This tense action thriller is set in Boston, Massachusetts, where notorious Irish kingpin Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) takes neighbourhood boy Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) under his wing. He grooms him to be his informant within the Massachusetts State Police. Colin rises through the rank and file to get himself placed on an investigation unit that is working to bring down Costello. At the same time, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is seeking to become a cop, despite the fact that he comes from a family that has a very disreputable past, and numerous ties to organized crime. Considering his background, he is recruited to go undercover to infiltrate Costello’s crew.

             The film was nominated for five Academy Awards of which it won four; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

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            ‘Crash’ is a 2004 movie. This ensemble piece, directed by Paul Haggis, addresses racism affecting the lives of several Los Angelenos as they interact over several days time. The incident that begins it all is the carjacking of a couple, the Cabots, by two Afro-American carjackers, Anthony and Peter.

            ‘Crash’ was inspired by a real life incident, which was faced by the director himself. The story is narrated as two days in the life of its characters, and the stories are interwoven. The film deals with racism in a rather impartial way.

             The film features Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito and William Fichtner. ‘Crash’ was nominated for six awards at the 78th Academy Awards and won three, including the win for Best picture.

            ‘Crash’ was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and the other for Best Screenplay (Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco).

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              ‘Million Dollar Baby’ is an American sports-drama film directed, co-produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood. This 2004 film tells the story of Margaret Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) a down and out waitress, striving for a better life.

               She shows keen interest in learning boxing. The first portion of the movie deals with Margaret training herself at the Hit Pit, trying to get Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) to train her into becoming a credible boxer. She eventually succeeds, and is able to get Frankie and another trainer, and former boxer Eddie Dupris (Morgan Freeman) to warm up to her. After a good deal of training, she enters into the world of professional women’s boxing and becomes a remarkable fighter. Eventually, the movie takes a turn for the worse.

             The movie received the award for Best Picture at the 77th Academy Awards. Clint Eastwood was awarded his second Best Director Oscar for the film. Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman received Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscars, respectively.

               Joel Cox, Eastwood’s editor for many years, was nominated for Best Film Editing, and Paul Haggis was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay award.

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            ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is an adaptation of J. R. R Tolkien’s extraordinary novel by the same name into three films (directed by Peter Jackson). The movies were filmed together, and released one year after the other, from 2001-2003.

            The films are subtitled ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ (2001), ‘The Two Towers’ (2002) and ‘The Return of the King’ (2003). The films were remarkably faithful to the novel in many respects, though several changes were made, due to the many factors involved with adapting such a great work.

                The films were critically acclaimed and awarded widely, winning 17 out of 30 total Academy Award nominations. The final film in the series, ‘The Return of the King’, won all 11 of its Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, which also tied it with ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘Titanic’ for most Academy Awards received for a film. Peter Jackson also directed three films based on Tolkien’s earlier 1937 novel ‘The Hobbit’.

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     ‘Chicago’ is a 2002 film based musical. The movie was directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall and adapted by screenwriter Bill Concdon. The film stars Renee Zeliweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

       The movie is a satire of celebrity trials, the press, and show business in general. It is the story of Roxie Hart (Renee Zeliweger), a wannabe star in Chicago, who is sent to jail on murder charges. She builds a rivalry with the star Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the jail, who is also there for killing her husband and own sister. Roxie, through bribing the prison warden, Mama Morton, gets the best lawyer in town, Billy Flynn.

      Billy is a smooth-talking trickster who has never lost a case. As tensions mount and the media make Roxie a star, fame begins to get to Roxie’s head.

     The music was composed by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb. ‘Chicago’ won six Academy Awards in 2003, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress. The film was critically lauded, and was the first musical to win Best Picture since ‘Oliver!’ in 1968.

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       Academy Award winning movie, ‘A beautiful Mind’ was released in the year 2001.1t is a movie based on the life of John Forbes Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard. The story was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar.

      The movie tells the story of a genius mathematician called Nash whose mind, though of enormous service to humanity, turns him into a mentally ill person with frightening delusions at the same time. The movie stars Russell Crowe as Nash, and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Alicia, who is pregnant with their child when the first symptoms of his disease become apparent.

     Crowe gave his best in portraying Nash, who descends into madness and then, unexpectedly, regains the ability to function in the academic world.

      This extraordinary movie won four Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress.

            ‘Gladiator’, is an epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott. It was written by David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson.

            The movie is about General Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe), who is named heir to the ailing Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). The story takes a turn as Meridius is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, murders his father and seizes the throne. Meridius is minimized into a mere slave. Later, the movie shows how Meridius fights for his life and freedom in order to avenge the murder of his family. The movie follows the events of Roman history in the latter half of the 2nd century AD.

           The film won multiple awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Russell Crowe, and three other Oscars at the 73rd Academy Awards.

          The film received favourable reviews from critics, and grossed 457 million US dollars worldwide, making it the second highest grossing film of 2000.

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            ‘American Beauty’ won in the Best Picture category at the 72nd Academy Awards. It is an American drama-comedy film. It was the breakout film for writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes.

