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The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible to submit a nomination and vote on the final ballot. The Best Picture category is traditionally the final award of the night and is widely considered as the most prestigious honor of the ceremony. The Grand Staircase columns at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held since 2002, showcase every film that has won the Best Picture title since the award's inception. There have been 601 films nominated for Best Picture and 96 winners. History Category name changes At the 1st Academy Awards ceremony held in 1929 (for films made in 1927 and 1928), there were two categories of awards that were each considered the top award of the night: "Outstanding Picture" and "Unique and Artistic Picture," the former being won by the war epic Wings, and the latter by the art film Sunrise. Each award was intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking. In particular, The Jazz Singer was disqualified from both awards, since its use of synchronized sound made the film a sui generis item that would have unfairly competed against either category, and the Academy granted the film an honorary award instead. The following year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, deciding retroactively that the award won by Wings was the highest honor that could be awarded, and allowed synchronized sound films to compete for the award. Although the award kept the title Outstanding Picture for the next ceremony, the name underwent several changes over the years as seen below. Since 1962, the award has been simply called Best Picture. 1927/28–1928/29: Academy Award for Outstanding Picture 1929/30–1940: Academy Award for Outstanding Production 1941–1943: Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture 1944–1961: Academy Award for Best Motion Picture 1962–present: Academy Award for Best Picture Recipients Until 1950, this award was presented to a representative of the production company. That year the protocol was changed so that the award was presented to all credited producers. This rule was modified in 1999 to apply a maximum limit of three producers receiving the award, after the five producers of Shakespeare in Love had received the award. As of 2020, the "Special Rules for the Best Picture of the Year Award" limit recipients to those who meet two main requirements: Those with screen credit of "producer" or "produced by", explicitly excluding those with the screen credit "executive producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, or produced in association with" those three or fewer producers who have performed the major portion of the producing functions The rules allow a bona fide team of not more than two people to be considered a single "producer" if the two individuals have had an established producing partnership as determined by the Producers Guild of America Producing Partnership Panel. Final determination of the qualifying producer nominees for each nominated picture will be made by the Producers Branch Executive Committee, including the right to name any additional qualified producer as a nominee. The Academy can make exceptions to the limit, as when Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were posthumously included among the four producers nominated for The Reader. As of 2014 the Producers Branch Executive Committee determines such exceptions, noting they take place only in "rare and extraordinary circumstance[s]." Steven Spielberg currently holds the record for most nominations at thirteen, winning one, while Kathleen Kennedy holds the record for most nominations without a win at eight. Sam Spiegel and Saul Zaentz tie for the most wins with three each. As for the time when the Oscar was given to production companies instead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer holds the record with five wins and 40 nominations. Best Picture and Best Director The Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director have been closely linked throughout their history. Of the 96 films that have won Best Picture, 69 have also been awarded Best Director. Only six films have been awarded Best Picture without receiving a Best Director nomination: Wings directed by William A. Wellman (1927/28), Grand Hotel directed by Edmund Goulding (1931/32), Driving Miss Daisy directed by Bruce Beresford (1989), Argo directed by Ben Affleck (2012), Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly (2018), and CODA directed by Sian Heder (2021). The only two Best Director winners to win for films that did not receive a Best Picture nomination were during the early years of the awards: Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights (1927/28), and Frank Lloyd for The Divine Lady (1928/29). Nomination limit increased On June 24, 2009, AMPAS announced that the number of films to be nominated in the Best Picture award category would increase from five to ten, starting with the 82nd Academy Awards (2009). Although the Academy never officially said so, many commenters noted the expansion was likely in part a response to public criticism of The Dark Knight and WALL-E (both 2008) (and, in previous years, other blockbusters and popular films) not being nominated for Best Picture. Officially, the Academy said the rule change was a throwback to the Academy's early years in the 1930s and 1940s, when eight to 12 films were nominated each year. "Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," AMPAS President Sid Ganis said in a press conference. "I can't wait to see what that list of 10 looks like when the nominees are announced in February." At the same time, the voting system was switched from first-past-the-post to instant runoff voting (also known as preferential voting). In 2011, the Academy revised the rule again so that the number of films nominated was between five and ten; nominated films must earn either 5% of first-place rankings or 5% after an abbreviated variation of the single transferable vote nominating process. Bruce Davis, the Academy executive director at the time, said, "A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn't feel an obligation to round out the number." This system lasted until 2021, when the Academy reverted back to a set number of ten nominees from the 94th Academy Awards onward. Language and country of origin Only seventeen non-English language films have been nominated in the category: La Grande Illusion (French, 1938); Z (French, 1969); The Emigrant.... Discover the Academy Award Theatre popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Academy Award Theatre books.
