20th Academy Awards

20th Academy Awards
DateMarch 20, 1948
SiteShrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, United States
Hosted byAgnes Moorehead
Dick Powell
Highlights
Best PictureGentleman's Agreement
Most awardsGentleman's Agreement and Miracle on 34th Street (3)
Most nominationsGentleman's Agreement (8)

The 20th Academy Awards were held on March 20, 1948, to honor the films of 1947. It is notable for being the last Oscars until 2005 in which no film won more than three awards.

Rosalind Russell was highly favored—particularly in a poll from the Daily Variety[1]—to win Best Actress for her performance in Mourning Becomes Electra,[2] but Loretta Young won instead for The Farmer's Daughter.[1]

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.[2]

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.

Darryl F. Zanuck, bitter over the failure of the 1944 biopic Wilson to win Best Picture, accepted the prize for Gentleman's Agreement by saying "this award will make up for previous disappointments.[3]

  1. ^ a b Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 837. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.
  2. ^ a b Dirks, Tim. "1947 Academy Awards Winners and History". FilmSite.org (American Movie Classics). Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  3. ^ Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 836. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.