Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, which were re-branded as The Oscars yesterday (February 20, 2013), are organised and overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
The first ceremony of the Oscars took place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on the 16th of May, 1929.
The award for Best Picture went to the movie Wings (1927). It is the only silent film to have won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Fifteen statuettes were awarded that night, however the winners had been announced 3 months earlier. The current system, in which the winners are known only in the ceremony, has been used since 1941.