--- title: Oscar Nominations: How It Worked at the First Academy Awards description: The spectacle that will surround the nominations on Jan. 14 was absent from the first-ever Oscars canonical: https://time.com/4169410/first-oscar-nominations/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T19:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:49:44.442Z article:section: History og:title: Oscar Nominations: How It Worked at the First Academy Awards og:description: They weren't even made public og:url: https://time.com/4169410/first-oscar-nominations/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba2d04a95e2b302/698877d03c1639547c45b6f5/oscars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Academy Banquet og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oscar Nominations: How It Worked at the First Academy Awards twitter:description: They weren't even made public twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba2d04a95e2b302/698877d03c1639547c45b6f5/oscars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How the First Oscar Nominations Worked  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 13, 2016 7:00 PM UTC  Interior view of formally dressed men and women seated at tables during the May 11, 1927, first organizational meeting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Crystal Ballroom of the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel. Interior view of formally dressed men and women seated at tables during the May 11, 1927, first organizational meeting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Crystal Ballroom of the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel.Hulton Archive / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 13, 2016 7:00 PM UTC The announcement of the year’s Oscar nominees may not generate the hullabaloo of the actual ceremony, but the news—which will be delivered Thursday—has become an event unto itself. But that has not always been the case. As explained by Robert Osborne in his official history of the awards, [_85 Years of the Oscar_](http://www.amazon.com/85-Years-Oscar-Official-History/dp/0789211424/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452094828&sr=1-1&keywords=oscars+history#reader%5F0789211424), what was then called the Awards of Merit were pretty much an afterthought when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in 1927\. Seven people were on the committee dedicated to giving the awards, eventually deciding by mid-1928 to give 12 prizes. As they are today, the members of the Academy—a couple hundred people at that point—were given a list of eligible movies from which to make nominations. In each of the categories, the ten individuals or movies that received the most nominating votes made up what was essentially the list of nominees. But those lists weren’t made public, instead going to five separate judging committees, which narrowed each group down to a short list of three contenders. From that group, a Central Board of Judges—made up of an actor, a director, a producer, a writer and a “technician”—picked the winners. Half a year passed before the winners were announced in February of 1929, and another few months before they were [celebrated at a banquet](http://time.com/3711978/first-oscars/) that May. Today, eligible voting members of the Academy receive a 32-page [list](http://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/88th%5Freminder%5Flist.pdf) of movies that are up for awards and voting for nominations takes place over the New Year week, with most categories decided by members of the relevant branch (editors picking editors, for example). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4169410/first-oscar-nominations/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4169410/first-oscar-nominations/"},"headline":"Here's How the First Oscar Nominations Worked","datePublished":"2016-01-13T19:00:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:49:44.442Z","description":"They weren't even made public","url":"https://time.com/4169410/first-oscar-nominations/","keywords":["movies","awards","Oscars"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba2d04a95e2b302/698877d03c1639547c45b6f5/oscars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba2d04a95e2b302/698877d03c1639547c45b6f5/oscars.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Academy Banquet","caption":"Academy Banquet","creditText":"Hulton Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4169410/first-oscar-nominations/","name":"Here's How the First Oscar Nominations Worked"}}]}] ```