            The movie was widely acclaimed by many, even though it got negative reviews too. Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham portrays the character of a 42 year old advertising executive who gets attracted to a teenager.

            The story concerns his midlife crisis, and efforts to find happiness. Kevin Spacey won his second Oscar for his performance in this movie.

            The film is described by academics as a satire on American middle-class notions of beauty and personal satisfaction. The movie follows a traditional narrative.

            ‘American Beauty’ won five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

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          ‘Shakespeare in Love’, is a 1998 fictional romantic comedy that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

          The movie directed by John Madden, was written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard.

         The story is about the fictional love affair between William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), an aspiring playwright who works for a theatre that badly needs money, and Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow).

         The story happens in the background of Shakespeare working on his famous piece ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

        ‘Shakespeare in Love’ is set in late Elizabethan England. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), and Best Original Screenplay.

         In 2005, the Writers Guild of America ranked its script the 28th greatest ever written.

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          The Award winning movie ‘Titanic’ was released in the year 1997. This gem of a movie was directed written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron

          The story is a fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Cameron’s inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks. For him, the RMS Titanic was the ‘Mount Everest of shipwrecks’.

         ‘Titanic’ tells the story, in flashback, of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet). They both belong to different social classes, and fall in love during their ill-fated Titanic voyage.

         This movie won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and boosted the careers of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The film was released in theatres on December 19th, 1997, and stayed in the theatre for nearly an entire, year, not ending its run in the cinemas until October 1st, 1998.

          ‘Titanic’ won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. 

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          ‘The English Patient’ won in the Best Picture category at the 69th Academy Awards. It is a British-American film, directed by Anthony Minghella. It stars Juliette Binoche as Hana, and Ralph Fiennes as ‘The English Patient’.

          The movie was based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Canadian author Michael Ondaatje. The highly successful movie was produced by Saul Zaentz.

          The movie plot, set in the years before and during World War II, opens in an abandoned villa in Italy. It tells the story of Hana, a Canadian army nurse, who cares for a man referred to as the English patient. He refuses to reveal his identity, but his speech and mannerisms indicate that he is an Englishman.

          The film was released to critical acclaim, and received 12 nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, eventually winning nine, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. The British Film Institute ranked ‘The English Patient’ the 55th greatest British film of the 20th century.

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          ‘Braveheart’ won the Best Picture title at the 68th Academy Awards. The film, directed, produced, and starred by Mel Gibson, was written by Randall Wallace.

          The story was inspired by Blind Harry’s epic poem ‘The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace’. ‘Braveheart’ tells the extremely fictionalized story of the legendary Scottish rebel William Wallace, and his rebellion against King Edward Longshanks of England, in which he battled for the freedom of Scotland.

        ‘Braveheart’ was nominated for ten Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards, and won five: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Editing. The major battle scenes were shot in Ireland, using members of the Irish Army Reserve as extras. Critics especially praised the massively scaled and extravagantly violent battle scenes.

       The music score was composed and conducted by James Horner. The score has gone on to be one of the most commercially successful soundtracks of all time.

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          ‘Forrest Gump’, is a 1994 film starring Torn Hanks, and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is based on the best-selling 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film differs substantially from the novel, including the lead character’s personality, and several events that were depicted.

          The story depicts several decades in the life of its lead character Forrest Gump (Hanks), a simple-minded and athletically prodigious man from Alabama. The story begins with Gump telling his life story to other people while waiting at a bus stop. As the story continues, you find Forrest touching important events and people from the 1950s to the 1980s (ranging from Elvis Presley to several Presidents of the US), rising to his own measure of fame and fortune in the process, mostly by just being himself.

        The movie had thirteen nominations at the Academy Awards and won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. Winston Groom published a sequel to the original novel, ‘Gump & Co.,’ in 1995.

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         ‘Schindler’s List’ is a 1993 historical film. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, and Branko Lustig, and written by Steven Zaillian.

          The film features music composed by John Williams, and it was shot almost entirely in black and white.

          The movie is based on the novel ‘Schindler’s Ark’, by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film relates to a period in the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman.

          The movie is set during World War II, and is about the horrors of the holocaust in which millions of Jews were murdered. It relates how Schindler rescues over 1100 Jews from the Nazi concentration camps of World War II.

          At the beginning of the film, Schindler just wants money. By the end, he has turned his heart to saving all the Jews that he has employed. The film finishes on a powerful note.

               The movie won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Editing, and Best Art Direction.

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          ‘Unforgiven’ is a film produced, directed, and starred by Clint Eastwood and written by David Webb Peoples. Eastwood plays a weakened, once violent, but reformed gunfighter – and an aging pig farmer. The story is in fact, a violent tale of retribution in the lead character’s life. The film also stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris.

          The film won four Academy Awards (and was nominated for five others), garnering Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman and Best Film Editing for Joel Cox.

         A Japanese remake starring Ken Watanabe was released in September of 2013.

