25th Academy Awards 25th Academy Awards The 25th Academy Awards ceremony was held on March 19, 1953. It took place at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, and the NBC International Theatre in New York City. It was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be televised, and the first ceremony to be held in Hollywood and New York City simultaneously. It was also the only year that the New York ceremonies were to be held in the NBC International Theatre on Columbus Circle, which was shortly thereafter demolished and replaced by the New York Coliseum convention center. A major upset occurred when the
42nd Academy Awards Brazil were the sole countries to broadcast the event live. This is currently the highest rated of the televised Academy Awards ceremonies, according to Nielsen ratings. The record, , remains unbroken thanks to the emergence of the Super Bowl as the biggest annual event of awards season. "Midnight Cowboy" became the first and so far, the only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its rating has since been downgraded to R. The previous year had seen the only G-rated film to win Best Picture, Carol Reed's "Oliver!". "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" set an Oscar record