Grand openings: People who won Oscars for their first films (2024)

In addition to an awesome amount of skill, winning an Academy Award takes a combination of both favorable timing and a little bit of luck. When an accomplished actor such as Leonardo DiCaprio takes a longer-than-expected amount of time to win his first (25 years, in Leo’s case), fans react with shock. Then consider others — such as Tom Cruise and Glenn Close — who have still never won.

On the other hand, some actors, directors and screenwriters get lucky right out of the gate: first movie, first Oscar. Although this is an exclusive group, it contains a few folks who might surprise you. Here are 25 people who won Oscars for their first films.

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The 9th Academy Awards were the first to offer the category of Best Supporting Actress, and it was the first and only time Gale Sondergaard won an Oscar. This win was especially unique, however, because Sondergaard’s role in 1936’s "Anthony Adverse"was her very first film role. Sondergaard went on to have a film and TV career that spanned almost 50 years (although she didn’t act for 20 years after her husband appeared on the House Un-American Activities Committee’s infamous “Hollywood Ten” list), landing another Academy Award nomination in 1946 for "Anna and the King of Siam."

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After co-founding the National Theatre of Greece in 1932, Katina Paxinou fled the country at the outbreak of World War II and eventually ended up in the United States. Her very first film appearance, playing the role of Pilar alongside Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman in"For Whom the Bell Tolls," earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1944. After only a few more films, Paxinou returned to Greece in 1955.

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Former soldier Harold Russell owns numerous interesting distinctions. He won an Oscar for his very first film, 1946’s"The Best Years of Our Lives." He was the first non-professional actor to ever win an Academy Award for acting. He was the only person to win two Oscars for the same role (the Academy also gave him an honorary award for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." And he’s the only performer to ever sell his Oscar statue at auction. Russell also took a 34-year break from acting between his first and second films, lost both his hands during a 1944 military explosion, and used two hooks in their stead. This of course raises the question: How has his story not been made into a movie?!

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Although Orson Welles once called her “the world’s greatest living radio actress,” Mercedes McCambridge also forged a 37-year movie and TV career. Her first film role in the 1949 film"All the King’s Men" won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, with the movie itself also winning Best Picture. She later received another Oscar nomination for appearing in"Giant" alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean but did not win.

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After winning a Tony Award as Lola Delaney in"Come Back, Little Sheba," Shirley Booth reprised the role in the film adaptation, which nabbed her an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actress in 1953. It was Booth’s first film and one of only five in her acting career. Booth also was a Broadway star, although she also starred in the TV sitcom"Hazel," which earned her two Emmys.

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After starting her career as an NBC page, Eva Marie Saint eventually found her way on screen and earned two Emmy nominations before appearing in her first film, Elia Kazan’s"On the Waterfront," at age 30. Saint’s portrayal of Edie alongside Marlon Brando earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and all in all, the film won eight honors at the 1955 award show.

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Delbert Mann began his career as a TV show director, but after only a handful of credits he transitioned into film. Experience apparently didn’t matter much to Mann, as his directorial film debut, the 1955 romantic drama"Marty," won four Academy Awards. In addition to a Best Director nod,"Marty" also picked up honors for Best Picture, Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

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After building a successful career on stage and winning a Tony Award, Jo Van Fleet was recruited by director Elia Kazan (him again!) to star in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s "East of Eden." Van Fleet won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this role at the 28th Annual Academy Awards in 1956.

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When director Robert Wise was selected to spearhead the film adaptation of"West Side Story," he enlisted the show’s creator and choreographer, Jerome Robbins, to co-direct. The only problem was that Robbins had no film experience whatsoever, and he nearly suffered a nervous breakdown from the pressures of filming. Although Robbins was dismissed only one-third of the way into the production, Wise insisted upon sharing directorial credit with him, and thus Robbins won an Oscar for his first and only film.

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After compiling an already-impressive stage career, Julie Andrews transitioned to film with 1964’s"Mary Poppins." Interestingly, Andrews first declined the role due to her pregnancy at the time, but Walt Disney insisted he would wait for her. Both director and star were rewarded in 1965 when Andrews won a Best Actress Oscar, in addition to the film earning honors for Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song and Best Score.

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After she starred in "Funny Girl" on Broadway and in London and amassed four Grammys, it only made sense to cast Barbra Streisand as the lead in the show’s 1968 film adaptation. Babs’ role earned her both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actress, although she actually shared the former with Katharine Hepburn — the first tie ever in this category. In total, Streisand has won 10 Grammys, nine Golden Globes, five Emmys, two Oscars, a Tony and a Peabody.

