Oscars: what was the only movie to have its Academy Award revoked?
The Academy Awards have been around for almost as long as Hollywood itself. The very first ceremony was held back in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, while the first televised edition was held in 1953. As the oldest worldwide, entertainment awards show, the Oscars has seen some pretty wacky achievements over the years. Here, we’ll be looking at the only Oscar-winning film to have its award revoked.
The 1968 Oscars was one hell of an occasion. Held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on April 10th, the year’s ‘Best Picture’ nominees included The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Doctor Dolittle, Bonnie & Clyde, and In The Heat of the Night, with the award going to the latter. The ‘Best Actor’ category were equally star-studded, with Rod Steiger beating Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman for his performance in the Best Picture-winning film. Meanwhile, Katherine Hepburn – nominated alongside Audrey Hepburn, Faye Dunaway, Anne Bancroft and Dam Edith Evan – took home the ‘Best Actress’ award for her portrayal of Christina Drayton in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner.
One of the most memorable categories from 1968 was the ‘Best Documentary’ award. That year, Young Americans, directed by Alexander Grasshoff, won the statuette and then had it revoked when it was discovered to have had theatrical showings in 1967, making it ineligible for the 1968 award. As a result, Journey Into Self, which won the second-highest amount of votes, was given the award months after the ceremony. Young Americans is, therefore, the only film in Oscar history to have had an award revoked.
The film follows a young Los Angeles-based musical choir known as The Young Americans as its teenage members prepare for their autumn tour of the United States. A profile of teenage strife on the open road, the film covers the audition and rehearsal process for the 36-member mixed-gender tour group. The wife of Alex Grasshoff, who both wrote and directed the picture, discussed the revoked win in an interview with The Los Angeles Times following the director’s death: “We slept with the Oscar the first night,” Madilyn Clark Grasshoff told the outlet. “It was very, very exciting, my gosh.”
A few weeks later, Madilyn and Alex were contacted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and told that the film was actually ineligible for the ‘Best Documentary’ award because it had been shown in a theatre in October 1967. Madilyn said that Academy President Gregory Peck called her husband to inform him that they’d had a “big to-do over it”. She explained: “What happened was, it was a trial sneak preview in some little town in, like, North Carolina,” she said. “I don’t know why they didn’t fight it, because it was not released.”
You can revisit another memorable moment from the 1968 Oscars below.
