And the Oscar goes to ... Austria!

Every Austrian is in an unbelievable euphoric mood since we got our first Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film (The Counterfeiters by Stefan Ruzowitzky).

Several Austrians were honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1936, when Viennese composer Max Steiner got his first Oscar. Steiner moved to the USA at the age of 26 and I don’t know if he would have labelled himself as Austrian or American. This is also true for a long list of other “Austrian” artists and performers who left Austria – for the well known reasons – before or during World War II.

From 1867 to 1918 the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a dual state, formed by Cisleithania (the later Austria) and Transleithania (the Kingdom of Hungary). I am quite sure that those who were born in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary would never agree to be included in a list of "Austrian" Oscar winners.

Still, there are 18 persons who won at least one Academy Award and who were born in Austria:
(The given years indicate the date of the ceremony at which the award was given)

6 Oscars:
Billy Wilder, born 1906 in Sucha, Galicia (today: Sucha Beskidzka, Poland):
1946 2 Oscars: Best Director and Best Writing (Screenplay) for The Lost Weekend
1951 Best Writing (Story and Screenplay) for Sunset Boulevard
1961 3 Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing (Story and Screenplay) for The Apartment
Additionally the Academy's Board of Governors awarded him with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988.

4 Oscars:
Fred Zinnemann, born 1907 in Vienna:
1952 Best Documentary (Short Subjects): Benjy
1954 Best Director for From Here to Eternity
1967 2 Oscars: Best Director and Best Picture for A Man for All Seasons

3 Oscars:
Maximilian ("Max") Raoul Steiner, born 1888 in Vienna:
1936 Best Music Score for The Informer
1943 Best Music for Now, Voyager
1945 Best Music for Since You Went Away
Besides his 3 Oscars, Steiner had additionally 21 Oscar-nominations (among them: Best Music for Gone With The Wind and Casablanca).

3 Oscars:
Sam Spiegel, born 1901 in Jarosław, Galicia (today: Poland):
1955 Best Picture for On the Waterfront
1958 Best Picture for The Bridge on the River Kwai
1963 Best Picture for Lawrence of Arabia
Additionally he was awarded with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award by the Academy's Board of Governors in 1964.

2 Oscars:
Harry Horner, born 1910, Holic (today: Czech Republic):
1950 Best Art Direction (Set Decoration) for The Heiress
1962 Best Art Direction (Set Decoration) for The Hustler
He is, by the way, father of James Horner (born 1953 in Los Angeles), who also got 2 Oscars: 1998 Best Music (Score) for Titanic and at the same time Best Music (Original Song) for the song My Heart Will Go On.

1 Oscar each:

1937: Paul Muni, born 1895 as Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund in Lviv, Galicia (today: Ukraine): Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Story of Louis Pasteur

1938: Joseph Schildkraut, born 1896 in Vienna: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Life of Emile Zola

1938: Karl Freund, born 1890 in Dvůr Králové nad Labem (today: Czech Republic): Best Cinematography for The Good Earth. In 1955 he got the Technical Achievement Award (together with Frank Crandell) for the development of a special brightness meter.

1939: Erich Wolfgang Korngold, born 1897 in Brno (today: Czech Republic): Best Music Score for The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold was also the composer of the score for Anthony Adverse, which was awarded as Best Music Score in 1936. This was the first Oscar ever awarded in this category. However, it was not given to the composer but to Leo F. Forbstein, musical director and conductor of Warner Brothers’ music department.

1942: Nathan Juran, born 1907 in Gura Humorului (today: Romania): Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration for How Green Was My Valley. (Interesting enough, this was a black-and-white film. So we will never find out how green the valley really was.)

1943: George Froeschel, born 1891 in Vienna: Best Writing (Screenplay) for Mrs. Minive

1952: John Alton, born in 1901 as Johann Altmann in Sopron (today: Hungary): Best Cinematography for An American in Paris

1954: Walter Reisch, born 1903 in Vienna: Best Writing (Story and Screenplay) for Titanic (not to be mixed up with James Cameron’s Titanic, winning 11 Oscars in 1998)

1959: Frederick Loewe, born 1901 in Vienna: Best Music (Original Song) for Gigi. I am not quite sure if Loewe (who was also the composer of “My fair Lady”) really was born in Vienna (Austria) or Berlin (Germany), as other sources assume. (It seems to be certain that his parents were Viennese and he himself grew up in Berlin, moved to the USA and died in Palm Springs in 1988).

1961: Ernest Gold, born 1921 in Vienna: Best Music (Scoring) for Exodus

1962: Maximilian Schell, born 1930 in Vienna: Best Actor in a Leading Role for Judgment at Nuremberg. By the way, Schell was 31 years and 122 days (from the date of his birth to the date of the awards ceremony) and therefore the fourth youngest Best (male) Actor in a Leading Role.

1979: Peter Zinner, born 1919 in Vienna: Best Film Editing for The Deer Hunter

2008: Stefan Ruzowitzky, born 1961 in Vienna: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (The Counterfeiters)

Some famous Austrian non-winning nominees

3 nominations:
Otto Preminger, born in Vyzhnytsia (today: Ukraine) had 3 nominations as Best Director (1945, 1960, and 1964).

2 nominations:
Robert Stolz, born 1880 in Graz, was nominated for 2 Oscars: 1941 for the Best Original Song and 1945 for the Best Music Score.

1 nomination:
1962: Lotte Lenya, born as Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer 1898 in Vienna, nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1962). She was the first and only female Austrian nominee.

1966: Oskar Werner, born 1922 in Vienna, nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role in Ship of Fools.

1986: Klaus Maria Brandauer, born 1944 in Bad Aussee, nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Out of Africa. Furthermore he found himself 1982 on stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Centre (which hosted the Oscar ceremony then) when he was the leading actor in Mephisto and could not refrain from congratulating his director, István Szabó (Hungary), after he was presented with the Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film.

1987: 38 Home to the Realm, directed by Wolfgang Glück (born 1929 in Vienna) was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film.

2006: Hubert Sauper, born 1966 in Kitzbühel, was nominated as the director of the Best Documentary (Features) for Darwin's Nightmare.

Maybe we also have to talk about a film, where you will find no Austrian participant, but still made Austria world-famous (and won 5 Oscars in 1966): The Sound of Music. You can see (the true) Maria Augusta von Trapp (born 1905 in Vienna) as actress in a short scene. And she was involved in writing the screenplay.

Last but not least we have to mention Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947 in Thal, Styria, Austria). Even if he never got an Oscar-Award, he was a presenter at four Annual Academy Awards ceremonies:
1984 he presented the Technical Achievement Award.
1995 he presented Clint Eastwood with the Irving G. Thalberg Award.
1998 he introduced the Best Picture nominee Titanic (which won 11 Oscars).
2000 he presented John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, and Rob Harvey with the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in Gladiator.

And the 81st Academy Awards next year?
"We`ll be back!"