A Look Back at the First Academy Awards Ceremony

Left to right: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Mary Pickford

On May 16, 1929, the much beloved Academy Awards held their first ceremony. With the award show now drawing millions worldwide, it's funny to note how low key and small the event was during its first year. Unlike the 86 ceremonies to follow, the first year lacked any of the thrills that the award would develop as time went on. In fact, everyone who showed up to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California already knew the winners. It had been announced three months prior, and this event - with tickets at $5 a head - was merely an excuse to hand out the trophies, which were yet to be called Oscars. With adoring fans waiting outside to motivate the stars, the ceremony took 15 minutes to complete, and it's only become more interesting since.

The Oscar Buzz Celebrates Its Third Anniversary!

Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu

Looks like we've made it through another year. Today marks the third anniversary since the launch of The Oscar Buzz. So much continues to happen in each year that makes me grateful to have this as an outlet. One of the highlights was expanding my coverage to include occasional dives into Oscar history as well as various think pieces that has inspired more frequent audience participation. I hope in the year ahead to achieve the same amount of success, increasing the output along the way. To commemorate this anniversary, I keep true to past years by establishing a theme. This year, I have chosen to tackle the "triple threat." More specifically, I am going to list 20 great films in which there is someone involved who acted, directed, and wrote at least a portion of the script. It's a lot harder than you'd think.

A Few of My Favorite Non-Oscar-Nominated Films By Decade

For those who don't know, today is National Classic Movie Day. Started by Classic Film and TV Cafe, today was started as a grassroots movement to celebrate the classics "from the silents to the seventies." While I have no affiliation with the website or its production today to run several articles as part of its blogathon (more information at link), I have decided to take part in my own way by listing two of my favorite films from each decade. The one catch is that instead of picking the familiar favorites, I am choosing to pick those that haven't been nominated for Oscars, if just to give you a better understanding of who I am as a film fan. So please, check out their writing as well as mine and leave your own favorites in the comment section below.

Birthday Take: Charles Chaplin in "The Great Dictator" (1940)

Charles Chaplin

Welcome to The Birthday Take, a column dedicated to celebrating Oscar nominees and winners' birthdays by paying tribute to the work that got them noticed. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive retrospective, but more of a highlight of one nominated work that makes them noteworthy. The column will run whenever there is a birthday and will hopefully give a dense exploration of the finest performances and techniques applied to film. So please join me as we blow out the candles and dig into the delicious substance.