The first Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1927/28 were held in May 1929. Films under consideration were supposed to be limited to films that opened in Los Angeles between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928 but the Academy’s reminder list included films that although they were still in theatres on August 1, 1927, had opened earlier. Among those films were Stella Dallas and The Gold Rush from 1925, Beau Geste from 1926, and The General from earlier in 1927. By the time of the awards, they still hadn’t gotten it right.

The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927, was excluded from consideration because Academy judges felt that nominating the first partial talkie against all those silent films would give it an unfair advantage. It was given a special award instead. Charlie Chaplin was nominated for Best Actor, Best Comedy Direction and Best Original Story, but his nominations were withdrawn and he, too, was given a special award.

The second Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1928/29 held in November 1929 were supposed to be for films that opened in Los Angeles between August 1, 1928 and July 31, 1929 but alas, there were anomalies that still weren’t quite worked out. Among the films under consideration was Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. which had opened in the Spring of 1928. Street Angel, which had also been released in the Spring of 1928 and like Seventh Heaven was one of three films, along with Sunrise, for which Janet Gaynor had received the first award for Best Actress, was cited for art direction and cinematography.

The third Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1929/30 held in November 1930 found Buster Keaton devotees trying for the third straight year to nominate the actor/director’s films from the previous fiscal year. This time they wanted to nominate The Cameraman which had been released in September 1928. What is most odd about this is that they could have properly advocated for both Steamboat Bill, Jr. and The Cameraman in the two previous years, Steamboat Bill, Jr. instead of The General in 1927/28 and The Cameraman in 1928/29.

The fourth Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1930/31 were held in November 1931 and although there were no anomalies there were two films in contention for major awards that would have been eligible in the previous year if they had opened before November 1, 1930 in Los Angeles as they did in New York. Those films were The Dawn Patrol and Holiday, the first in a long line of films that missed earlier Oscar consideration because of the difference in opening dates between New York and Los Angeles.

The fifth Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1931/32 held in November 1932 offered no anomalies although the Academy records, as noted in Inside Oscar, indicate eligibility for Red Dust which wasn’t released until October 1932. That error has since been fixed.

The sixth Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1932/33 held in March 1934 covers the longest period in Oscar history, from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 after which the awards were given to films that opened in Los Angeles during the calendar year.

Except for All Quiet on the Western Front, which won for Best Picture of 1929/30, there were better choices for that honor in the Academy’s early years. Below are my choices for that honor in those years.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SUNRISE (1927/28), directed by F.W. Murnau

Sunrise did win an award for Best Picture, its award for Best Artistic Quality of Production, originally deemed to be as important as the award for Best Production but Academy records now list Wings which won that award as the year’s sole Best Picture winner. The award that Sunrise won was dropped after the first year. Both films were great in their own way. The superb aerial footage from Wings was used in other films for decades and its antiwar message remains potent, but the lyrical cinematography of Sunrise alone makes it something to treasure even more.

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928/29), directed by G.W. Pabst

The only conceivable reason this film about the trial and execution of the 15th Century saint wasn’t nominated for Best Picture or anything else is that it wasn’t a Hollywood production. It wouldn’t be until 1933’s British film, The Private Life of Henry VIII, that a foreign made film would be in contention for Academy Awards. It wouldn’t be until 1938 that a foreign language film, Grand Illusion would be nominated for Best Picture. Director Dreyer was never nominated for an Oscar but cinematographer Rudolph Maté would later be nominated five times for such films as The Pride of the Yankees and Sahara.

CITY LIGHTS (1930/31), directed by Charlie Chaplin

Chaplin’s most accessible film is also his most sentimental, making it as surefire an Oscar candidate as any he ever made, but it was a silent film in an era in which everyone else had transitioned to sound. There was no way the Academy was going to nominate this or his 1936 film, Modern Times, for Best Picture or Best Actor. It wasn’t until 1940’s The Great Dictator that he would be in contention for both. Oscar had given him an honorary award at the first awards and would give him anther one at the 1971 awards. The following year he won a competitive Oscar for the then twenty-year old Limelight for Best Score.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931/32), directed by Rouben Mamoulian

It wouldn’t be until 1973’s The Exorcist that the Academy would nominate a horror film for Best Picture, but Mamoulian’s version of Jekyll and Hyde did hold a 59-year record of containing the only Oscar winning Best Actor performance in a horror film for Fredric March’s legendary portrayal until Anthony Hopkins won a similar honor for The Silence of the Lambs. Mamoulian himself never earned an Oscar nomination although both he and March received awards for this at the 1932 Venice Film Festival. He later directed the film’s co-star Miriam Hopkins to an Oscar nomination for 1935’s Becky Sharp.

DINNER AT EIGHT (1932/33), directed by George Cukor

This superb version of the Broadway smash hit had two things going against it. The previous year’s winner was MGM’s all-star Grand Hotel, which meant that in order to spread the award around, it meant another studio would likely win this year. The film’s producer David O. Selznick and director George Cukor were represented in the Oscar race with their last film for RKO, Little Women. All of this is a pity, because this one’s better than both and certainly better than the winner, Fox’s Cavalcade. Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke and Lee Tracy led the all-star cast.

Originally published 9/2019, updated 10/2021.