Best Picture: The Sound of Music.
The Sound of Music also won Academy Awards for Directing (Robert Wise), Film Editing (William Reynolds), Music – Scoring of Music, adaptation or treatment (Irwin Kostal), and Sound (20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department and Todd-AO Sound Department).
This was the first year that the Academy Awards was broadcast in color.
To heighten the impact of the color broadcast, art directors Alexander Golitzen and William Morris designed an unusually spectacular set, which included 42 fountains spraying water.
Shelley Winters won for Best Supporting Actress (A Patch of Blue) and became the first actress to win two Oscars in that category. (Her first was for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1959.)
Bob Hope was the master of ceremonies.
Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of President Johnson, attended the Academy Awards presentation and was escorted by actor George Hamilton.
On January 24, 1965, Sir Winston Churchill died.
In February 1965, a red-and-white maple leaf design was inaugurated as the new flag of Canada.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, New York.
In July 1965, Bob Dylan angered many a folk purist when he played an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival.
On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
In October 1965, construction of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, was completed.
On November 8, 1965, the soap opera Days of Our Lives premiered on NBC.
On November 22, 1965, the musical Man of La Mancha opened in New York City.
On December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, aired on CBS.
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Edmond L. DePatie
Honorary Award
To Bob Hope for unique and distinguished service to our industry and the Academy.
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
To William Wyler.