| 8th Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | March 5, 1936 |
| Site | Biltmore Hotel |
| Hosted by | Frank Capra |
| Highlights | |
| Best Picture | Mutiny on the Bounty |
| Most awards | The Informer (4) |
| Most nominations | Mutiny on the Bounty (8) |
The 8th Academy Awards to honour films released during 1935 were held on March 5, 1936, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California and hosted by AMPAS president Frank Capra. This was the first year in which the awards were called "Oscars".
The Academy voters, who felt guilty about not awarding Bette Davis a Best Actress award the previous year, assigned her one for Dangerous, which was viewed as a lesser picture.[1] Davis, who showed up to the posh formal ceremony in an informal checkered dress, felt it was a consolation prize that should have been awarded to Katharine Hepburn.[1]
Despite receiving eight nominations, the most of the year, Mutiny on the Bounty became the last film to date to win Best Picture and nothing else (following The Broadway Melody and Grand Hotel), and the only film to receive three nominations for Best Actor.
This was the second and last year that write-in votes were permitted; A Midsummer Night's Dream became the only film to win a write-in Oscar, for Best Cinematography. Miriam Hopkins' Best Actress nomination for Becky Sharp was the first acting nomination for a color film.
The short-lived category of Best Dance Direction was introduced this year; it lasted just three years before the Directors Guild of America successfully lobbied for its elimination.
Nominees were announced on February 7, 1936. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.[2][3]
| Nominations | Film |
|---|---|
| 8 | Mutiny on the Bounty |
| 7 | The Lives of a Bengal Lancer |
| 6 | The Informer |
| 5 | Captain Blood |
| 4 | Les Misérables |
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
| Top Hat | |
| 3 | Broadway Melody of 1936 |
| David Copperfield | |
| The Dark Angel | |
| 2 | Alice Adams |
| Naughty Marietta | |
| Gold Diggers of 1935 |
| Wins | Film |
|---|---|
| 4 | The Informer |
| 2 | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
A fictitious version of the 8th Academy Awards was a major scene in the 1937 film A Star Is Born, in which the character of Esther Blodgett (stage name Vicki Lester), played by Janet Gaynor, wins the Academy Award for Best Actress, only to have her inebriated husband, fallen movie star Norman Maine, played by Fredric March, crash the party and make a scene. Both Gaynor and March were real-life recipients of Academy Awards, for Best Actress and Actor respectively, and were nominated for their roles in said movie.
The film shows a ceremony similar to the real one of the day, much smaller and more private than the televised event that occurs today.
