The Year's Best is a continual feature at The Kuleshov Effect. In these posts, I take a detailed and chronological look at films declared the “Best Picture” of a particular year by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These posts are not intended as discussions of whether or not these films “deserved” to win. Rather, they are simply my musings and thoughts on what are supposedly the cream of the crop of American cinema.Title: Wings
Director: William A. Wellman
Starring: Clara Bow, Richard Arlen, Charles "Buddy" Rogers
Wings was released in August of 1927, when Hollywood was still transitioning into the sound era – it is the only silent film to win top prize the Academy Awards. During the first Academy Award ceremony, Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won the statue for Most Artistic Quality of Production, while Wings received the Oscar for Best Overall Production. The two categories would be combined into one award, Best Production (the precursor to Best Picture) the following year.