7th Academy Awards — award ceremony presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for achievement in filmmaking in 1934
It Happened One Night became the first film to sweep all five major Oscar categories, setting a benchmark matched only twice in subsequent decades.
Key Facts
- Ceremony date
- February 27, 1935
- Venue
- Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles
- Host
- Irvin S. Cobb
- Top winner
- It Happened One Night (5 awards)
- First Juvenile Award recipient
- Shirley Temple, age 6
- New categories introduced
- Film Editing, Original Score, Original Song
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1934 film year produced notable achievements in Hollywood, including Frank Capra's romantic comedy It Happened One Night, while controversy over the exclusion of Bette Davis from the Best Actress ballot for Of Human Bondage prompted the Academy to allow write-in candidates for the first time.
Held on February 27, 1935, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles and hosted by Irvin S. Cobb, the 7th Academy Awards honored the best films of 1934. It Happened One Night swept Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay. Three new categories debuted, and six-year-old Shirley Temple received the inaugural Juvenile Award.
It Happened One Night's unprecedented five-category sweep established a historic benchmark in Oscar history, later equaled only by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs. The ceremony also marked the start of the Academy aligning its eligibility period with the calendar year, a standard that persisted for decades.