7th Academy Awards

The 7th Academy Awards, honoring the best films for 1934, was held on February 27, 1935,^[1] at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Irvin S. Cobb. As of this ceremony, the Academy's award eligibility period coincided with the calendar year (with temporary exceptions for the 93rd and 94th Academy Awards due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

7th Academy Awards
Date	February 27, 1935
Site	Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California
Hosted by	Irvin S. Cobb
Highlights
Best Picture	It Happened One Night
Most awards	It Happened One Night (5)
Most nominations	One Night of Love (6)
← 6th Academy Awards 8th →

Frank Capra's influential romantic comedy It Happened One Night became the first of three films to date to "sweep" the top five awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. This feat would later be matched by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. It also was the first romantic comedy to win Best Picture, and the first film to win two acting Oscars.

The categories of Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song were first introduced this year. This was the first of only two years in which write-in candidates were permitted, a response to the controversy surrounding the snub of Bette Davis for Of Human Bondage.^[2] The Academy, inundated by calls, letters and editorials decrying this slight, told members they could vote in names on a printed ballot or write in any other name that was desired. Claudette Colbert declared that this announcement would give Davis the win in a walk.^[2] However, in final voting, Davis came in fourth place. Colbert, who viewed herself as having no chance, was informed of her victory upon boarding a train for New York. She hastily rushed into the ceremony to collect her award, then went back to the waiting train.^[2]

This was the last time that all Best Actor nominees were first time acting nominees until the 95th Academy Awards, and the last time until the 43rd Academy Awards where either lead acting category was entirely first-time nominees.

Six-year-old Shirley Temple received the first Juvenile Award, making her the youngest Oscar recipient. Clark Gable was the first Best Actor winner born in the 20th century (1901).

Winners and nominees

 

Frank Capra; Best Director winner and Best Picture co-winner

 

Harry Cohn; Best Picture co-winner

 

Clark Gable; Best Actor winner

 

Claudette Colbert; Best Actress winner

 

Walt Disney; Best Short Subject, Cartoon winner

 

Cedric Gibbons; Best Art Direction co-winner

 

Shirley Temple; Juvenile Academy Award recipient

Nominees were announced on February 5, 1935. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.^[3][4]

Outstanding Production It Happened One Night – Frank Capra and Harry Cohn for Columbia‡ The Barretts of Wimpole Street – Irving Thalberg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cleopatra – Cecil B. DeMille for Paramount Flirtation Walk – Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis, and Robert Lord for First National The Gay Divorcee – Pandro S. Berman for RKO Pictures Here Comes the Navy – Lou Edelman for Warner Bros. The House of Rothschild – Darryl F. Zanuck, William Goetz, and Raymond Griffith for 20th Century Imitation of Life – John M. Stahl for Universal One Night of Love – Harry Cohn and Everett Riskin for Columbia The Thin Man – Hunt Stromberg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Viva Villa! – David O. Selznick for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The White Parade – Jesse L. Lasky for Fox Film Co.	Best Director Frank Capra – It Happened One Night‡ Victor Schertzinger – One Night of Love W. S. Van Dyke – The Thin Man
Best Actor Clark Gable – It Happened One Night as Peter Warne‡ Frank Morgan – The Affairs of Cellini as Alessandro, Duke of Florence William Powell – The Thin Man as Nick Charles	Best Actress Claudette Colbert – It Happened One Night as Ellen "Ellie" Andrews‡ Bette Davis – Of Human Bondage (write-in, not official nomination)^[4] as Mildred Rogers Grace Moore – One Night of Love as Mary Barrett Norma Shearer – The Barretts of Wimpole Street as Elizabeth Barrett
Best Original Story Manhattan Melodrama – Arthur Caesar‡ Hide-Out – Mauri Grashin The Richest Girl in the World – Norman Krasna	Best Adaptation It Happened One Night – Robert Riskin, based on the story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams‡ The Thin Man – Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Viva Villa! – Ben Hecht, based on the novel by Edgecumb Pinchon and O. B. Stade
Best Live Action Short Subject, Comedy La Cucaracha – Kenneth Macgowan and Pioneer Pictures‡ Men in Black – Jules White What, No Men! – Warner Bros.	Best Live Action Short Subject, Novelty City of Wax – Horace Woodard and Stacy Woodard‡ Bosom Friends – Skibo Productions Strikes and Spares – Pete Smith
Best Short Subject, Cartoon The Tortoise and the Hare – Walt Disney‡ Holiday Land – Screen Gems Jolly Little Elves – Walter Lantz	Best Scoring One Night of Love – Columbia Studio Music Department‡ The Gay Divorcee – RKO Radio Studio Music Department The Lost Patrol – RKO Radio Studio Music Department
Best Song "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee – Music by Con Conrad; Lyrics by Herb Magidson‡ "Carioca" from Flying Down to Rio – Music by Vincent Youmans; Lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn "Love in Bloom" from She Loves Me Not – Music by Ralph Rainger; Lyrics by Leo Robin	Best Sound Recording One Night of Love – John P. Livadary‡ The Affairs of Cellini – Thomas T. Moulton Cleopatra – Franklin Hansen Flirtation Walk – Nathan Levinson The Gay Divorcee – Carl Dreher Imitation of Life – Theodore Soderberg Viva Villa! – Douglas Shearer The White Parade – Edmund H. Hansen
Best Art Direction The Merry Widow – Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope‡ The Affairs of Cellini – Richard Day The Gay Divorcee – Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark	Best Cinematography Cleopatra – Victor Milner‡ The Affairs of Cellini – Charles Rosher Operator 13 – George J. Folsey
Best Film Editing Eskimo – Conrad A. Nervig‡ Cleopatra – Anne Bauchens One Night of Love – Gene Milford	Best Assistant Director Viva Villa! – John S. Waters‡ Cleopatra – Cullen Tate Imitation of Life – Scott Beal

Academy Juvenile Award

• Shirley Temple

Multiple nominations and awards

Films with multiple nominations

Nominations	Film
6	One Night of Love
5	Cleopatra
	The Gay Divorcee
	It Happened One Night
4	The Affairs of Cellini
	The Thin Man
	Viva Villa!
3	Imitation of Life
2	The Barretts of Wimpole Street
	Flirtation Walk
	The White Parade

Films with multiple wins

Wins	Film
5	It Happened One Night
2	One Night of Love

See also

• 1934 in film
• List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees

References

1. Feinberg, Scott (April 23, 2021). "Oscars: How One Nominee Found Herself at a Train Station on the Night of the 7th Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
2. Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 833. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.
3. "The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
4. "The Official Academy Awards Database". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Select "1934" in the "Award Year(s)" drop-down menu and press "Search".