64th Academy Awards for the third consecutive year. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on March 7, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Tom Hanks. "The Silence of the Lambs" won five awards including Best Picture. Other winners included "" with four awards, "Beauty and the Beast", "Bugsy", and "JFK" with two, and "City Slickers", "", "The Fisher King", "In the Shadow of the Stars", "Manipulation", "Mediterraneo", "Session Man", and "Thelma & Louise" with one. The telecast garnered more than 44 million viewers in the United States. The nominees for
84th Academy Awards as director. Actor Billy Crystal hosted the show for the ninth time. He first presided over the 62nd ceremony held in 1990 and had last hosted the 76th ceremony held in 2004. On June 14, 2011, Academy president Tom Sherak announced at a press conference that, in an attempt to further revitalize interest surrounding the awards, the 2012 ceremony would feature between five and ten Best Picture nominees depending on voting results, as opposed to a set number of nominees. In related events, the Academy held its third annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and