What was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture? The answer is Wings.
Directed by William A. Wellman, Wings is a 1927 silent war film about two American pilots competing for the same woman while serving during World War I. Its aerial combat scenes were celebrated for their realism and technical ambition, helping make the film one of the landmark aviation pictures of the silent era.
Wings won at the first Academy Awards ceremony, held on May 16, 1929, honoring films released during 1927 and 1928. The award was then called “Outstanding Picture” or “Best Picture, Production,” rather than simply Best Picture. Wings also won the award for Best Engineering Effects, presented to Roy Pomeroy.
The ceremony created a historical complication: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won the separate award for “Unique and Artistic Production.” The Academy soon discontinued that category and treated Wings as the official top-picture winner. Wings remains the only fully silent film to win the Academy’s top prize; The Artist later won while containing synchronized sound and a brief spoken-dialogue sequence.