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 to their statuettes at an inscription-processing station at the Governor's Ball, a party held immediately after the Oscar ceremony. The R.S. Owens company has engraved nameplates made before the ceremony, bearing the name of every potential winner. The nameplates for the non-winning nominees are later recycled. Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards not protected by this