Oscar Categories That No Longer Exist

The Academy Awards are a funny thing: At once steeped with tradition, yet desperately fighting to reinvent itself and retain relevancy at every turn. Although there are certain categories that have been with the iconic awards ceremony since the very beginning (it would hardly be the Oscars without best picture, best actor, best actress, and all the other heavy hitters, after all), others have come and gone. Sometimes this is in response to changes within the industry — types of films waxing or waning in popularity, for example, or certain elements of filmmaking becoming obsolete — while other times it’s decidedly more political. 

But the categories that the Academy Awards chooses to feature say almost as much about the state of the industry as do the films they celebrate. As Hollywood evolves, the Academy constantly finetunes its awards ceremony, and for that to happen, some categories have had to be jettisoned over the years. Pull out the awards speech you’ve been practicing in the mirror since you were 12 and put on your best “graceful loser” smile for the cameras, because these are the Oscar categories that are, for better or worse, no longer with us.

When the Academy Awards were first established in the 1920s, technical categories were fairly thin on the ground, despite the fact that filmmakers at the time were continually innovating new ways of telling stories on screen. One of the few technical awards that was handed out was best engineering effects, which was bestowed just once, to Roy Pomeroy for “Wings” in 1929. The 1927 World War I action romance starring Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Clara Bow was a massive undertaking, with battle sequences that required extensive coordination and hundreds of extras.

Although the best engineering effects award only lasted for one year, the Academy wasn’t done honoring cinema’s technical achievements. Best special effects was introduced as a competitive category in 1939 and was renamed as best special visual effects in 1965 and later to simply best visual effects in 1977. Ever since then, the best visual effects category has been celebrating the most impressive technical work, from practical effects to the best in CGI (and providing many action-based blockbusters with a little bit of Oscar attention along the way).

Modern audiences may think of a best title writing award and imagine someone winning an Oscar for developing an especially captivating opening credit sequence (which is, interestingly enough, a category at the Emmys). But this Academy Award, which was only handed out once at the very first Oscar ceremony, speaks to early cinema’s tradition of silent films in the 1920s. Although a movie without any talking could expect to impart the majority of its story with just its visuals, silent films frequently used intertitle cards to provide backstory, specific lines of dialogue, or even cheeky little asides to punch up the action. 

And just as someone wrote the story for these films, someone was also responsible for coming up with the phrasing that was included on these title cards — so it stands to reason that they should be recognized for their unique contribution to ensuring that their cinematic stories were understood and enjoyed by audiences. The sole winner of this award was Joseph W. Farnham back in 1929, who worked on several films during the period of eligibility — including “The Cameraman” and “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” — although he won for his work in general rather than on any specific production.

Remember when the Academy announced that it would be introducing an award for best popular film in 2018, only to walk it back when the idea was met with immediate backlash? Best unique and artistic picture was basically the opposite of that. At the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, there were two best picture categories: One went to a popular and politically savvy choice, “Wings,” while the other — best unique and artistic picture — went to a film that was a bit cynical and gloomy but has since gone on to be considered a cinematic masterpiece, “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.” 

This award, which was only handed out that one year, seems to reflect an early example of the Academy’s persistent desire to have their cake and eat it too. With the best unique and artistic picture award in play, they could be seen to legitimize the artistic merits of cinema while also honoring a crowdpleaser that had drawn the attention of American audiences. Although the award is long dead, it serves as a harbinger of the Academy’s constant war between artistry and the tastes of the general filmgoer.

Most people would probably agree that from a directorial standpoint, there’s not a ton of daylight between comedy and drama. Though there are subtle differences between directing both genres, the basic skill set is the same. But when the Academy first started handing out best director awards, it initially distinguished between the two, with two distinct categories in play. Like many of the other award categories that were introduced and subsequently discontinued, the best director, comedy and best director, drama awards were only given out at the first-ever Oscars ceremony in 1929 and were combined into one category for the rest of Academy Awards history.

In that first year, therefore, there were two winners. Pulled from a pool that contained three nominees in each category, Frank Borzage won for his work on the drama “7th Heaven,” while Lewis Milestone took home the best director, comedy award for “Two Arabian Nights.” At the third Academy Awards ceremony, Milestone earned his second Oscar for 1930’s “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and Borzage was not far behind — at the fifth Academy Awards, he won for “Bad Girl.”

The best original story Academy Award was in play from the first Oscars ceremony until 1957, when it was discontinued. But what distinguishes the best original story from the best original screenplay? They seem pretty similar. The best original story can best be understood within the context of the studio system, where a screenwriter (or team of screenwriters) would be responsible for writing the actual script, complete with dialogue, while the general story would often be developed by the director and producers. Thus, a film could win for its story but not its screenplay, or vice versa — or for both. 

As studios gradually grew to wield less power in Hollywood in the mid-to-late 1950s, and more films were produced independently, the best original story award seemed less relevant, since the people creating the scripts were generally also developing the story. It was awarded for the last time to Dalton Trumbo — then credited as Robert Rich after being blacklisted in Hollywood by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the anti-Communist Red Scare — in 1957 for “The Brave One.”

