The Academy Awards 1929-1930

It's time for my next Academy Award post so lets jump right in to year three of our fabulous award ceremony to the winners and the nominated for 1929-1930.

Production (Picture):
All Quiet On the Western Front (Winner), The Divorcee, The Big House, Disraeli, The Love Parade

Best Actor:
George Arliss in "Disraeli" (Winner), George Arliss in "The Green Goddess", Wallace Beery in "The Big House", Maurice Chevalier in "The Big Pond", Maurice Chevalier in "The Love Parade", Ronald Coleman in "Bulldog Drummond", Ronald Coleman in "Condemned", Lawrence Tibbett in "The Rogue Song"

Best Actor winner George Arliss in a scene from "Disraeli"

Best Actress:

Norma Shearer in "The Divorcee" (Winner), Nancy Carroll in "The Devil's Holiday", Ruth Chatterton in "Sarah and Son", Greta Garbo in "Anna Christie", Greta Garbo in "Romance", Norma Shearer in "Their Own Desire", Gloria Swanson in "The Trespasser"

Norma Shearer receiving her Best Actress Oscar for "The Divorcee" from Conrad Nagel

Director:

Lewis Milestone for "All Quiet On The Western Front" (Winner), Clarence Brown for "Anna Christie", Robert Z. Leonard for "The Divorcee", Ernst Lubitsch for "The Love Parade", King Vidor for "Hallelujah" 

scene from "All Quiet On the Western Front" Best Director (Lew Ayres pictured)

Academy Award 1929-1930 Fun Facts:

This would be the last year that actors would be nominated for more than one role in the Best Actor/Actress category.  Of course in later years when the Best Supporting Actor/Actress was introduced actors were nominated for Best Actor then Best Supporting Actor for different films in the same year.

This was the first year that a film took home Best Picture and the Best Director Oscars.

The Best Picture winner "All Quiet On the Western Front" was very controversial as an Anti War film.  The film was later banned in Germany after Hitler rose to power due to it's portrayal of German soldiers who grow disillusioned with war.

George Arliss was the first British Actor to win an Oscar for his role in "Disraeli" which was also one of the first biographical films released by Warner Bro's.  Arliss plays the 19th Century British Prime Minister, a role he also performed on stage in 1911.  So the Oscar was also the first for a role portrayed on stage then on film.  (I will be doing a post on George Arliss at a later date).

It came as a surprise to the industry and early movie-goers that Norma Shearer won over Greta Garbo who was favored for her gripping portrayal of a waterfront streetwalker in "Anna Christie".  Although Shearer's performance in "The Divorcee" was worthy of a nomination, it's been speculated that she won due to her husband, Irving Thalberg's standing and influence as MGM's Vice President and Production Head.  

This was the first instance when blood relatives won Oscars the same year.  Norma Shearer for Best Actress and her brother Douglas Shearer won for Best Sound (Recording)Engineer for "The Big House".

Another upset was for Best Cinema-photography which everyone assumed would go to Howard Hughes "Hells Angels" (Also Jean Harlow"s first screen appearance).

Another surprising omission was Lew Ayres or any actors nomination for their roles in the Best Picture winner "All Quiet On the Western Front" (I will be doing a post on Lew Ayres in the future).

My Honorable mention goes to Greta Garbo for her role in "Anna Christie" (Who doesn't love her line in that thick German accent "Give me a whiskey and make it a double")

Please enjoy the below clip from the Best Picture winner "All Quiet On the Western Front"

As we gear up for another Oscar season please return for more posts on our early Academy Award winners and nominees as well as my posts covering my collection.
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