56th Academy Awards


The 56th Academy Awards were presented April 9, 1984, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, hosted by Johnny Carson.
The Best Supporting Actress winner this year was unique; Linda Hunt won for her role as Billy Kwan a male Chinese-Australian photographer in Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously, making her the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex.
Gordon Willis, a respected cinematographer most famous for his work on The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Woody Allen's Manhattan, received his first Best Cinematography nomination for Zelig.
Joe I. Tompkins was the first African-American to be nominated in Best Costume Design.
James L. Brooks won three Academy Awards, as producer, director and writer of Best Picture winner Terms of Endearment. Of its other eight nominations, two were for Best Actress; Shirley MacLaine won over Debra Winger in that category. The movie won five Oscars in total, the fifth being Jack Nicholson for Best Supporting Actor, his second career win.
This ceremony ended with Sammy Davis Jr. and Liza Minnelli leading the crowd in "There's No Business Like Show Business" in tribute to Ethel Merman, who had died a month and a half before the ceremony. The performance occurred over the closing credits of the broadcast.
The Award for Best Makeup was not given this year.
While this year's ceremony was the first without the recitation of the Academy's voting procedure at the beginning of the telecast — it was moved to the end credits — those of the accounting firm Price Waterhouse who were responsible for tabulating the results and guarding their secrecy were still introduced.

Awards

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger.
Best PictureBest Director

  • James L. Brooks – Terms of Endearment
  • *Peter Yates – The Dresser
  • *Ingmar Bergman – Fanny and Alexander
  • *Mike Nichols – Silkwood
  • *Bruce Beresford – Tender Mercies
    • Best ActorBest Actress
  • Robert Duvall – Tender Mercies as Mac Sledge
  • *Michael Caine – Educating Rita as Prof. Frank Bryant
  • *Tom Conti – Reuben, Reuben as Gowan McGland
  • *Tom Courtenay – The Dresser as Norman
  • *Albert Finney – The Dresser as Sir
  • Shirley MacLaine – Terms of Endearment as Aurora Greenway
  • *Jane Alexander – Testament as Carol Wetherly
  • *Meryl Streep – Silkwood as Karen Silkwood
  • *Julie Walters – Educating Rita as Susan "Rita" White
  • *Debra Winger – Terms of Endearment as Emma Greenway-Horton
    • Best Supporting ActorBest Supporting Actress
  • Jack Nicholson – Terms of Endearment as Garrett Breedlove
  • *Charles Durning – To Be or Not to Be as S.S. Colonel Erhardt
  • *John Lithgow – Terms of Endearment as Sam Burns
  • *Sam Shepard – The Right Stuff as Chuck Yeager
  • *Rip Torn – Cross Creek as Marsh Turner
  • Linda Hunt – The Year of Living Dangerously as Billy Kwan
  • *Cher – Silkwood as Dolly Pelliker
  • *Glenn Close – The Big Chill as Sarah Cooper
  • *Amy Irving – Yentl as Hadass Vishkower
  • *Alfre Woodard – Cross Creek as Beatrice "Geechee"
    • Best Screenplay Written Directly for the ScreenBest Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
  • Tender Mercies – Horton Foote
  • *The Big Chill – Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek
  • *Fanny and Alexander – Ingmar Bergman
  • *Silkwood – Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen
  • *WarGames – Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes
  • Terms of Endearment – James L. Brooks based on the novel by Larry McMurtry
  • *Betrayal – Harold Pinter based on his play
  • *The Dresser – Ronald Harwood based on his play
  • *Educating Rita – Willy Russell based on his play
  • *Reuben, Reuben – Julius J. Epstein based on the play Spofford by Herman Shumlin
    • Best Foreign Language FilmBest Documentary Feature
  • Fanny and Alexander
  • *The Ball
  • *Carmen
  • *Entre Nous
  • *The Revolt of Job
  • He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin – Emile Ardolino
  • *Children of Darkness – Richard Kotuk and Ara Chekmayan
  • *First Contact – Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson
  • *The Profession of Arms – Michael Bryans and Tina Viljoen
  • *Seeing Red – James Klein and Julia Reichert
    • Best Documentary Short SubjectBest Live Action Short Film
  • – Cynthia Scott and Adam Symansky
  • *' – Vivienne Verdon-Roe and Eric Thiermann
  • *Sewing Woman – Arthur Dong
  • *' – Robert Eisenhardt
  • *You Are Free – Dea Brokman and Ilene Landis
  • Boys and Girls – Janice L. Platt
  • *Goodie-Two-Shoes – Ian Emes
  • *Overnight Sensation – Jon N. Bloom
    • Best Animated Short FilmBest Original Score
  • Sundae in New York – Jimmy Picker
  • *Mickey's Christmas Carol – Burny Mattinson
  • *Sound of Sunshine – Sound of Rain – Eda Godel Hallinan
  • The Right Stuff – Bill Conti
  • *Cross Creek – Leonard Rosenman
  • *Return of the Jedi – John Williams
  • *Terms of Endearment – Michael Gore
  • *Under Fire – Jerry Goldsmith
    • Best Original Song Score or Adaptation ScoreBest Original Song
  • Yentl – Song Score by Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman
  • *The Sting II – Adaptation Score by Lalo Schifrin
  • *Trading Places – Adaptation Score by Elmer Bernstein
  • "Flashdance... What a Feeling" from Flashdance – Music by Giorgio Moroder; Lyrics by Keith Forsey and Irene Cara
  • *"Maniac" from Flashdance – Music and Lyrics by Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky
  • *"Over You" from Tender Mercies – Music and Lyrics by Austin Roberts and Bobby Hart
  • *"Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl – Music by Michel Legrand; Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
  • *"The Way He Makes Me Feel" from Yentl – Music by Michel Legrand; Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
    • Best SoundBest Sound Effects Editing
  • The Right Stuff – Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Randy Thom and David MacMillan
  • *Never Cry Wolf – Alan Splet, Todd Boekelheide, Randy Thom and David Parker
  • *Return of the Jedi – Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Randy Thom and Tony Dawe
  • *Terms of Endearment – Donald O. Mitchell, Rick Kline, Kevin O'Connell and James R. Alexander
  • *WarGames – Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin and Willie D. Burton
  • The Right Stuff – Jay Boekelheide
  • *Return of the Jedi – Ben Burtt
    • Best Art DirectionBest Costume Design
  • Fanny and Alexander – Art Direction and Set Decoration: Anna Asp
  • *Return of the Jedi – Art Direction: Norman Reynolds, Fred Hole and James L. Schoppe; Set Decoration: Michael D. Ford
  • *The Right Stuff – Art Direction: Geoffrey Kirkland, Richard Lawrence, W. Stewart Campbell and Peter R. Romero; Set Decoration: Jim Poynter and George R. Nelson
  • *Terms of Endearment – Art Direction: Polly Platt and Harold Michelson; Set Decoration: Tom Pedigo and Anthony Mondello
  • *Yentl – Art Direction: Roy Walker and Leslie Tomkins; Set Decoration: Tessa Davies
  • Fanny and Alexander – Marik Vos
  • *Cross Creek – Joe I. Tompkins
  • *Heart Like a Wheel – William Ware Theiss
  • *The Return of Martin Guerre – Anne-Marie Marchand
  • *Zelig – Santo Loquasto
    • Best CinematographyBest Film Editing
  • Fanny and Alexander – Sven Nykvist
  • *Flashdance – Donald Peterman
  • *The Right Stuff – Caleb Deschanel
  • *WarGames – William A. Fraker
  • *Zelig – Gordon Willis
  • The Right Stuff – Glenn Farr, Lisa Fruchtman, Tom Rolf, Stephen A. Rotter, and Douglas Stewart'
  • *Blue Thunder – Frank Morriss and Edward M. Abroms
  • *Flashdance – Bud S. Smith and Walt Mulconery
  • *Silkwood – Sam O'Steen
  • *Terms of Endearment – Richard Marks