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The 1973 film "Paper Moon" is notable for being director Peter Bogdanovich’s most successful movie, starring the real-life father and daughter duo of Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, and making Tatum the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award. She was only 10 years old when presented with the Best Supporting Actress accolade.

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After only appearing in a handful of TV movies, Timothy Hutton was cast alongside Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch in Robert Redford’s 1980 film "Ordinary People." Although he was only 20 years old at the time, Hutton won a Best Supporting Actor award for his role in the film, becoming the youngest actor to do so.

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Although he had no previous acting experience, Dr. Haing S. Ngor was cast in the 1984 film"The Killing Fields," playing a Cambodian journalist living under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. As Ngor was actually imprisoned three times by the Khmer Rouge, he was a perfect fit and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985. To date, Ngor is the only actor of Asian descent to earn the award.

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Not only did Marlee Matlin win a Best Actress Oscar for her first film, 1986’s"Children of a Lesser God," but she also became the first deaf person to earn the award. As if that wasn’t enough, Matlin also nabbed a Golden Globe for the same role.

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Little Anna Paquin was only 10 years old when she auditioned for the main role in"The Piano" and actually only attended the tryout to accompany her sister. However, Paquin caught the eye of director Jane Campion, beat out 5,000 other young actresses to earn the role and won a Best Supporting Actress award in 1994 at the age of only 11.

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Although he has since become famous for directing films such as"Road to Perdition," "Jarhead," "Revolutionary Road," "Away We Go," and the "Skyfall" and "Spectre" James Bond installments, Sam Mendes was unknown outside of the theater world when he directed his first film, 1999’s"American Beauty ." However, as you may recall, the film cleaned up at the 72nd Academy Awards, not only winning Best Director accolades for Mendes, but also Best Picture, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

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Not only was 2006’s"Little Miss Sunshine" the directorial debut of husband and wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, but it was the first screenplay written by Michael Arndt — and it only took him three days to complete the rough draft. Dayton and Faris didn’t personally win an Oscar, but Arndt won for his screenplay, and Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor. Arndt also earned an Academy Award nomination for his second screenplay, 2010’s "Toy Story 3," and more recently penned the initial script for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

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Jennifer Hudson first came into our lives via the 2004 season of"American Idol." However, she didn’t win, actually finishing seventh in the competition. Of course that matters little now, as Hudson expanded her skill set to include acting and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her very first film, the 2006 musical drama"Dreamgirls."

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Like all aspiring modern-day writers, Diablo Cody penned the script for the 2007 comedy "Juno"in a Starbucks. She was also previously a stripper (specifically a “feminist stripper”) who wrote a memoir at age 27, only months before the"Juno" script, which earned her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

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You won’t see a lot of first-time screenplay writers beginning their careers with adaptations, but that was the route taken by Geoffrey Fletcher."Precious" (based on the novel"Push"by Sapphire) won him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2010. He was the first African-American to ever win an Oscar for writing. Since then, Fletcher’s only other screenwriting credit was the 2011 comedy crime drama"Violet & Daisy."

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Mark Boal was initially a journalist by trade, and a 2003 article of his that was published inPlayboy inspired writer/director Paul Haggis to adapt it into a screenplay, which eventually became"In the Valley of Elah." Fueled by this success and his experiences embedded with soldiers in Iraq, Boal later penned the original screenplay for the 2009 film"The Hurt Locker." Not only did he win an Oscar for his writing, but the movie also won Best Picture. Boal also went on to write the script for the Oscar-nominated film "Zero Dark Thirty."

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This one’s a two-for! Although Jim Rash and Nat Faxon have both been acting since the '90s, their only previous writing experience was a single TV movie they penned together in 2005. A few years later, however, they teamed up with writer/director/producer Alexander Payne ("Election," "About Schmidt," "Sideways") to turn the 2007 Kaui Hart Hemmings novel"The Descendants" into a film of the same name.

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Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents, which made her both the first Mexican and the first Kenyan actress to win an Academy Award when she was named Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 2013 film"12 Years a Slave." Although she had previously appeared in a short movie, this was Nyong’o first foray into feature-length films. She has since appeared in"Non-Stop," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "The Jungle Book" and "The Queen of Katwe," and will reprise her Star Wars motion capture role later this year in"Episode VIII."