20th Academy Awards

The 20th Academy Awards were held on March 20, 1948, to honor the films of 1947. It is notable for being the last Oscars until 2005 in which no film won more than three awards.

Rosalind Russell was highly favored—particularly in a poll from the Daily Variety —to win Best Actress for her performance in Mourning Becomes Electra, but Loretta Young won instead for The Farmer's Daughter.

James Baskett received an Academy Honorary Award for his portrayal of Uncle Remus in Song of the South, which made him the first African-American man, and the first actor in a Disney film, to win an Academy Award for acting.

Winning Best Supporting Actor at age 71, Edmund Gwenn became the oldest Oscar winner, taking the record from Charles Coburn, who was 66 at the time of his win in 1943 for The More the Merrier.

Darryl F. Zanuck, bitter over the failure of the 1944 biopic Wilson to win Best Picture, accepted the prize for Gentleman's Agreement by saying "this award will make up for previous disappointments.

Awards
Nominees were announced on February 13, 1948. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Academy Honorary Awards

 * James Baskett "for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world in Walt Disney's Song of the South".
 * Bill and Coo "in which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of the medium of motion pictures".
 * Colonel William N. Selig, Albert E. Smith, Thomas Armat and George K. Spoor members of "the small group of pioneers whose belief in a new medium, and whose contributions to its development, blazed the trail along which the motion picture has progressed, in their lifetime, from obscurity to world-wide acclaim".

Best Foreign Language Film

 * Shoeshine (Italy)