A bit of trivia: the origin of the term "paparazzi" — those annoying photographers who take pictures of celebrities — is from the name of a character, Paparazzo, in Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Played by Walter Santesso, Paparazzo (Italian slang for mosquito) was a freelance news photographer, a hyperactive, buzzing nuisance throughout the film.
Now you know.
By the way, if you've never seen a Fellini movie, start with La Dolce Vita — about seven wild nights in the seven hills of Rome — then follow it up with his next film, 1963's 8½. Both star Marcello Mastroianni and seen back-to-back, the films are the story of a man's journey from ambition to decadence to disillusionment and finally to a sort of hard-won wisdom. Peak Fellini, great stuff.
My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.
My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.
My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.
If I were playing by my own rules — nominating Hollywood movies in the year they were Oscar eligible; foreign movies (including British movies) in the year they were released in their home country — I would have nominated Sophia Loren for best actress last year, in 1960. But she actually won the Oscar for best actress in 1961, the first time an actor or an actress in a foreign-language film won a competitive Oscar. To avoid confusion, I put her here.
Do I promise to be consistent about it? Only when it suits me.
Look, the real point of this exercise is to create a God's-eye view of the history of movies — what was going on at a particular moment, who was influencing what — rather than an Academy-eye view of what the marketplace deemed worthy of releasing in Los Angeles in a given year. Which is tough to pull off because I'm not God. But as the man said, I gotta model myself after someone.
I think most people would go with George C. Scott in The Hustler for best supporting actor, but I'm going with his co-star Jackie Gleason. Both were nominated for Oscars, both deserved to win (both lost to George Chakiris in West Side Story).
Gleason as Minnesota Fats doesn't have much to say but he inhabits the character as fully as any actor I've seen play a role. Written on his face and in his body language is every compromise he's ever had to make to do the thing he does better than anybody else, and one look at him tells you everything you need to know about the empty world of big time pool hustling.
But you'll get no kick from me if you go with Scott. It's one of the best performances of his very great career.
PICTURE (Drama) winner:The Hustler (prod. Robert Rossen) nominees:The Guns of Navarone (prod. Carl Foreman); The Innocents (prod. Jack Clayton); Judgment At Nuremberg (prod. Stanley Kramer); A Raisin in the Sun (prod. Ronald H. Gilbert, Philip Rose and David Susskind)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical) winner:West Side Story (prod. Robert Wise) nominees:Breakfast At Tiffany's (prod. Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd); Lover Come Back (prod. Martin Melcher and Stanley Shapiro); One Hundred and One Dalmatians (prod. Walt Disney); One, Two, Three (prod. Billy Wilder)
PICTURE (Foreign Language) winner:Yôjinbô (Yojimbo) (prod. Akira Kurosawa) nominees:Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce—Italian Style) (prod. Franco Cristaldi); L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (prod. Pierre Courau, Anatole Dauman and Raymond Froment); Ningen no jôken (The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer) (prod. Masaki Kobayashi and Shigeru Wakatsuki); La notte (prod. Emanuele Cassuto); Såsom i en spegel (Through A Glass Darkly) (prod. Allan Ekelund); Viridiana (prod. Gustavo Alatriste)
ACTOR (Drama) winner: Paul Newman (The Hustler) nominees: Clark Gable (The Misfits); Sidney Poitier (A Raisin in the Sun); Vincent Price (Pit and the Pendulum); Maximilian Schell (Judgment At Nuremberg)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical) winner: Rock Hudson (Lover Come Back) nominees: James Cagney (One, Two, Three); Fred MacMurray (The Absent-Minded Professor); Marcello Mastroianni (Divorzio all'italiana a.k.a. Divorce—Italian Style); Toshirô Mifune (Yôjinbô a.k.a. Yojimbo)
ACTRESS (Drama) winner: Piper Laurie (The Hustler) nominees: Anouk Aimée (Lola); Harriet Andersson (Såsom i en spegel a.k.a. Through A Glass Darkly); Deborah Kerr (The Innocents); Marilyn Monroe (The Misfits); Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical) winner: Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast At Tiffany's) nominees: Doris Day (Lover Come Back); Anna Karina (Une femme est une femme a.k.a. A Woman Is A Woman); Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap); Margaret Rutherford (Murder She Said)
DIRECTOR (Drama) winner: Alain Resnais (L'année dernière à Marienbad a.k.a. Last Year At Marienbad) nominees: Michelangelo Antonioni (La notte); Luis Buñuel (Viridiana); Masaki Kobayashi (Ningen no jôken a.k.a. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer); Robert Rossen (The Hustler)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical) winner: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (West Side Story) nominees: Blake Edwards (Breakfast At Tiffany's); Pietro Germi (Divorzio all'italiana a.k.a. Divorce—Italian Style): Akira Kurosawa (Yôjinbô a.k.a. Yojimbo); Billy Wilder (One, Two, Three)
SUPPORTING ACTOR winner: Jackie Gleason (The Hustler) nominees: Gunnar Björnstrand (Såsom i en spegel a.k.a. Through A Glass Darkly); George Chakiris (West Side Story); Montgomery Clift (Judgment At Nuremberg); Tony Randall (Lover Come Back); George C. Scott (The Hustler)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS winner: Rita Moreno (West Side Story) nominees: Edie Adams (Lover Come Back); Fay Bainter (The Children's Hour); Ruby Dee (A Raisin in the Sun); Marlene Dietrich (Judgment At Nuremberg); Judy Garland (Judgment At Nuremberg); Lotte Lenya (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone); Pamela Tiffin (One, Two, Three)
SCREENPLAY winner: Robert Rossen and Sidney Carroll, from the novel by Walter Tevis (The Hustler) nominees: George Axelrod, from the novel by Truman Capote (Breakfast At Tiffany's); Luis Buñuel (story and screenplay) and Julio Alejandro, from the novel Halma by Benito Pérez Galdós (Viridiana); Akira Kurosawa (story and screenplay) and Ryûzô Kikushima (screenplay) (Yôjinbô a.k.a Yojimbo)
SPECIAL AWARDS "Moon River" (Breakfast At Tiffany's) music by Henry Mancini; lyrics by Johnny Mercer (Song); Dede Allen (The Hustler) (Film Editing); Edward Beyer (The Hustler) (Sound); Eugen Schüfftan (The Hustler) (Cinematography)
Named for Katie-Bar-The-Door, the Katies are "alternate Oscars"—who should have been nominated, who should have won—but really they're just an excuse to write a history of the movies from the Silent Era to the present day.
To see a list of nominees and winners by decade, as well as links to my essays about them, click the highlighted links:
Remember: There are no wrong answers, only movies you haven't seen yet.
The Silent Oscars
And don't forget to check out the Silent Oscars—my year-by-year choices for best picture, director and all four acting categories for the pre-Oscar years, 1902-1927.
Look at me—Joe College, with a touch of arthritis. Are my eyes really brown? Uh, no, they're green. Would we have the nerve to dive into the icy water and save a person from drowning? That's a key question. I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it. Say, haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?
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