        ‘Unforgiven’, was added to the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

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          ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ won in the Best Picture category at the 64th Academy Awards. This horror-thriller film was directed by Jonathan Demme. The movie starred Jodie Foster as Clarice and Anthony Hopkins in a career-defining performance as Lecter. The film became the third, and to this day, the last film ever to win all five major Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

          The screenplay was written by Ted Tally, based on Thomas Harris’s 1988 best-selling novel of the same name. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ was one of the most successful and widely popular films of the modern era, blending the merits of detective thriller and art film.

         It was released on 30th January 1991, and grossed 272.7 million US dollars world-wide. It is also the only Best Picture winner considered to be a horror film till date, and the third such film to be nominated in the category, after ‘The Exorcist’, and ‘Jaws’.

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          ‘Dances with Wolves’, is a 1990 epic film. The movie starred Kevin Costner, who was widely appreciated for his performance.

          ‘Dances With Wolves’ was honoured with twelve nominations, and seven Oscar wins – Best Picture (Costner), Best Director (for Costner’s directorial debut film), Best Adapted Screenplay (Michael Blake), Best Cinematography (Dean Semler), Best Sound, Best Original Score (John Barry), and Best Film Editing. It also received the Golden Globe Award for best drama.

         The movie was adapted from the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake. It was the saga of a Civil War Union officer, Lt. John J. Dunbar, who travels to the American frontier to find a military post.

          Much of the dialogue is spoken in Lakota with English subtitles. ‘Dances With Wolves’ won a number of additional awards, making it one of the most honoured films of 1990.

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          ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ is a 1989 American film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Alfred Uhry, based on Uhry’s play of the same name. The film stars Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, and Dan Aykroyd.

          The movie shows 25 years in the life of an elderly Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan, and her chauffeur, Hoke Colburn. He’s hired by her son, Boolie, when she can no longer drive herself. At first, Miss Daisy objects to the changes in her life. But eventually, the two transcend their differences to become lifelong friends.

          At the 62nd Academy Awards, ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ received nine nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Tandy), Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

         At the age of 81, Jessica Tandy became the oldest actress to win an Academy Award. The movie was well received by critics, with particular emphasis on Morgan Freeman’s and Jessica Tandy’s performances.

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           ‘Rain Man’ is a road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. This Oscar-winning film stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. The main character is loosely based around real-life autistic savant Kim Peek.

          The movie tells the story of Charlie Babbitt (Cruise), a self-centred, spoilt brat. On the death of his father, Charlie doesn’t receive the huge inheritance he was expecting. This offends Charlie, who is used to a luxurious life-style. Moreover, Charlie finds that the money is being sent to a mental institution in Cincinnati. It’s only when he visits the hospital that Charlie finds the truth: the money is going to his previously unknown brother Raymond, who has severe autism. The story takes a turn from there.

          The film won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman.

          Its crew received an additional four nominations. Apart from all this, Hoffman’s performance as an autistic man is immensely lauded even after years.

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               ‘The Last Emperor’, directed by Bernordo Bertolucci, was the biopic of Pu Yi (the last emperor of China). The screenplay was written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. The movie, based on Pu Yi’s autobiography, tells how he ascended to the throne at the age of three. In his brief reign, he was confined to the Forbidden City, not knowing of the world of his people. He was forced to renounce his throne at the age of nine. Pu Yi leads the rest of his life in desolation and impoverishment. After serving as the ruler of a Japanese puppet government of China during World War II, he becomes a political prisoner of the Soviets and then of the Communist Chinese.

               This was the first Western feature film authorized by the People’s Republic of China to film in the Forbidden City in Beijing. At the 60th Academy Awards, the film won all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Picture and Best Director.

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                ‘Platoon’ is a magnificent war film written and directed by Oliver Stone, based on his experiences as an American soldier in the Vietnam War. It was released in 1986, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won Best Director for Oliver Stone, as well as Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing. This is also Oliver Stone’s first film about the war, followed by ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ and ‘Heaven & Earth’. These three films are often said to form a trilogy.

                The film, which follows a new recruit named Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) being at war in the deadly jungles, takes a frank look at the toll the war took on the men that fought, lived, and died in the jungle. The main conflict is the murder of innocent civilians causing a rift in the platoon while Chris tries to find the correct thing to do in a war with ambiguous morals.

                The movie is considered one of the most realistic war movies ever made, as Oliver Stone could successfully bring this film to the screen with an extreme amount of power. He could explore the war on many levels.

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               ‘Out of Africa’ was the movie that won in the Best Picture category at the 58th Academy Awards. The film was directed and produced by Sydney Pollack, and starred Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The movie was based on the auto-biographical novel by Isak Dinesen, the pen name of Danish writer Karen Blixen. It tells of Blixen’s time in the Kenyan highlands in the years before, during, and after World War I.

               The book was adapted into a screenplay by the writer Kurt Luedtke. Streep played Karen Blixen; Redford played Denys Finch Hatton; and Klaus Maria Brandauer played Baron Bror Blixen. The movie is taken from the perspective of Karen Blixen.

               The movie was shot in many of the real places mentioned in the book, like the Ngong hills, and Nairobi. It received eleven Academy Award nominations, and won seven of them including- Best Picture and Best Director. The music for ‘Out of Africa’ was composed by John Barry, who won an Oscar for his work.

