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HISTORY In the first year of the Academy Awards (1927/28, awarded in 1929), there was no "Best Picture" award. Instead, there were two separate awards, one called "Most Outstanding Production," won by the epic '' Wings '', and one called " Most Artistic Quality Of Production ," won by the art film '' Sunrise ''. The awards were intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking, and in fact the judges and the studio bosses who sought to influence their decisions paid more attention to the latter - MGM head Louis B. Mayer , who had disliked the realism of King Vidor 's '' The Crowd '', pressured the judges not to honor his own studio's film, and to select ''Sunrise'' instead. The next year, the Academy instituted a single award called "Best Production," and decided retrospectively that the award won by ''Wings'' had been the equivalent of that award, with the result that ''Wings'' is often erroneously listed as the winner of a sole "Best Picture" award for the first year. The title of the award was eventually changed to Best Picture for the 1931 awards. Since 1944, the Academy has restricted nominations to five Best Picture nominees per year. As of the 79th Academy Awards ceremony held in 2007 and honoring films of 2006 , there have been 458 films nominated for the Best Picture award. No Best Picture winner is lost, though a few such as '' All Quiet On The Western Front '' and '' Lawrence Of Arabia '' exist only in a form altered from their original, award-winning release form, usually having been edited for reissue (and subsequently partly restored by archivists). Other winners and nominees such as '' Tom Jones '' and '' Star Wars '' are widely available only in subsequently altered versions. The 1928 film '' The Patriot '' is the only Best Picture nominee that is lost; '' The Racket '' was believed lost for many years but a print existed in producer Howard Hughes ' archives and it has since been shown on Turner Classic Movies . The Grand Staircase columns at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles , where the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held since 2002, showcase every movie that has won the Best Picture title since the first Academy Awards in 1928. BEST PICTURE FIRSTS
CONTROVERSY A point of contention is the lack of consideration of non-'' (French, 1938); '' Z '' (French, 1969); '' The Emigrants '' (Swedish, 1972); '' Cries And Whispers '' (Swedish, 1973); '' Il Postino '' (Italian/Spanish, 1995); '' Life Is Beautiful '' (Italian, 1998); '' Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon '' (Chinese Mandarin , 2000); and '' Letters From Iwo Jima '' (Japanese, 2006). SUPERLATIVES WINNERS AND NOMINEES In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees. Except for the early years (when the Academy used a non-calendar year), the year shown is the one in which the film first premiered in Los Angeles County , California ; normally this is also the year of first release, but it may be the year after first release (as with '' Casablanca '' and, if the film-festival premiere is considered, '' Crash ''). This is the year before the ceremony at which the award is given; for example, a film exhibited theatrically during 2005 was eligible for consideration for the 2005 Best Picture Oscar , awarded in 2006 . The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in Parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article (if any) on that ceremony. Each individual entry shows the title followed by the Production Company , and the Producer . Before 1951, the Best Picture award was given to the production company; from 1951 on, it has gone to the producer. When the film was produced anywhere other than the United States, its country and original title, if applicable, are shown in parentheses. 1920s
1930s
The name of the award becomes Best Picture
1940s
1950s
From 1951 on, the individual producer (rather than the production company) receives this award.
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
SEE ALSO
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