18th Academy Awards

18th Academy Awards
DateMarch 7, 1946
SiteGrauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA
Hosted byJames Stewart
Bob Hope
Highlights
Best PictureThe Lost Weekend
Most awardsThe Lost Weekend (4)
Most nominationsThe Bells of St. Mary's (8)

The 18th Academy Awards were held on March 7, 1946, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre to honor the films of 1945. Being the first Oscars after the end of World War II, the ceremony returned to the glamour of the prewar years; notably, the plaster statuettes that had been used during the war were replaced by bronze statuettes with gold plating and an elevated base.

Despite the optimistic postwar mood, director Billy Wilder's grim and socially significant drama The Lost Weekend won the major awards of Best Picture and Best Director, as well as two other awards. It was the first film to win both Best Picture and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Best Actress nominee Joan Crawford was absent due to illness.[1][2]

This was the first year in which every film nominated for Best Picture won at least one Oscar, and also the first time a sequel (The Bells of St. Mary's) was nominated for Best Picture.

  1. ^ Miller, Julie (September 26, 2012). "The Academy Award That Joan Crawford Accepted In Bed Sells; Can You Guess for How Much?". Vanity Fair. Condé Nast. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  2. ^ Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 837. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.