Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front also won for Directing (Lewis Milestone)
Voting rules changed drastically; the nominations and winners were voted on by the entire Academy membership, not just by a board of judges.
Academy members, for the first time, were charged a $10 fee to attend the banquet and the event sold out.
Thomas A. Edison and George Eastman were both given honorary Academy memberships for their pioneering in the film medium. Although Edison did not attend the event, he provided a film that was shown after the banquet.
Eight awards were presented.
George Arliss won Best Actor for Disraeli and it was the first time a performer was honored by the Academy for recreating a role on screen which he had previously performed on stage.
On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
In November 1929, the Museum of Modern Art opened to the public in New York City.
In January 1930, the Mickey Mouse comic strip made its first appearance.
On April 18, 1930, the BBC Radio Service from London, somewhat infamously, reported on this day that There is no news.
In April 1930, Warner Bros. released the cartoon Sinkin’ in the Bathtub, the inaugural entry in its long-running Looney Tunes series, which was overseen by animation greats such as Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Tex Avery during its four decades of production.