40th Academy Awards

Updated on Nov 03, 2023

Edit

Comment

Hosted by Bob Hope Directed by Richard Dunlap Other ceremonies 1967, 1969 Producer Arthur Freed		Produced by Arthur Freed Date 10 April 1968 Host Bob Hope

Site Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California, United States Best Picture In the Heat of the Night Most awards In the Heat of the Night (5) Location Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California, United States

The 40th Academy Awards honored film achievements of 1967. Originally scheduled for April 8, 1968, the awards were postponed to two days later, April 10, 1968, because of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Bob Hope was once again the host of the ceremony.

Due to the increasing rarity of black and white feature films, the awards for cinematography, art direction and costume design were combined into single categories rather than a distinction between color and monochrome. The Best Picture nominees were an eclectic group of films reflecting the chaos of their era. The event was the first one since the 1948 awards show to feature film clips from the Best Picture nominated films.

This year's nominations also marked the first time that three different films were nominated for the "Top Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. The three films were Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. However, the winner of Best Picture was producer Walter Mirisch and director Norman Jewison's thriller/mystery film, In the Heat of the Night (with seven nominations and five wins – Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound).

The Graduate is, as of the 88th Academy Awards, the last film to win Best Director and nothing else.

Due to an all-out push by Academy President Gregory Peck, 18 of the 20 acting nominees were present at the ceremony. Only Katharine Hepburn and the late Spencer Tracy, who was nominated posthumously, were missing.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger ().

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Gregory Peck

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

Alfred Hitchcock

Honorary Oscar

Arthur Freed was presented for distinguished service to the Academy and the production of six top-rated Awards telecasts.

Trivia

Of the 20 performers nominated in the acting categories only two didn't attend: Katharine Hepburn, whose award for Best Actress was accepted by George Cukor, was in France filming The Lion in Winter, and Spencer Tracy, whose nomination was posthumous.

There was no Governor's Ball.

Prior to the two-day postponement, four African-American stars who were scheduled to take part in the ceremony: Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong and Diahann Carroll, announced they were withdrawing in mourning for Dr. King. Prior to the postponement, Jack Lemmon was announced as a replacement for Poitier, and Shirley Jones for Davis, but once the event was delayed, the original quartet returned.

Alfred Hitchcock's acceptance speech is on record for the shortest in Academy Awards history: "Thank you".

This was the only year in which two films (Bonnie and Clyde and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) received nominations in all four acting categories.

Legendary film composer John Williams received his first nomination for scoring Valley of the Dolls. He would go on to receive 49 more nominations, winning 5.

Presenters and performers

The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.

References

40th Academy Awards Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents