The historical past of The Oscars is lengthy and storied, and all through its a few years of existence, there have been loads of fascinating moments, nominations, and wins. From unimaginable moments like Parasite‘s historic Oscars win in 2020, to the insane and surprising Will Smith slap on the 2022 Oscars heard world wide, the Academy Awards have been a staple of Hollywood since their inception, persevering with to this present day with the 97th Academy Awards in 2025. One movie, starring basic Western icon Henry Fonda, made Oscars historical past with its distinctive Finest Image nomination in 1944, a feat which has but to be repeated.
Henry Fonda was an American actor born in 1905, who started as a Broadway actor earlier than transferring to Hollywood within the Thirties, changing into very well-known for his advanced characters in movies such because the practically good 12 Offended Males and My Darling Clementine. He earned two Academy Award nominations over his profession for Finest Actor, incomes Fonda the title of the oldest winner of the award for his final theatrically launched movie, On Golden Ponds. Nonetheless, one different movie that he starred in, The Ox-Bow Incident, earned an Oscars achievement that has not been replicated within the a few years since.
The Ox-Bow Incident Is The Solely Film To Be Nominated In Finest Image Alone
Each Different Finest Image Film Had At Least One Extra Nomination
The Ox-Bow Incident was a Henry Fonda Western from 1943, additionally starring Dana Andrews and Mary Beth Hughes, which instructed the story of a pair of cowboys who be part of with a gaggle of townspeople to catch a gaggle of people that killed a rancher and stole his cattle. The movie was acquired very positively, ultimately incomes itself a Finest Image nomination on the sixteenth Academy Awards. The fascinating wrinkle with this movie particularly is that Finest Image is the one award it was nominated for, with no illustration in every other class.
The movie to earn Finest Image on the sixteenth Academy Awards was
Casablanca
, which was nominated for seven different awards, profitable three in whole.
Loads of movies all through the years have solely earned a single nomination, however The Ox-Bow Incident stands alone with its singular Finest Image nomination, as no movie since 1944 has acquired the identical, even up via the 2025 Finest Image candidates. That ceremony particularly was one of many few instances that 10 movies had been nominated for Finest Image, so whereas the precise causes that Ox-Bow did not obtain any nominations outdoors of Finest Image cannot be identified, it’s possible that the movie solely simply made the minimize as a nominee, and the opposite classes had been already largely locked in.
Why No Different Movie Has Matched The Ox-Bow Incident’s Oscars Accomplishment
Why It Hasn’t Occurred At All Since 1944
Whereas at first, it appears stunning that there’s just one movie to earn this mixture of nominations, it does make sense, because the classes that encompass Finest Image are all elements that go into deciding how good a movie is. Finest Image nominees are supposed to be the perfect movies of the yr, which normally entails excellence in a number of different classes, such because the Finest Screenplay or Finest Actor classes. Based mostly on the 2025 Oscars nominations which have continued this achievement’s rarity, it could be a while earlier than one other movie achieves what The Ox-Bow Incident did.
Oscars
The Oscars, also called The Academy Awards, is an annual awards present celebrating employees within the movie business for his or her inventive and technical skills. The Oscars are sometimes thought of essentially the most prestigious awards present within the business and date again to 1929. The 96th Academy Awards shall be held on March 10, 2024, and be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC.