Best pictures: Capturing the Oscars' golden moments

Roman Holiday: Trumbo and the Hollywood blacklist

Roman Holiday was the film in which Audrey Hepburn, then a virtual unknown, made her name with American audiences. The film also won for Costume (Edith Head) and Best Story (as the category was called until 1957), with the writing credited to Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton.

McLellan Hunter was actually a front name for Dalton Trumbo, one of the top-earning Hollywood screenwriters in the 1930s and '40s. Trumbo was blacklisted in 1947 for his refusal to name names before the US Congress's House Un-American Activities Committee, and in 1950 he served 11 months in prison for contempt of Congress along with the rest of the Hollywood Ten.

In 2011 the Writers Guild of America posthumously gave Dalton Trumbo official recognition for writing the Oscar-winning screenplay. Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston played Trumbo in the 2015 film biopic, and received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal.

Network

Faye Dunaway finally won a Best Actress Oscar, for her performance in Network (1976), having been nominated previously for Chinatown (1974) and Bonnie and Clyde (1968).

Peter Finch, who played "mad as hell" news anchor Howard Beale, died two months before the awards and was awarded the Best Actor Oscar posthumously - as seen in the newspapers scattered around Dunaway in this photograph taken at the Beverly Hills Hotel the following day.

The movie also won in the Best Supporting Actress (Beatrice Straight) and Best Original Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky) categories, with nominations for Best Picture, Director Sidney Lumet, William Holden also for Best Actor, Ned Beatty for Best Supporting Actor, and for Editing and Cinematography.

Finch was the only recipient of a posthumous Academy Award for acting until Heath Ledger's Best Supporting Actor award in 2009.

Easy Riders

Jack Nicholson was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the cult classic Easy Rider, one of the films that heralded the 'New Hollywood' era led by young auteur directors who were fully aware of the American counterculture and were often 'the people our parents warned us about'.

The film also received a Best Original Screenplay nomination, for director Dennis Hopper - shared with fellow writers Peter Fonda and Terry Southern.

The huge box office and critical success of Easy Rider allowed Dennis Hopper to negotiate complete control of his next project. Hopper spent $1million of Universal Studios' cash in Peru directing The Last Movie, and the film's total commercial failure coupled with Hopper's outrageous reputation led to his virtual exile from Hollywood.

Hopper was seen only in low-budget and European films for the rest of the 1970s, until a return to prominence in a minor but notable role in Apocalypse Now. His starring role as Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, along with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Hoosiers, also in 1986, marked the revival of his career.

On the Waterfront and The Godfather

Marlon Brando won his first Best Actor Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954), having been nominated for the previous three years running - for A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata! and Julius Caesar.

His second Best Actor award, from seven total nominations, came for his 1972 performance in The Godfather. This time Brando boycotted the ceremony, becoming the second actor to refuse to accept a Best Actor award after George C. Scott in 1970.

Brando sent actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place, where she announced that his boycott was due to the negative depiction of Native Americans by Hollywood. She later read a 15 page statement by Brando to the press, which was reprinted in full by the New York Times the next day.

Brando's Godfather co-star Al Pacino also boycotted the 1972 ceremony as he objected to being nominated in the Supporting Actor category, rather than Best Actor, when his on-screen time significantly exceeded that of Brando.

• The Godfather speaks: Marlon Brando in his own words

On Golden Pond

Henry Fonda's role in On Golden Pond, as a cantankerous old man presiding over a family reunion, reflected some of the real-life tensions in the Fonda dynasty.

Fonda's performance was honoured by the Academy with his first Best Actor award; it was presented in a special ceremony at the family's Beverly Hills home due to the actor's ill-health.

The on-screen father and daughter roles were played by Fonda and his daughter Jane, who had originally purchased the rights to the screenplay. Jane Fonda was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category.

On Golden Pond received ten nominations in total, also winning Best Actress for Katherine Hepburn and Best Adapted Screenplay. Henry Fonda's previous nomination, for The Grapes of Wrath 42 years earlier, remains a record for a gap between Oscar nominations.

• 1982 tribute to Henry Fonda, who died in August of that year