The Academy Awards have evolved greatly since that first ceremony was held on May 16th, 1929 in the Blossom Ballroom of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. To quote the late, great Robert Osborne, who himself was the foremost expert on Oscar history, the early days were “a time of great changes everywhere, a dynamic period of transition.” And after the first decade, “the Academy Awards and the Academy itself had become prestigious parts of the film community.” Much of that first decade and beyond saw the Board of Governors and the Academy experimenting with new and shifting categories, establishing a variety of honorary awards and altering the selection process.

There was a time when winners were announced months before the actual ceremonies without nominees, just a sole winner and honorable mentions and when write-in nominations were allowed and the Board of Governors hand-selected winners without input from the Academy. The awards have changed over time and the process has been fine-tuned. While some categories have lasted to this day, many have been discontinued, relegated to the history books as anomalies of Oscar’s past. Let’s take a look at some of the most notable discontinued categories.

BEST UNIQUE AND ARTISTIC PICTURE: 

There were 12 award categories presented at the very first Academy Awards ceremony. A few of these were one-shot deals never to appear again. Best Picture, as it is known today, was split into two categories: Outstanding Picture and Unique and Artistic Picture. While WINGS (’27) is generally considered to be the first Best Picture winner, SUNRISE (’27) won Best Unique and Artistic Picture, a recognition no other film has earned since.

BEST DIRECTING, COMEDY PICTURE & DRAMATIC PICTURE: 

That same year, the Best Director category was split into two: Comedy Picture and Dramatic Picture. There were no nominees, just one winner and one or two honorees. Frank Borzage won the only Best Directing, Dramatic Picture Oscar for 7TH HEAVEN (’27) and Lewis Milestone won Best Directing, Comedy Picture for TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS (’27). Charlie Chaplin was to be nominated for directing THE CIRCUS (’28), but according to Robert Osborne, the Academy decided to give him a special award instead in recognition for directing, writing, producing and acting in the film. The Academy Board of Judges, as it was known at the time, sang Chaplin’s praises and in a letter wrote to him saying, “the collective accomplishments thus displayed place you in a class by yourself.”

BEST ENGINEERING EFFECTS: 

Special effects artist Roy Pomeroy won the first and only Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects for his work on WINGS (’27). Ralph Hammeras and Nugent Slaughter, the latter of whom was being recognized for his work on THE JAZZ SINGER (’27), received honorable mentions. This award disappeared until 1938 when it was given new life as the Best Special Effects Oscar. It split into two sub-categories: Photographic and Sound. In the mid-1940s, it was changed again to Visual and Audible. By 1963, the Academy decided to present the awards as Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. While Visual Effects is still an active category, Best Sound Editing was merged with Best Sound Mixing to become simply Best Sound.

JUVENILE OSCAR: 

From 1935 to 1961, the Academy presented miniature Oscar statuettes to juvenile actors in recognition for their outstanding contributions to film. There were 12 total recipients at 10 different award ceremonies. The first was Shirley Temple who at 6 years old was presented the statuette by Irvin S. Cobb. He declared “When Santa Claus brought you down Creation’s chimney, he brought the loveliest Christmas present that has ever been given to the world.” Other recipients included Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Peggy Ann Garner, Claude Jarman Jr., Bobby Driscoll and others. Both Garland and O’Brien’s Juvenile Oscars were stolen and the Academy replaced them with new statuettes. There were only 14 miniature statuettes ever made, making this one of the rarest Oscars in history not only because of its size but how few were made. The award wasn’t presented every year and was fairly inconsistent. The last to win was POLLYANNA (’60) star Hayley Mills. Shirley Temple presented the final award and Annette Funicello accepted it on Mills’ behalf. The award was retired and actors under the age of 18 were eventually recognized in the other acting categories.

BEST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: 

This is by far the strangest and least consistent of the discontinued categories. At the 6th Academy Awards in 1934, a whopping 18 assistant directors were nominated for this new category. Out of the 18 nominees, there were 7 winners each representing one of the major studios. The nominations were not tied to a specific movie, but rather served as recognition for work completed in 1932 and 1933. The first winners included: Charles Barton (Paramount), Scott Beal (Universal), Charles Dorian (MGM), Fred Fox (United Artists), Gordon Hollingshead (Warner Bros.), Dewey Starkey (RKO) and William Tummel (Fox). The category was presented at the next four Academy Awards but with only a few nominees and just one winner. After 1938, the Academy retired the category, choosing to focus on Best Director.

