Best Pictures #8: 1927-28 (1st) Academy Awards, My Picks for Unique & Artistic Picture and Outstanding Picture

by A.J.

1927-28 (1^st) Academy Awards
My Picks for Unique & Artistic Picture and Outstanding Picture

There would never be another Academy Awards like the first awards. The films eligible for nomination had to have been released in the Los Angeles area between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928 (the reasoning for this seemingly arbitrary time-period is lost to history). The winners were announced to the press in February of 1929, and the ceremony was held on May 16, 1929. Individuals could be nominated for a particular film or for their body of work in the qualifying year. For example, Janet Gaynor won the first Best Actress award for her performances in Sunrise, 7^th Heaven, and Street Angel. The award for Best Titles was given to Joe Farnham for his body of work; however, that category was omitted the following year because the birth of talkies had rendered title cards unnecessary. Winners received a statuette, which picked up its nickname “Oscar” sometime in the first decade of the awards. Runners-up and honorable mentions received plaques and certificates. The selection board of judges was made up of only 5 people, some of which were studio heads, including MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer. There were two categories for Best Director—comedic and dramatic and, most notably, there were two categories for Best Picture: Outstanding Picture (awarded to Wings) and Unique and Artistic Picture (awarded to Sunrise). Both Best Picture categories were considered equal, but when the Unique and Artistic Picture category was eliminated and only Outstanding Picture continued for the 2^nd Academy Awards (to be renamed Outstanding Production for the 3^rd Academy Awards), people came to think of the Outstanding Picture award Wings won as the top Best Picture award and the Unique and Artistic Picture award as a sort of specialty award. This might lead people to think of Sunrise as the more substantial, quality picture and Wings as the well-executed, big budget spectacle. There certainly is some merit to that perspective, but it also discredits both films of the sum total of their different qualities.

Among the nominees of both Best Picture categories we see the types of films that the Academy would often show favor in years to come: socially and politically relevant films (The Racket), historical epics (Wings), sentimental romantic dramas (7^th Heaven), art films and films about personal struggles and pains (The Crowd, Sunrise), and even odd, peculiar, but popular films (Chang). It is also clear that silent filmmaking was at its zenith. Film stories and techniques had reached an incredible level of sophistication since the birth of the medium just over 30 years before the first Oscars. In less than a year, it would all be over.

The Jazz Singer received a special Academy Award for its technical achievements. The Jazz Singer is thought of as the first sound film, but this is not entirely accurate. Only the musical numbers in The Jazz Singer have synchronized sound. The rest of the film plays like a regular silent film. The first synchronized words said on film by Al Jolson (“You ain’t heard nothing yet”) were said between songs and were recorded unintentionally. Sunrise has a complete synchronized soundtrack with music, sound effects, and even unsynchronized words shouted by a crowd. 7^th Heaven and Wings were rereleased with synch soundtracks, but no actors speaking. Silent film audiences would have been used to having sound accompany films. There would be music, and sometimes sound effects, either performed live or prerecorded, but what they had not experienced was actors speaking from the screen. It is clear that studios were hesitant for audiences to hear actors talk, but after those first few words spoken by Al Jolson there was no going back.

Many people today think of silent movies as antiques, quaint precursors to the modern films. I confess I had the same view for a long time. Silent movies are a huge blind spot in my movie watching experience. Even after watching these six films, I still have not seen many silent movies, but I realize now that silent film was a complete, sophisticated, and mature storytelling medium. The films of the late silent era had mastered this new medium of storytelling and were pushing boundaries both thematically and technically. More importantly I realize now that silent film is just another genre, like any other, with great movies, as well as mediocre and bad ones. A new and vast era of cinema has been opened for me to explore and I am very excited.

My Pick for Unique and Artistic Picture: Sunrise

The Crowd and Sunrise were considered experimental films at the time of the first Academy Awards not because of their technical approaches, but because of their subject matter. Showing characters face ordinary problems and live less than idyllic lives was considered unconventional storytelling. It is still unconventional today. These are films about ordinary, everyday people reaching for happiness, but who are surrounded by overwhelming obstacles. Both are considered masterpieces today, and rightly so, but were box office disappointments. I went back and forth many times on which one I think should have won for Best Unique and Artistic Picture, but after re-watching Sunrise, I had to side with the Academy. The Crowd delivers powerful emotional impact and pathos with its images, as does Sunrise, but the latter film also made me feel like I was watching movie magic. Not the magic of special effects and camera tricks, but the magic of living another life, of seeing and feeling hopes and dreams through images that are, for a time, as real as my eyes taking in these images and my heart feeling them. This is fiction that seems tangible. Those flickering images of two souls, the Man and his Wife, breaking and mending, create real emotions from illusion. That is real movie magic. That is what is in every frame of Sunrise.

My Pick for Outstanding Picture: Wings

I wasn’t expecting to agree with the Academy in both Best Picture categories, but of the three nominees for Outstanding Picture, Wings is the clear standout. Straight away from the opening scenes Wings has the definite style that signifies the work of a skilled filmmaker. William Wellman managed to combine mainstream Hollywood romanticism and sentimentality with creative technical flair. The characters and story run thin for such an epic movie, but overall I found Wings an exciting experience. The action scenes are as exciting as those of any film made since and the aerial sequences are thrilling even by today’s standards. Aside from its Best Picture win, Wings also won Best Engineering Effects (a category later changed to Special Effects). Wings set the standard for the big, elaborate productions that the Academy would tend to favor henceforth, for better or worse. Cinephiles and film buffs will likely come across Wings at some point, but I think that casual film fans would also be dazzled and entertained by this silent Best Picture winner.