21st Academy Awards 21st Academy Awards The 21st Academy Awards features numerous firsts. It was the first time a non-Hollywood production won Best Picture, "Hamlet" and the first time an individual (Laurence Olivier) directed himself in an Oscar-winning performance. It was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be giving awards for Best Costume Design. John Huston directed two films in this awards year for which his actors won Oscars: his father, Walter Huston, in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"; and Claire Trevor for "Key Largo". The Huston family won three Oscars that evening. The ceremony was moved from the Shrine Auditorium to
John Huston pictures, but as a spectator only. To Huston, "Charlie Chaplin was a god." He moved back to New York to live with his father, who was then acting in off-Broadway productions, and John had a few small roles. He remembers, while watching his father rehearse, being fascinated with the mechanics of acting: What I learned there, during those weeks of rehearsal, would serve me for the rest of my life. After a short period acting on stage, and having undergone surgery, he traveled on his own to Mexico. During his two years there, among his other adventures, he got a