San Francisco on the Big Screen

The Oscar nominations for 2010 have been announced, and while San Francisco didn't get much representation this year, Oscar has given our city quite a bit of love in the past. Over the past eight decades, sixty-four films that were shot in San Francisco have been nominated for Oscars. Twenty-four of those films took at least one Oscar home.

[Opening of the Fox Theater], 1929. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

San Francisco is a cinema-loving town and the San Francisco Public Library has plenty for film lovers to study and enjoy. You can check out a copy of Cinema by the Bay by Sheerly Avni or Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover's Guide to San Francisco Movie Locations by Jim van Buskirk and Will Shank at most SFPL branches.  You can access the Minutes of the San Francisco Film Commission online, or see them in print by visiting our neighbors at the Government Information Center on the 5th floor of the Main Library.

For even more about our city's second favorite thing to do in the dark, come on up to the San Francisco History Center for a look at vertical files of "SF. Film Festivals" and "SF. Films Made in San Francisco," as well as files on the theaters in which they were shown by asking for "SF. Buildings. Theaters".  The 6th Floor also has a copy of the classic, The Golden Gate and the Silver Screen by Geoffrey Bell. For those who want the whole experience, you can watch a film from the San Francisco History Center's collection (DVD or VHS) right here in our research friendly A/V room.

So, what about those 24 Oscar winning films shot in San Francisco? Here is a list, arranged by year, of the film titles and the categories that they won for:
(source: Internet Movie Database)
*updated 02/17/2015

• 1935  Mutiny on the Bounty (Best Picture) - apparently part of the Sailing Ship Restaurant at Pier 42, Embarcadero was a stand-in for 'The Bounty'
• 1936  San Francisco (Best Sound Recording) - one of the taglines for this film about the 1906 earthquake was "It started out like any other day!"
• 1950  All About Eve (6 Oscars, including Best Picture) - the Curran Theater is listed as a location
• 1956  Around the World in 80 Days (5 Oscars, including Best Picture) - if you're going around the world you're going to have to hit San Francisco!
• 1960  The Facts of Life (Best Costume Design) - SFO is listed as a location
• 1962  Days of Wine and Roses (Best Music, Original Song)
• 1967  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Best Writing and Best Actress - Leading Role (Katherine Hepburn))
• 1967  The Graduate (Best Director) - the Bay Bridge is listed as a location
• 1968  Bullitt (Best Film Editing) - who can forget the famous car chase scene?
• 1972  Butterflies Are Free (Best Actress - Supporting Role (Eileen Heckart))
• 1972  The Candidate (Best Writing)
• 1974  The Towering Inferno (3 Oscars, including Best Music, Original Song)
• 1978  Superman (Visual Effects) Lex Luthor: "We all have our little faults. Mine's in California."
• 1980  Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (Visual Effects and Best Sound) - the sound of Darth Vader's shuttle door opening is reportedly a recording of a whole block of Alcatraz cell doors slamming shut. (IMDb)
• 1982  Volver a empezar (Best Foreign Language Film (Spain))
• 1983  The Right Stuff (4 Oscars, including Best Film Editing)
• 1984  The Woman in Red (Best Music, Original Song)
• 1987  Innerspace (Best Effects, Visual)
• 1993  Mrs. Doubtfire (Best Makeup)
• 1997  Titanic (11 Oscars, including Best Picture) - engine room scenes and sound effects were recorded on the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien at Pier 45
• 1998  What Dreams May Come (Best Effects, Visual)
• 2000  U-571 (Best Sound Editing)
• 2005  Memoirs of a Geisha (3 Oscars, including Cinematography) - I remember saying, "Hey, that's the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park!"
• 2008  Milk (Best Writing and Best Actor - Leading Role (Sean Penn))
• 2009  Star Trek (Best Makeup)
• 2013  Blue Jasmine (Best Actress - Leading Role (Cate Blanchett))

["Packed house" at the Fox Theater], Feb.23, 1942. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.