60th Academy Awards


The 60th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, took place on April 11, 1988, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 22 categories honoring films released in 1987. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and directed by Marty Pasetta. Actor Chevy Chase hosted the show for the second consecutive year. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on March 27, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Shirley Jones.
The Last Emperor won nine awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Bernardo Bertolucci. For their performances in Moonstruck, Cher and Olympia Dukakis won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Michael Douglas won Best Actor for his role in Wall Street; Sean Connery won Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables. The telecast garnered 42.2 million viewers in the United States.

Winners and nominees

The nominees for the 60th Academy Awards were announced on February 16, 1988, at 5:38 a.m. PST at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Robert Wise, president of the Academy, and actress Shirley MacLaine. The Last Emperor received the most nominations with nine total; Broadcast News came in second with seven.
The winners were announced at the awards ceremony on April 11, 1988. The Last Emperor became the second film after 1958's Gigi to earn nine Oscar nominations and win all of them. For the first time in Oscar history, all five Best Director nominees were born outside the United States. Best Actor winner Michael Douglas became the second person to win Oscars for both acting and producing; he previously won a Best Picture award as co-producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Awards

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

  • Bernardo Bertolucci – The Last Emperor
  • * Adrian Lyne – Fatal Attraction
  • * John Boorman – Hope and Glory
  • * Norman Jewison – Moonstruck
  • * Lasse Hallström – My Life as a Dog
  • Michael Douglas – Wall Street as Gordon Gekko
  • * William Hurt – Broadcast News as Tom Grunick
  • * Marcello Mastroianni – Dark Eyes as Romano
  • * Jack Nicholson – Ironweed as Francis Phelan
  • * Robin Williams – Good Morning, Vietnam as Adrian Cronauer
  • Cher – Moonstruck as Loretta Castorini
  • * Glenn Close – Fatal Attraction as Alex Forrest
  • * Holly Hunter – Broadcast News as Jane Craig
  • * Sally Kirkland – Anna as Anna
  • * Meryl Streep – Ironweed as Helen Archer
  • Sean Connery – The Untouchables as Jim Malone
  • * Albert Brooks – Broadcast News as Aaron Altman
  • * Morgan Freeman – Street Smart as Leo "Fast Black" Smalls Jr.
  • * Vincent Gardenia – Moonstruck as Cosmo Castorini
  • * Denzel Washington – Cry Freedom as Steve Biko
  • Olympia Dukakis – Moonstruck as Rose Castorini
  • * Norma Aleandro – ' as Florencia Sánchez Morales
  • * Anne Archer – Fatal Attraction as Beth Gallagher
  • * Anne Ramsey – Throw Momma from the Train as Mrs. Lift
  • * Ann Sothern – The Whales of August as Tisha Doughty
  • Moonstruck – John Patrick Shanley
  • * Au revoir les enfants – Louis Malle
  • * Broadcast News – James L. Brooks
  • * Hope and Glory – John Boorman
  • * Radio Days – Woody Allen
  • The Last Emperor – Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci based on the autobiography From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi by Henry Pu Yi
  • * The Dead – Tony Huston based on the short story by James Joyce
  • * Fatal Attraction – James Dearden based on the teleplay Diversion by James Dearden
  • * Full Metal Jacket – Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford based on the novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford
  • * My Life as a Dog – Lasse Hallström, Reidar Jonsson, Brasse Brännström, and Per Berglund based on the novel Mitt liv som hund by Reidar Jönsson
  • Babette's Feast in Danish and French – Gabriel Axel
  • * Au revoir les enfants in French – Louis Malle
  • * Course Completed in Spanish – José Luis Garci
  • * The Family in Italian – Ettore Scola
  • * Pathfinder in Sami – Nils Gaup
  • The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table – Aviva Slesin
  • * Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years/Bridge to Freedom 1965 – Callie Crossley and James A. DeVinney
  • * ' – John Junkerman and John W. Dower
  • * Radio Bikini – Robert Stone
  • * A Stitch for Time – Barbara Herbich and Cyril Christo
  • Young at Heart – Sue Marx and Pamela Conn
  • * ' – Deborah Dickson
  • * In the Wee Wee Hours... – Frank Daniel and Izak Ben-Meir
  • * Language Says It All – Megan Williams
  • * Silver into Gold – Lynn Mueller
  • Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall – Jonathan Sanger and Jana Sue Memel
  • * Making Waves – Ann Wingate
  • * Shoeshine – Robert A. Katz
  • The Man Who Planted Trees – Frédéric Back
  • * George and Rosemary – Eunice Macaulay
  • * Your Face – Bill Plympton
  • The Last Emperor – David Byrne, Cong Su, and Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • * Cry Freedom – George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa
  • * Empire of the Sun – John Williams
  • * The Untouchables – Ennio Morricone
  • * The Witches of Eastwick – John Williams
  • " The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing – Music by Franke Previte, John DeNicola, and Donald Markowitz; Lyrics by Franke Previte
  • * "Cry Freedom" from Cry Freedom – Music and Lyrics by George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa
  • * "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" from Mannequin – Music and Lyrics by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren
  • * "Shakedown" from Beverly Hills Cop II – Music by Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey; Lyrics by Harold Faltermeyer, Keith Forsey, and Bob Seger
  • * "Storybook Love" from The Princess Bride – Music and Lyrics by Willy DeVille
  • The Last Emperor – Bill Rowe and Ivan Sharrock
  • * Empire of the Sun – Robert Knudson, Don Digirolamo, John Boyd, and Tony Dawe
  • * Lethal Weapon – Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore, and Bill Nelson
  • * RoboCop – Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin, and Robert Wald
  • * The Witches of Eastwick – Wayne Artman, Tom Beckert, Tom E. Dahl, and Art Rochester
  • The Last Emperor – Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti; Set Decoration: Bruno Cesari and Osvaldo Desideri
  • * Empire of the Sun – Art Direction: Norman Reynolds; Set Decoration: Harry Cordwell
  • * Hope and Glory – Art Direction: Anthony D. G. Pratt; Set Decoration: Joanne Woollard
  • * Radio Days – Art Direction: Santo Loquasto; Set Decoration: Carol Joffe, Leslie Bloom, and George DeTitta Jr.
  • * The Untouchables – Art Direction: Patrizia von Brandenstein and William A. Elliott; Set Decoration: Hal Gausman
  • The Last Emperor – Vittorio Storaro
  • * Broadcast News – Michael Ballhaus
  • * Empire of the Sun – Allen Daviau
  • * Hope and Glory – Philippe Rousselot
  • * Matewan – Haskell Wexler
  • Harry and the Hendersons – Rick Baker
  • * Happy New Year – Bob Laden
  • The Last Emperor – James Acheson
  • * The Dead – Dorothy Jeakins
  • * Empire of the Sun – Bob Ringwood
  • * Maurice – Jenny Beavan and John Bright
  • * The Untouchables – Marilyn Vance-Straker
  • The Last Emperor – Gabriella Cristiani
  • * Broadcast News – Richard Marks
  • * Empire of the Sun – Michael Kahn
  • * Fatal Attraction – Michael Kahn and Peter E. Berger
  • * RoboCop – Frank J. Urioste
  • Innerspace – Dennis Muren, Bill George, Harley Jessup, and Kenneth F. Smith'
  • * Predator'' – Joel Hynek, Robert M. Greenberg, Richard Greenberg, and Stan Winston

    • Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

    The award honors "creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production".
    The following 12 films received multiple nominations:
    NominationsFilm
    9The Last Emperor
    7Broadcast News
    6Moonstruck
    5Hope and Glory
    4The Untouchables
    3Cry Freedom
    2Au revoir les enfants
    2The Dead
    2Ironweed
    2My Life as a Dog
    2Radio Days
    2RoboCop
    2The Witches of Eastwick

    The following two films received multiple awards:
    AwardsFilm
    9The Last Emperor
    3Moonstruck

    Presenters and performers

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

    Presenters

    Performers

    Ceremony information

    In view of the 60th anniversary of the Academy Awards, the Academy hired film producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. in October 1987 to oversee the telecast for the second straight year. Three months later, Goldwyn selected actor and comedian Chevy Chase to emcee the 1988 ceremony. In addition, after being held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for almost two decades, AMPAS decided to move the telecast to the Shrine Auditorium in order to accommodate more rehearsal time and take advantage of the large venue's seating capacity. This marked the first time the facility served as the site for the Oscars since the 20th ceremony held in 1948. Additionally, Goldwyn and Passetta originally planned to feature pre-recorded red carpet arrivals footage of actors who had roles in the 59 previous Best Picture winners. However, the segment was dropped altogether due to traffic problems amongst guests arriving to the ceremony.
    Furthermore, the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, which began more than a month before the ceremony, affected the telecast and its surrounding events. Despite the Writers Guild of America refusing to grant a waiver permitting writers to work on the scripted dialogue for the gala, the three head writers for the telecast, Ernest Lehman, Melville Shavelson, and Jack Rose, assured to the Academy and ABC that more than half of the material had already been completed. To compensate for the missing portions of the script, Goldwyn heavily utilized comedians such as John Candy, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams to ad lib and improvise jokes. During the show, many of the participants expressed support for the writers such as Best Supporting Actor winner Sean Connery who remarked in his acceptance speech, "If such a thing as a wish accompanied this award mine would be that we ended the writers' strike."

    Box office performance of nominated films

    At the time of the nominations announcement on February 16, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $221 million with an average of $48.9 million. Fatal Attraction was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $142 million in the domestic box office receipts. The film was followed by Broadcast News, Moonstruck, The Last Emperor, and Hope and Glory.
    Of the 50 highest-grossing movies of the year, 39 nominations went to 17 films on the list. Only Fatal Attraction, The Untouchables, Good Morning Vietnam, Throw Momma from the Train, Full Metal Jacket, Broadcast News, Wall Street, and Moonstruck were nominated for Best Picture, acting, directing, or screenwriting. The other top 50 box office hits that earned nomination were Beverly Hills Cop II, Lethal Weapon, The Witches of Eastwick, Dirty Dancing, Predator, RoboCop, Mannequin, The Princess Bride, and Innerspace.

    Critical reviews

    The telecast received a negative reception from media outlets. Los Angeles Times television critic Howard Rosenberg commented, "Monday night's Academy Awards telecast on ABC was the Michael Dukakis and George Bush of TV awards programs: parched, drab and leaden. You kept hoping they'd draft Mario Cuomo." Tom Shales from The Washington Post wrote, "Of hope there was little and of glory almost none last night at the 60th annual Academy Awards, telecast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on ABC. Even considering the low standards set in previous years, the program seemed unusually lackluster from the word go." Columnist Matt Roush of USA Today quipped, "Chevy Chase stopped the show. Cold. Over and over. As the ever-unctuous host, he tried to get laughs by picking his nose and sneezing into his hand when his ad-libs failed, which was often." He also observed that The Last Emperor domination of the awards created a dull and anticlimactic atmosphere to the proceedings.

    Ratings and reception

    The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 42.2 million people over its length, which was a 13% increase from the previous year's ceremony. An estimated 70 million total viewers watched all or part of the awards. The show also drew higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 29.2% of households watching over a 49 share.
    In July 1988, the ceremony presentation received four nominations at the 40th Primetime Emmys. The following month, the ceremony won one of those nominations for Outstanding Variety Music Events Programming.

    Official websites