11th Academy Awards 11th Academy Awards The 11th Academy Awards were held on February 23, 1939, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. It was the first Academy Awards show without any official host. This was also the first ceremony in which a foreign language film (Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion") was nominated for Best Picture. Frank Capra became the first person to win three Best Director awards, to be followed by John Ford (who would go on to win four) and William Wyler. This was the first of only two times in Oscar history that three of the four acting awards were
Academy Awards open market. Michael Todd's grandson tried to sell Todd's Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector in 1989, but the Academy won the legal battle by getting a permanent injunction. Although some Oscar sales transactions have been successful, some buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury. In addition to the Academy Award of Merit (Oscar award), there are nine honorary (non-competitive) awards presented by the Academy from time to time (except for the Academy Honorary Award, the Technical Achievement Award, and the Student Academy Awards, which are presented annually): The Academy also