Nowadays, there are only three short subject categories at the Academy Awards (best documentary short, best animated short, and best live action short), and unfortunately, they’re often — unfairly, in our opinion — considered part of the second tier of the Oscars ceremony. But when the Academy was first established, short films took up a much larger role in the average theatergoer’s cinematic experience. Often, films were batched together, so you would see a few cartoon or comedy shorts in conjunction with a longer feature (or even two — going to the movies was an event back in the day). As a result, the early Oscars had not one, not two, but five different discontinued short subject categories.

The longest-lived of these categories were best short subject, one reel, and best short subject, two reel. This refers simply to the length of the films nominated, the first of which would run for about 11 minutes, while the latter would be double that. These awards were given for 20 years, from 1937 to 1957. Early on in Oscars history, from 1933 to 1936, we also had best short subject, comedy (which feels fairly self-explanatory), and best short subject, novelty, which were primarily documentary films. And lastly, for just two years from 1937 to 1938, there was a special short subject award handed out for films made in color. Whew — that’s a lot of short subjects!

Don’t get us wrong, assistant directors are the unsung heroes on any set — they do a ton of work that most people attribute to someone else. But it’s hard to imagine a modern-day AD having their own category at the Academy Awards, if only because these days the role has become so expansive and essential that it’s often divided into several different jobs. You’ll often see in the credits listed first assistant director, second assistant director, and so on — that’s because it has simply become too much work for one person! 

This Academy Award was handed out for four years, from 1934 to 1937, although its first year was in a very different iteration than all the rest. In 1934, the award was given to seven different winners, each from a different major Hollywood studio, and it wasn’t in recognition of any one film, but rather the breadth of their work over the course of the previous year. (From 1935 to 1937, it took on the more traditional format, with only one winner being awarded for a specific production they worked on.)

Few of the discontinued Oscar categories speak to changes within the entertainment industry as the removal of the best dance direction Oscar. When this award was first created in 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression when escapist movie musicals were all the rage and the introduction of sound made them the shiny new toy for audiences, there was seemingly no end to candidates for best dance direction. But it was only awarded three times, before being taken off the Academy roster for good. 

Part of this was because after the initial craze of movie musicals, the number of Busby Berkeley-esque dance scenes declined dramatically, and there were fewer films that could contend for the category. But more importantly, the best dance direction category was met with significant disapproval from the directors’ branch of the Academy, who sought to draw a distinguishing line between choreography and direction. After 1937, the Academy appeased what was one of their most powerful branches, removing the dance direction Oscar from consideration.

Out of all the Oscar categories that have been discontinued, best sound editing and best sound mixing are the most recent to bite the dust. They’ve had somewhat of a checkered past over the years — sound editing used to be awarded alongside best sound, often with only three nominees instead of the usual five for most other categories. For several years throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it was handed out as a non-competitive special achievement award, while in other years such as 1977, it wasn’t awarded to any film. 

Beginning in 2003, the best sound editing and best sound mixing categories were divided, although this solution led to widespread confusion, as many Oscar voters (outside of the sound department, that is) weren’t exactly sure what the difference between the two. As a result, the two categories were merged back into one overarching best sound category for the 93rd Academy Awards held in 2021. Although it resulted in fewer Oscars for the Sound branch, they were largely satisfied with the change, noting that there was significant overlap between sound editing and sound mixing.

Throughout the history of the Oscars, the best score category has been subject to many changes that reflected the trajectory of the industry as a whole. There were times when it was split into two categories — one for musical scores, and one for non-musical scores — while at other times it was divided into original and adapted scores. But this particular iteration of the award — best musical or comedy score — is one of the shortest lived in modern Oscars history. The first best musical or comedy score was handed out in 1996, which Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz took home for their work on Disney’s “Pocahontas.”

Just four short years later, however, this sub-category was eliminated from the awards show, and best score was streamlined into just one category. There’s a caveat, though: In 2000, the best original musical award was re-established, largely to compensate for the loss of this category. But to this date, it has yet to be reactivated, since there haven’t been enough films that meet its criteria.

Young actors have always had a role to play in the Academy Awards — Jackie Cooper was nominated for best actor for his work in “Skippy” at the ripe age of 9 in 1931, while Tatum O’Neal became the youngest ever best supporting actress in “Paper Moon” when she was 10 (although many consider this a particularly egregious example of category fraud). However, during the early years of the Academy Awards, they were acknowledged specifically with the Academy Juvenile Award. After all, it’s hard for kids to compete against adults who are often given much more nuanced material, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be recognized for their work in the industry.

The Academy Juvenile Award lasted from 1935, when Shirley Temple was its inaugural recipient, all the way until 1961, when Hayley Mills received one for her performance in “Pollyanna,” although they weren’t handed out every single year. Other notable Academy Juvenile Award winners include Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, and Bobby Driscoll. And the absolute cutest detail about the Academy Juvenile Award? Its mini-statuette stood at just seven inches tall, half the height of the adult-sized Oscar. Solana Token Creator