Best Seller Academy Award Theatre Books of 2024
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Box Office Poison
Tim RobeyA riotous and revealing story of Hollywood’s most spectacular flops and how they ended careers, bankrupted studios and changed film history."Failure fascinates, for all the reasons...
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Master of Ceremonies
Joel GreyJoel Grey, the Tony and Academy Awardwinning Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret finally tells his remarkable life story. Born Joel David Katz to a wild and wooly Jewish American famil...
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Little Sister
Lana WoodIn this memoir, Lana Wood investigates the mysterious drowning of her sister, the actress Natalie Wood, and clears up the myths and misconceptions behind one of the most notorious ...
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Chronicles of the Juice Man
Juicy J & Soren BakerA memoir by the Oscarwinning, platinumselling rapper and producer for fans of Rick Ross’s Hurricanes and The Autobiography of Gucci ManeThe hustle still continues for hiphop O...
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A View from A Broad
Bette MidlerBette Midler, also known as Divine Miss Mthe indomitable and incomparable singer, actor, and musical theater extraordinaire, with a career spanning almost half a centuryrevisits he...
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You Can Count on Me
Kenneth LonerganAcclaimed playwright Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me is one of the most highly praised independent films of recent years, earning many of the major screenplay awards.This is...
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Facing the Music
David LoudMusical Director and arranger David Loud, a legendary Broadway talent, recounts his wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edg...
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Fences
August WilsonFrom legendary playwright August Wilson comes the powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Priz...
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I Said Yes to Everything
Lee GrantBorn Lyova Haskell Rosenthal in New York City, actress Lee Grant spent her youth accumulating more experiences than most people have in a lifetime: from student at the famed Neighb...
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Muse
B. Michael“Friendship, love and a beautiful sense of togetherness sew together this gem of a book. B Michael...presents to us a portrait of a woman who was a rare gift to fashion and culture...
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Behind the Scenes
Judi DenchFrom her first theatrical roles as a teenager in York to her scenestealing performances as 'M' in the James Bond films, Dame Judi Dench's professional life has consisted of nonstop...
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In Spite of Myself
Christopher PlummerA collection of delicious anecdotes of a life spent on stages and film sets across the worldfrom Peter Hall’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre to The Sound of Musicfrom one of our gr...
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Gone with the Wind
Margaret MitchellSince its original publication in 1936, Gone With the Windwinner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all timehas been heralded by readers everywhere as The G...
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West Side Story
Richard Barrios & Turner Classic MoviesA captivating, richly illustrated full account of the making of the groundbreaking movie classic West Side Story (1961).A major hit on Broadway, on film West Side Story became immo...
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Grace Kelly
Jay Jorgensen & Manoah BowmanThe definitive visual biography of Grace Kelly’s unforgettable Hollywood career, chronicled in 400 extraordinary blackand white and color photographs, including many neverbeforesee...
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Just as I Am
Cicely Tyson“In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only succeeded as an actor, she has shaped the course of history.” –President Barack Obama, 2016 Presidential Medal of F...
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A Night Out with Mama
Quvenzhané WallisFrom Academy Award–nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis comes a story about glitz, glamour, and the most important thing of allfamily.A very talented little girl has a very special ...
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Steve McQueen
Greg LaurieAn intimate look at movie star Steve McQueen's reckless life of fast cars, women, and drugs all the way up to his dramatic lifechange and terminal cancer diagnosis.Join Greg Laurie...