1950: The Writing Awards

Until 1956, the writing awards were no simple delineation between Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay. This was a time when studios marked a difference between their screenwriters and their story department.  So: if someone came up with a story, its characters and plot and all that, but did not write the final screenplay, they were eligible for Best Motion Picture Story. If someone wrote a screenplay, with dialogue and action and INT./EXT. and all that, working off of either a play, a novel, a magazine article or a Motion Picture Story written by another, they were eligible for Best Screenplay. And if a screenwriter also wrote the original story they were working off of, they were eligible for Best Story & Screenplay.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Ruth Chatterton put it succinctly in her presentation of the Writing Awards at the 23rd Oscars:

1950: The Music Awards

We continue with our journey through the 23rd Academy Awards in order of their original presentation. That brings us to the Music Awards, presented by Gene Kelly:

1950: Some Nominees

As we tend to do, our coverage of the year that was begins with the Academy Awards. And we shall take the categories in their order of presentation at the 23rd ceremony, held March 29, 1951, at the Pantages Theatre. Today, we focus on the nominees that were up for the "craft" categories, but nowhere else: Special Effects, Costume Design, Art Direction, Sound Recording, Cinematography. We'll also look at the winner for Best Foreign Film, still an honorary award without a block of nominees at the time. 

Let us begin where the Oscars did:

1950: Introduction

This month we pay tribute to the films of 1950...

Coming This May

Big plans for next month! One big plan, anyway: a new season of retrospectives begins with The Films of 1950!

That includes the 42 films honored with wins and nominations at the 23rd Academy Awards. And here they are:

Year Ahead: Predicting the 95th Academy Awards

A fool's errand, trying to predict the Oscars a year ahead, but here we are. Sometimes we get it right; often we get it wrong, but that's a good thing, we wouldn't want things to be so steady for 10 months, would we? Here's what I think will make it in eight of the major categories.

Oscars 2021 Predictions: Who Will Win?

It's what it says on the box! Starting with the categories where I haven't seen all the nominees...

Best Animated Short: "Robin Robin" (though look for "Bestia" to possibly spoil)

Best Documentary Short: "The Queen of Basketball"

Best Live Action Short: "The Long Goodbye"

Best Animated Feature: Encanto (it's peaking at the right time and has love outside this category)

Best Documentary Feature: Summer of Soul (or, when the revolution could not be televised)

Best International Feature: Drive My Car (tho' The Worst Person in the World is probably not far behind in votes, Drive My Car is a Best Picture/Director/Adapted Screenplay nominee, so there's a lot of love for it - this seems to be the most logical place to award it)

Best Costume Design: Cruella

And moving on to the ones I have seen...after the jump.