MovieChat Forums > The Broadway Melody (1929) Discussion > So Which Year did this win Best Picture ...

So Which Year did this win Best Picture Exactly? Help Please!!!

posted 14 years ago by nware-2
3 replies | jump to latest

Hi everyone, I've added this film to my list of "Movies to See" because I'm trying to see all the Best Picture Winners before I turn 21 (8 months from now), and I'm close to that goal (I've seen 68 of them at the time of writing). But I can't understand where this film fits into it. As of the 2009 ceremony, there have been 82 films to win the award: 10 in each decade since the 30s (10 films over 8 decades for 80 films), plus the winner from the 1929 ceremony, Wings, and this one. That part makes perfect sense to me, it all adds up to 82 films.

But Wings won in 1929 according to every database I've looked at, and All Quiet on the Western Front won in the ceremony for 1930, so I guess that means there was a completely separate ceremony in between those two for this one? Does anyone know how exactly this happened who can explain it to me!?

[–] oldblackandwhite 14 years ago

nware-2:

I will try to clear this up and hope I don't add to confusion.

First off Wings did not win the 1929 Award. It won best picture for the "1927-1928 season". Confusion has no doubt ensued because this award was given out in 1929. In other words the first Accademy Awards CEREMONY was in 1929. This ceremony made awards for the 1927-28 "season". For the first six years of the awards, they used a "season" which split two years. Though I looked about some tonight, I could not on short notice find the exact dates "from-to". Starting in 1934, they went to a Jan 1st to Dec 31 format.

Broadway Melody won Best Picture for the 1928-29 season. It was released in June 1929. This may indicate the season was counted from the beginning of the Fall one year to the end of the summer the next year. I hope someone who knows this item will post.

Good luck on seeing all the AA winners before 2l. Maybe then you can work on seeing all the best actors and best actress awards before you are 22.

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

[–] nware-2 14 years ago

Haha, thanks for responding. I've done more research on it since then and I do understand it more now, thanks for your input too, it's a very confusing situation. I guess the Oscars were just very sloppy when they first started filing. I've only got 5 more films to go! haha

[–] oOoBarracuda 9 years ago

Did you reach your goal?