8th Academy Awards: History and Background

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. 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.

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.

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