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               ‘Amadeus’ is a 1984 American period drama film directed by Milos Forman, and adapted by with eight Oscars, including Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Director, and Best Peter Shaffer from his stage play of the same name. The film dominated the Academy Awards Adapted Screenplay. It also won four BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, and a Directors Guild of America (DGA) award. The American Film Institute ranked ‘Amadeus’ 53rd on its ‘100 Years, 100 Movies list’.

               The story, set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, is a fictionalized biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The story is told from the point of view of Antonio Salieri, the court composer for Emperor Joseph II. A devout and serious man, Salieri’s faith is shaken when he meets Mozart. Though Mozart is shown as a quite immature-easy-going kind of young man, his musical talents win the affections of the court while simultaneously moving and infuriating Salieri.

               ‘Terms of Endearment’ is a remarkable movie. The movie is based on the 1975 novel by Larry McMurtry. It is a feel-good kind of drama film directed by James L. Brooks. The movie had an all star cast, headed by Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine in their Oscar-winning roles. The film went on to get eleven nominations at the Academy Awards, and won five, including Best Picture. In addition, it won four Golden Globes.

               The movie tells the story of a mother-Aurora Greenway MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger), who have grown apart over the years. Aurora has found herself with a string of suitors, most notably retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Nicholson), while Emma too has a busy and tense married life. The plot takes a turn when Emma is diagnosed with cancer.

               McMurtry published a sequel to the original novel, ‘The Evening Star’, in 1992. This was itself adapted into a film four years later, with MacLaine and Nicholson reprising their roles.

               Gandhi,’ is a 1982 epic movie directed by Richard Attenborough. It is the biopic of Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi, aka Mahatma Gandhi. The role was played by Ben Kingsley. Its story concerns Gandhi as he leads the non-violent fight for India’s independence from the British Empire.

               The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director for Attenborough, Best Actor for Kingsley, and five other Oscars. It holds the record for biggest cast, having around 300,000 people including extras.

               The story starts in 1948, with Gandhi being assassinated. We then see a flashback to Gandhi as a 24-year-old lawyer in South Africa in 1893. Gandhi becomes an activist, agitating for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa.

               After 20 years in South Africa, he returns to India to find himself a hero. He joins the Congress Party campaign for Indian home rule, and eventually becomes its leader, spending thirty years battling the British before finally winning Indian independence.

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               ‘Chariots of Fire’ is a 1981 British movie directed by Hugh Hudson, starring Ben Cross and Ian Charleson. The film was conceived and produced by David Puttnam, and written by Colin Welland. The film is based on real life track and field athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, both of whom competed for Britain in the 1924 Olympic Games.

               It is also a movie about British class distinctions in the years after World War I. This is showed through the lead characters-Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, who is an English Jew, who runs to overcome prejudice.

               ‘Chariots of Fire’ was very successful at the 54th Academy Awards, winning four of seven nominations: Best Picture, Original Screenplay (Colin Welland), Costume Design (Milena Canonero), and Original Score (Vangelis). It is ranked 19th in the British Film Institute’s list of Top 100 British films. The film is also notable for its memorable electronic theme tune by Vangelis.

               The film’s title was inspired by the line, ‘Bring me my chariot of fire’; from the William Blake poem adapted into the popular British hymn ‘Jerusalem’.

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             ‘Ordinary People’ is a 1980 film that marked the directorial debut of actor Robert Redford. The movie won in the Best Picture category at the 53rd Academy Awards. The film stars Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton.

               It is an intimate domestic drama, and a deeply moving story about the dilemma of a suburban family. The movie mainly focuses on the life of a teenager in the family-Conrad Jarrett, who lives under a cloud of guilt after his brother drowns while trying to rescue him from a suicide attempt. Even after many therapy sessions the boy does not absolve himself, nor do his preoccupied parents offer him much solace.

               The film won four Academy Awards, including the Best Picture. The movie brought an Oscar for director Robert Redford, the actor, in his first attempt at directing; Timothy Hutton as supporting actor, and Alvin Sargent for his screenplay.

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             Adapted from the novel by Avery Carman, ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ tells the story of Ted Kramer, a workaholic who is not really involved in the domestic life of his wife Joanna, and their 6-year-old son Billy.

             The story takes an unexpected turn when Joanna leaves the house one day, forcing Kramer to take care of all the household work alone. A year and a half pass before she finally returns to claim Billy. Then, an emotional custody battle ensues. ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ reflected a cultural shift which occurred during the 1970s, when ideas about motherhood and fatherhood were changing in western society.

              The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning five. The film earned Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep their first Oscars for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

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             ‘The Deer Hunter’ is a 1978 epic war film. The movie was directed, co-written, and co-produced by Michael Cimino. It was Cimino’s second film. The movie stars Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken and John Savage. The movie is a powerful, disturbing and compelling look at the Vietnam War.

               The movie is about three friends from a Pennsylvania steel town – Nick, Michael and Steven, who get enlisted to fight in Vietnam, just as Steven weds his girlfriend, Angela. To celebrate their last days of freedom, they go deer hunting.