BEST DANCE DIRECTION:

Choreographers enjoyed some recognition during the hey-day of 1930s musical with the Best Dance Direction Oscar. This category was presented from 1936 to 1938. At the 8th Academy Awards, seven choreographers were nominated, each for two different musical numbers, not necessarily in the same film. Dave Gould won for his dance numbers in BROADWAY MELODY OF 1936 (’35) and FOLIES BERGERES DE PARIS (’35). The following two years, seven choreographers were nominated, each for just one dance number. This category was short-lived and did not make a comeback in 1939.

There are few things that fill me with more joy than a terrific New Year’s Eve celebration in a classic movie. New Year’s is a special holiday and, in my opinion, highly underrated. Think about it. It’s essentially everyone’s birthday. It’s a time for us to turn the page into a new chapter in our lives individually and collectively. It’s a time of hope, of resolution, of embracing change and of setting new goals for the future.

In movies, New Year’s can effectively demonstrate a character’s evolution. It can be strategic in a plot where the character sheds an old life in order to transition to a new one. It’s also a fantastic way to depict revelry with a grand party filled with confetti, streamers, noisemakers and a glass of champagne or two. And if you’re the type who prefers to stay at home for New Year’s, binge watching classic films like THE THIN MAN series or the Marx Bros. movies can be a wonderful way to wind down. Let’s ring in the New Year with some classic movies that embrace this very special holiday together.

When I think of New Year’s movies the first one that comes to mind is BACHELOR MOTHER (’39). Starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven, this delightful romantic comedy tells the story of a shopgirl who inadvertently winds up with an orphan baby and cannot convince anyone in her life that the baby is not her own. BACHELOR MOTHER has my favorite New Year’s Eve sequence. Rogers gets a complete makeover with new pieces from the department store, including a shimmery dress, a mink coat adorned with orchids, a veil, a purse, gloves and shoes. She is the epitome of elegance. The class difference becomes apparent here as David (David Niven) convinces Polly (Ginger Rogers) to speak fake Swedish so she won’t feel out of place with David’s upper-class cohorts. This is done to great comedic effect. The sequence goes on to include a four-course meal and plenty of dancing. The lovebirds get separated in a crowd in Times Square only to be reunited just in time for a New Year’s kiss.

In the Rat Pack movie OCEAN’S 11 (’60), New Year’s serves as the perfect time to orchestrate a major heist. Led by Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra), his team of 11 WWII buddies plan to rob millions from five Las Vegas casinos: the Desert Inn, the Flamingo, the Riviera, the Sahara and the Sands. The film stars Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Dean Martin and Joey Bishop accompanied by other talent including Richard Conte and Akim Tamiroff. The heist is timed specifically to ringing in of 1960. As everyone sings “Auld Lang Syne,” two members of the team blow up an electrical tower, blacking out the entire Las Vegas Strip. This is when the rest of the team get to work robbing each of the five casinos and making their escape. The characters find themselves at a crossroads in their lives in one way or another. While this isn’t explored with every character, it is examined with a handful. There has to be an impetus for them to commit this crime. New Year’s in 1960’s Las Vegas is a mix of kitsch and glamour. Each of the casinos has their own outlandishly styled party.

Who wouldn’t want to ring in the New Year with Nick and Nora (William Powell and Myrna Loy)? In AFTER THE THIN MAN (’36), the duo visits the Lychee Club, a seedy nightclub, on a mission to help Nora’s cousin Selma (Elissa Landi). Her husband Robert (Alan Marshall) has been missing for three days and the two discover that Robert has gotten involved with the wrong crowd. The film boasts a wild welcome home party followed by an equally epic New Year’s party at the Lychee. Nora tells Nick that she’s looking forward to their “first New Year’s alone” when suddenly they are joined by a group of ex-cons. Nick enjoys the revelry with scotch in one hand and a toy saxophone in another. There is an accidental kiss, lots of streamers, plenty of booze and two song-and-dance numbers led by hoofer/actress Penny Singleton.

THE APARTMENT (’60) is best known for being a dark romantic comedy set during the Christmas season, but New Year’s proves to be a major turning point for the two main characters. C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is working his way up the corporate ladder by letting his superiors make use of his apartment for their extramarital trysts. Things get complicated when he discovers that his love interest, elevator operator Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), is having an affair with his boss. Their Christmas Eve is dire with Kubelik attempting suicide and Baxter trying to bring her back to some semblance of a life. The New Year’s Eve sequence, set in a Chinese nightclub, much like in AFTER THE THIN MAN, is when Kubelik realizes she wants to shed he old life and start afresh. She quietly says “ring out the old year, ring in the new. Ring-a-ding-ding” as she contemplates a new life for herself, resulting in one of the most iconic ending scenes and lines in movie history.