    • Honorary Academy Award

  • Hal Roach

    Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

  • M. J. Frankovich

    Special Achievement Academy Award

  • Return of the Jedi – Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston and Phil Tippett for Visual Effects

    Nomination announcements

    • The filmmakers and studio executives were very surprised by the five Academy Award nominations for Tender Mercies, which was released ten months before the nominations were announced and had received little campaigning. Universal Studios had already previously sold the video rights for Tender Mercies based on their lack of confidence in the film following poor test screenings; the studio was therefore unable to redistribute Tender Mercies after the Oscar nominations were announced, and cable companies ran the film on television one week before the Academy Award ceremony.

    Ceremony

    When screenwriter Horton Foote won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for To Kill a Mockingbird, he was not present at the 1963 ceremony to collect it because he did not believe he was going to win and did not attend. As a result, Foote made sure he was present for the ceremony when he was nominated for Tender Mercies; he won that Oscar as well, this time for Best Original Screenplay.
    This was the first awards show in history to use a computer-generated graphic timer clock to notify awardees how much time they had to give their speeches before time was up. The countdown clock was displayed on a large screen TV in front of the stage. It was controlled by the assistant director who had the discretion to activate it or not depending on the importance of the award and, for this show, was programmed for 30 seconds. This has since become a staple element of almost all award shows and is often followed up by the music when the awardee ignores the clock.

    Presenters and performers

    The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.

    Presenters

    NameRole
    Announcer of the 56th Academy Awards
    Gave opening remarks welcoming guests to the awards ceremony

    Mary Tyler Moore    		Presenters of the award for Best Supporting Actor

    Daryl Hannah    		Presenters of the award for Best Sound Effects Editing

    Michael Caine    		Presenters of the Short Subjects Awards

    Arnold Schwarzenegger    		Presenters of the Technical Achievement Awards
    Presenter of the award for Best Film Editing

    Michael Keaton    		Presenters of the award for Best Sound

    Joanna Pacula    		Presenters of the award for Best Cinematography

    Jack Valenti    		Presenters of the award for Best Foreign Language Film

    Jack Palance    		Presenters of the Documentary Awards
    Presenters of the award for Best Visual Effects

    Twiggy    		Presenters of the award for Best Costume Design

    Jane Powell    		Presenters of the award for Best Art Direction

    Matthew Broderick    		Presenters of the award for Best Original Song

    Gene Kelly    		Presenters of the award for Best Original Score
    Presenter of the award for Best Adapted Score

    Gene Hackman    		Presenters of the award for Best Supporting Actress

    Sissy Spacek    		Presenters of the Writing Awards
    Presenter of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to M. J. Frankovich
    Presenter of the award for Best Director

    George McFarland    		Presenters of the Honorary Award to Hal Roach

    Sylvester Stallone    		Presenters of the award for Best Actor

    Liza Minnelli    		Presenters of the award for Best Actress
    Presenter of the award for Best Picture

    Performers

    NameRolePerformed
    Musical arranger and conductorOrchestral

    The National Dance Institute    		Performers"Flashdance... What a Feeling" from Flashdance

    Lani Hall    		Performers"Maniac" from Flashdance
    Performer"Over You" from Tender Mercies
    Performer"Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl
    Performer"The Way He Makes Me Feel" from Yentl

    Liza Minnelli    		Performers"There's No Business Like Show Business"

    Multiple nominations and awards

    These films had multiple nominations:
    The following films received multiple awards.