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
Academy Awards were honored for a specific performance in a single film. For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on 27 March 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced. Until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies have ended with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Traditionally, the previous year's winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor present the awards for Best Actress