Throughout his career, American filmmaker, writer, and actor Woody Allen has received a considerable number of awards and distinctions in film festivals and yearly national film awards ceremonies, saluting his work as a director, screenwriter, and actor.[1] Among his many competitive awards, he has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Allen has won three Oscars for Best Original Screenplay for Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011), and one for Best Director for Annie Hall. He has been nominated 24 times: 16 as a screenwriter, seven as a director, and once as an actor.[2] Allen has more screenwriting Academy Award nominations than any other writer; all in the Best Original Screenplay category. He also holds the record as the oldest winner (at age 76) of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Midnight in Paris, 2011).[3] As a writer, Allen won the 1978 O. Henry Award for his short story The Kugelmass Episode, published in The New Yorker on May 2, 1977.
Despite friendly recognition from the Academy, Allen has consistently refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge his Oscar wins. His publicly given reason is his standing engagement to play clarinet in a Monday night ensemble. Back in 1974, Woody was quoted by ABC News as saying, "The whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don't".[4] He broke this pattern once. At the Academy Awards ceremony in 2002, Allen made an unannounced appearance, pleading for producers to continue filming their movies in New York City after the September 11 attacks, where he stated, "I didn't have to present anything. I didn't have to accept anything. I just had to talk about New York City."[5] He was given a standing ovation before introducing a montage of movie clips featuring New York.[6]
Woody Allen has received 24 BAFTA Film nominations, winning 10. In addition, he has received the British Academy's most prestigious honorary award, the Fellowship. The 1978 best film BAFTA win for Annie Hall went to Charles H. Joffe and Jack Rollins, as the category that year only credited the producers. In 1980, the best film category credited only the director. From 1985 to 1998, both the director and producers were credited.