               Once they go to war, things become a nightmare for them. They get imprisoned by their enemies. Later, the movie shows how the trio escapes from their captors, but cannot escape the consequences of the war.

               ‘The Deer Hunter’ received nine Academy Award nominations, and won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and for Christopher Walken as Best Supporting Actor.

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               ‘Annie Hall’, an American romantic comedy film directed by Woody Allen, received the Best Picture Oscars at the 50th Academy Awards. It was one of Allen’s most popular films. Allen had previously been known as a maker of zany comedies; the director has described Annie Hall as a major turning point. This break-through film came after Allen’s five earlier light-hearted comedies (from 1969-1975).

               The script was co-written with Marshall Brickman. ‘Annie Hall’ clearly has semi-autobiographical elements. The movie stars Woody Allen as Alvy Max Singer, and Diane Keaton as Annie Hall. The movie tells the story of a stand-up comedian, whose unstable love affair with aspiring singer Annie Hall begins to disintegrate when she moves to Los Angeles to discover herself and begin a new life.

               The film received widespread critical acclaim, and along with winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, it received Oscars in three other categories: two for Allen (Best Director and, with Brickman, Best Original Screenplay), and Best Actress for Keaton.

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               ‘Rocky’ is a 1976 American sports drama film, directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by, and starring Sylvester Stallone.

               It tells the rags to riches American dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind hearted working class Italian American boxer. He lives on the streets of Philadelphia, making money as a collector for a loan shark, and by boxing in clubs as ‘the Italian Stallion’.

               However, everything changes for Rocky when reigning world heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed suddenly has to find a replacement opponent for his next bout on short notice. Apollo decides to give the exhibition match to a local underdog as a publicity stunt, and picks Rocky.

               ‘Rocky’ was the highest-grossing film of 1976. The film was nominated for ten Oscars and won three: Best Picture, Director and Editing. Stallone was nominated for both Best Actor and Best Screenplay.

               The film has spawned six sequels: ‘Rocky II’ (1979), ‘Rocky Ill’ (1982), ‘Rocky IV’ (1985), ‘Rocky V’ (1990), ‘Rocky Balboa’ (2006), and ‘Creed’ (2015), the last a spin-off about Apollo Creed’s son.

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               The film, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ won in the Best Picture category at the 48th Academy Awards. It is a movie co-produced by Michael Douglas, directed by Milos Forman, and starring Jack Nicholson as McMurphy, and Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched. it is loosely based on the 1962 novel by Ken Kesey.

               ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is one of the greatest American films of all time. It takes place in an asylum for the insane, run by Nurse Ratched, who rules over the patients with an iron fist. She has so much power over them that no one dares to stand up to her, until one day when a confident Randle Patrick McMurphy swaggers into the ward. Things are never the same again.

               This is one of a small number of films to sweep the “Big Five” major Academy Awards-Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. In 1993, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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              ‘The Godfather Part II’ is a 1974, American crime film, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo, starring AI Pacino and Robert De Niro. It is the sequel of ‘The Godfather’. Many critics believe this film sequel is a superior improvement over the original film. ‘The Godfather Partin’, a further sequel, was released in 1990.

              The movie’s plot is a continuation of the first part, basically revolving around the infamous mafia family, the Corleone family. ‘The Godfather’ series are among the highly influential films of all time, especially in the gangster genre.

              The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Original Dramatic Score. In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 32nd greatest film in American film history. It was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1993, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

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             ‘The Sting’ was a 1973 movie that won the Best Picture award at the 46th Academy Awards. It is undoubtedly considered as one of the movies that can be enjoyed by all categories of viewers. The movie was directed by George Roy Hill, and stars Robert Redford and Paul Newman. It was interesting that George Hill had already done another successful movie with this star duo.

              Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life cons. Set in 1936 Chicago, the film tells the story of novice con (a grafter) Johnny Hooker, along with Joe Erie and Hooker’s mentor, Luther Coleman, as they pull off their latest sting operation.

             The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It is also one of the biggest box office hits of all-time. When adjusted for inflation, it currently sits as the 19th best domestic earner of all time. Once, the Supreme Court of India even referenced the movie ‘Sting’ in a judgement involving a sting operation.

              ‘The Godfather’ is a series three films about the fictional Corleone family, an infamous mafia family. The movie was based on Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel of the same name. The first movie came out in 1972. It was followed by ‘The Godfather Part in 1974, and ‘The Godfather Part Ill’ in 1990. Francis Ford Coppola, directed the films, and scripted them with Puzo.

               The story, spanning 1945 to 1955, chronicles the family under the patriarch Vito Corleone, focusing on the transformation of Michael Corleone from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss. The first two films are widely considered to be among the greatest films of all time and the flagship of the New Hollywood, due to being the first film to portray gangsters with lots of deep analysis and drama.

