20th Academy Awards: History and Background

The 20th Academy Awards were held on March 20, 1948, to honor the films released in 1947. There was no host for this ceremony.

Rosalind Russell was highly favored—particularly in a poll from the Daily Variety—to win Best Actress for her performance in Mourning Becomes Electra, but Loretta Young won instead for The Farmer's Daughter.

James Baskett received an Academy Honorary Award for his portrayal of Uncle Remus in Song of the South, which made him the first African-American man, and the first actor in a Disney film, to win an Academy Award for acting.

Winning Best Supporting Actor at age 71, Edmund Gwenn became the oldest Oscar winner, taking the record from Charles Coburn, who was 66 at the time of his win in 1943 for The More the Merrier.

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