               ‘The Godfather’ was nominated for nine Academy Awards. The movie won three of its nominations: Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. The movie was also nominated for seven awards at the 30th Golden Globe Awards. It won the categories for: Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor – Drama, Best Original Score, and Best Picture – Drama. ‘The Godfather’ won a record five Golden Globes, which was not surpassed until 2017.

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               ‘The French Connection’ is the movie that won the Best Picture Oscar at the 44th Academy Awards. The movie is a crime thriller directed by William Friedkin, written by Ernest Tidyman and produced by Phillip D’Antoni.

               The movie’s plot is based on a true story. It tells the tale of New York City cop Jimmy Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Cloudy Russo (Roy Scheider).

               The film’s script was adapted from Robin Moore’s best-selling book of the same name about the ruthless, real-life adventures of two special narcotics squad officers Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. To keep up the authenticity, the movie was mainly shot in New York City itself.

               The movie had a total of eight nominations at the Academy Awards. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Friedkin, and Best Actor for Hackman. It also won for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

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               ‘Patton’ was the movie that won in the Best Picture category at the 43rd Academy Awards. ‘Patton’ was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, and written by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. It was based on the life of General George S. Patton. The movie stars George C. Scott in his most iconic role as the General.

               The film concerns Patton as he leads the American forces during World War II. On the battlefield, he is a competent commander, respected by both sides. Off the battlefield, Patton is full of ego, and has a volatile temperament.

               The film received ten Academy Awards nominations and won seven major awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. When Scott’s performance won him an Oscar for Best Actor, he famously refused to accept it. He cited a dislike of the voting process and the concept of acting competitions.

               ‘Patton’ was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

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               ‘Midnight Cowboy’ is a 1969 American drama film. The film was adapted from the novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

               The movie tells the story of Joe Buck, a dishwasher in a rural Texas diner. One day, Buck decides to dress like a rodeo cowboy and move to New York City with socially inappropriate intentions. The movie received a lot of criticism due its bold and indecorous content. However, it is now seen as one of the defining movies of its era.

               The film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1994, the film was deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. John Barry, who supervised the music, and composed the score, won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme.

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               The movie ‘Oliver!’ that won the Best Picture award at the 41st Academy Awards was an adaptation of a novel. It was astonishing when Charles Dickens’ famous novel ‘Oliver Twist’, was made into a big-budget musical film, directed by Sir Carol Reed.

               The extraordinary screenplay was written by Vernon Harris. The film includes such musical numbers as ‘Food, Glorious Food’, ‘Consider Yourself’, ‘As Long as He Needs Me’, ‘You have Got to Pick a Pocket or Two’, and ‘Where Is Love?’ The music and lyrics were contributions of Lionel Bart.

               The movie was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, and won six, including Best Picture, Best Director for Reed, and an Honorary Award for choreographer Onna White. ‘Oliver!’ was the last movie musical to win the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year until ‘Chicago’ thirty-four years later. The British Film Institute ranked ‘Oliver!’ the 77th greatest British film of the 20th century.

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               ‘In the Heat of the Night’ is a mystery drama film, adapted from a 1965 novel of the same name by John Ball. It was directed by Norman Jewison. It stars Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, and was produced by Walter Mirisch. The screenplay was by Stirling Silliphant.

               The movie is about Philadelphian Virgil Tibbs, who gets arrested on suspicion of the murder of a factory owner in Sparta, Mississippi, due to the simple circumstance of being black, and having money in his pocket.

               However, while the police are questioning him, he reveals that he is, in fact, a police officer himself. When he has Police Chief Bill Gillespie contact his department for verification, he is told by his superiors that he should assist the locals in solving the case, partnering with the same, casually racist Gillespie.

               ‘In the Heat of the Night’ received seven Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Picture, Actor (Steiger), Editing (Hal Ashby), Adapted Screenplay, and Sound.

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               ‘A Man for All Seasons’, a British biographical drama film based on Robert Bolt’s play of the same name, is the film that won at the 39th Academy Awards. The film and play both depict the final years of Sir Thomas More, the 16th century Lord Chancellor of England who refused to take an oath of supremacy declaring King Henry VIII supreme head of the Church of England.

               The screenplay, well adapted by Robert Bolt himself, is intelligent.  It was directed by the already very famous Fred Zinnemann. The movie won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Paul Scofield).

               In 1995, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of cinema, the Vatican listed it among the greatest movies of all time. In 1999, the British Film Institute named ‘A Man for All Seasons’ the 43rd greatest British film of all time. In 2008, it came 106th on Empire magazine’s ‘500 Greatest Movies of All Time’ list.

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               The two top 1965 films in the Best Picture Oscars race were ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Doctor Zhivago’. Both the movies had ten nominations each, and also won five Oscars respectively. ‘The Sound of Music’ won Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise), Best Musical Score, Best Editing, and Best Sound Recording.

               The movie was adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical. It was the real life story of a spirited postulant Maria, who left Austria’s Nonnberg Abbey, and became governess to seven motherless Von Trapp children. She eventually helped to lead the singing family out of Nazi-occupied Austria to Switzerland

               ‘The Sound of Music’ was a successful film at the time of its release. The movie also topped ‘Gone with the Wind’ as the most money-grossing film to date – thereby saving its studio, 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy.

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               ‘My Fair Lady’ is a 1964 musical film from Warner Bros., adapted from the popular play of the same name. ‘My Fair Lady’ stars Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins. The film was very well received, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.

               The exquisite picture is extraordinary-and is a unique gem of filmmaking. The screenplay was written by Alan Jay Lerner and the movie was directed by George Cukor. Cukor and Lerner have not done the conventional treatment of a stage play made into a movie, i.e., erratically moving scenes outdoors for greater playing area, or into bigger settings than the stage could manage.

               The film depicts Eliza’s transformation from a poor flower seller to a proper lady, as she takes speech lessons from Professor Higgins. In 1998, the American Film Institute named this movie the 91st greatest American film of all time.

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             The smash hit period comedy, ‘Tom Jones!’ (1963), winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture was based on Henry Fielding’s classic novel – ‘The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling’ (1749).The screenplay was adapted by playwright John Osborne.

               The movie stars Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards. The film was directed by Tony Richardson.

               The movie tells the story of Tom Jones, a country boy living in England. Over the course of the film, Jones tries to amass his own fortune, and win the heart of Sophie.

               ‘Tom Jones!’ is the only film in the history of the Academy in which three actresses were nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

               However, all three nominations were unsuccessful.

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              ‘You Can’t Take it with you’ the second Oscar-winning comedy after ‘It Happened One Night’ was also directed by Frank Capra. Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the film is about a man from a family of rich snobs who became engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family.

              The movie stars Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart and Edward Arnold. The film received two Academy Awards from seven nominations, Best Picture and Best Director, for Frank Capra. This was Capra’s third Oscar for Best Director in just five years, following ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934) and ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’ (1936). It was also the highest-grossing picture of the year.

              The 11th Academy Awards were held on 23rd February 1939. It was also the first ceremony in which a foreign language film, Jean Renoir’s ‘Grand Illusion’ was nominated for Best Picture.

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            The Tenth Academy Award, winning movie – ‘The Life of Emile Zola’ was a biopic based on the life of the famous French writer Emile Zola. It is the second Best Picture winner in a row to go to a biopic, although this film couldn’t be more different than ‘The Great Ziegfeld’.

            This biographical film opens with French novelist Emile Zola starving in an attic room. After struggling to establish himself, Zola wins success writing about the unsavory side of Paris. He is able to achieve both fame and fortune with the publication of Nana, an unadorned tale of a woman. The film stars Paul Muni as Zola, and is directed by William Dieterle.

           ‘The Life of Emile Zola’, was nominated for ten Oscars, which was then a record. It won three, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Joseph Schildkraut. Unlike many of the winners in the first decade of the Oscars’ existence, it has retained its critical acclaim, and was inducted into the US National Film Registry.

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             ‘The Great Ziegfeld’ won three Academy Awards in the year 1936, including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Dance Direction. It was nominated for four other awards. The film was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and produced by Hunt Stromberg. The movie stars William Powell, Luise Rainer, and Myrna Loy.

               It is a biopic about Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. Broadway theatre’s most famous producer of his time. From humble beginnings, Ziegfeld reaches the heights of success, producing hit show after hit show, and staging the famous Ziegfeld Follies.

               The screenplay by William Anthony McGuire, was a “novelty” to the audience. The film was shot at MGM Studios in Culver City, California, mostly in the latter half of 1935. At the time of its release, the movie was acclaimed as the greatest musical biography to be made in Hollywood.

            ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ won in the Best Picture category at the 8th Academy Awards ceremony. It is one of the best adventure films of all time.

             The rousing, 18th century story of the Bounty’s mutiny, directed by Frank Lloyd, was adapted from the first two volumes of the novel ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ written by Charles Nordhoff-James and Norman Hall.

            ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ stars Charles Laughton and Clark Gable. The film was one of the biggest hits of its time. The film actually portrays the historical case of the Tahiti- bound British naval vessel HMS Bounty that suffered a famous mutiny in 1789 against its iron-fisted, sadistic commander Captain Bligh.

            The 8th Academy Awards were held on March 5th, 1936, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. This was the first year in which the gold statuettes were called “Oscars”.

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           Frank Capra’s movie ‘It Happened One Night’ is a romantic comedy. The film dominated and swept all major categories of the Academy Awards – Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay, in the year 1934.

            Adapted by Robert Riskin from a short story called ‘Night Bus’, the movie revolves around the unlikely romance between a spoiled socialite, Claudette Colbert travelling on a bus after running out on her wedding, and a reporter, Clark Gable on the hunt for a good story.

            The film illustrated that even a wealthy heiress could find happiness and adventure on the road among common folk. The film, composed mostly of a road trip by the couple, contains some of the most classic scenes ever made.

            It was the first time in Academy history that both male and female leads, Gable and Colbert, from the same film, won the top award for acting.

              ‘Cavalcade’ which is based on the Noel Coward play of the same name, became the third anti-war movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. The movie was directed by Frank Lloyd. The screenplay was written by Reginald Berkeley and Sonya Levien. The film stars Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook.

               ‘Cavalcade’ won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Frank Lloyd won the Academy Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award for Best Art Direction went to William S. Darling. Diana Wynyard was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress but lost to Katharine Hepburn for ‘Morning Glory’.

               ‘Cavalcade’ tells the story of two upper-middle class British families from 1899 to 1933. Throughout the film, the passage of years is indicated by dates on title cards, with a medieval cavalcade marching in the background.

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          ‘Grand Hotel’ won an Oscar at the Academy Awards in the year 1931-32. It is a classic movie, and an all-star epic with high-powered stars of the early 1930s. This classic movie was directed by Edmund Goulding.

            ‘Grand Hotel’ was nominated only in one category that is Best Picture. To date, it is the only film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated in any other category. William A. Drake’s screenplay was based on his own play adaptation of Vicki Baum’s novel ‘Menschen im Hotel’.

            The film, set in Berlin’s famous Grand Hotel, tells the multiple-narrative story of the crisscrossing of the lives of five guests, whose fates intertwine at the hotel.

            Doctor Otternschlag, a disfigured veteran of World War I and a permanent resident of the hotel, observes, “People coming, going. Nothing ever happens”.

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            ‘Cimarron’ was the first film to receive more than six Academy Awards nominations and nominated for the Big Five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing). Among these, the movie won the Best Picture in the year 1930-31. Although it didn’t win Best Director, it won most of the major non-acting awards. It is, technically, the first film to win ‘Best Picture’ as previously, in the first three years, the award had been termed ‘Best Production’.

            Based on Edna Ferber’s novel, it is about a typical American frontier family, and the rise of Oklahoma to statehood. The movie was directed by Wesley Ruggles.

            ‘Cimarron’ starred Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, and featured Estelle Taylor and Roscoe Ates. Epic in scope, spanning forty years from 1889 to 1929, it was a critical success, although the movie did not regain its production costs during its initial run in 1931.

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               The award for the Best Picture in the year 1929-30, was won by the movie called ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. It was the first major anti-war film of the sound era, faithfully based upon the timeless, best-selling novel by Erich Maria Remarque, who had experienced the war first-hand as a young German soldier.

               The film won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. The other two nominations were Best Writing, and Best Cinematography. It was the first film to win both Best Picture and Best Director, a feat that became common in later years. This movie was directed by Lewis Milestone. The movie stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.

               The film includes a series of scenes that portray the futility of war from the sympathetic point of view of young German soldiers in the trenches during the Great War.

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               ‘The Broadway Melody’ of 1929, establishing an archetype for decades of movie musicals to follow, became the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. The film won the second Academy award in the year 1930. The film was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical.

               ‘The Broadway Melody’ was a substantial success. It was the top grossing picture of 1929. The movie was written by Norman Houston and James Gleason from a story by Edmund Goulding, and directed by Harry Beaumont. Its original music was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, including the popular hit “You Were Meant for Me”.

               ‘The Broadway Melody’, follows the adventures of the Mahoney Sisters, Hank (Bessie Love) and Queenie (Anita Page). Bessie Love was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

               The movie was mainly appreciated by the jazz lovers of Hollywood.

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               William Wellman’s ‘Wings’ was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

               It was a silent movie, which marks an era of heightened melodrama, when filmmaking hadn’t yet fancied itself subtle. The movie was the only fully silent film that won an Academy Award.

               This 1927 war movie, which starred Clara Bow, Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen, was screened at the ceremony, accompanied by a live organ. The film’s background was that of World War I. The movie revolves around two couples, and how their lives are disrupted by World War I.

               The film’s director, William Wellman, was a prominent figure in Hollywood. His two best remembered films are ‘Wings’ and the 1937 version of ‘A Star Is Born’.

               The movie was produced by Lucien Hubbard, and released by Paramount Pictures.

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               The first Academy Awards ceremony was organised on May 16th, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, away from the public eye. It was a very private affair, with only two hundred and seventy people as guests. The awards were given out at a banquet, set up at the hotel’s Blossom Room. The tickets for each of the guests, cost five dollars.

               The first Oscar ceremony comprised of 12 categories, apart from two special honours. The awards were meant to honour people responsible for cinematic achievements in 1927 and 1928. There was very little element of surprise at the first Oscar Awards ceremony, as the names of the winners had already been declared three months earlier. The ceremony ran for just 15 minutes.

               Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards. The Academy has, since 1941, used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners.

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               The Academy Awards, affectionately known as the Oscars are the most coveted awards in the film world. The Oscar ceremony is one of the most awaited events of the year.

               The Academy Awards are a set of 24 awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry, given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), located in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

               The most recognised trophy in the world, the Oscar statuette has stood on the mantels of the greatest film-makers of the world since 1929.

               Winners are chosen from 24 categories that include best picture, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, directing, original screenplay, adapted screenplay, cinematography, production design, editing, original score, original song, costume design, makeup and hair-styling, sound mixing, sound editing, visual effects, foreign-language film, animated feature film, animated short film, live-action short film, documentary feature, and documentary short subject.