Academy Award-winning Locations

With the 81st annual Academy Awards right around the corner, why not check out the filming locations of the Academy’s most celebrated films?

1991’s Best Picture “The Silence of the Lambs” was filmed mostly in Pittsburgh, PA, where you can check out several accessible (at least exteriors) locations. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History at 4400 Forbes Avenue is not only a location from the film, but is also an interesting place worthy of spending an afternoon. If you’re a student with an ID, you can get in for $11 and check out exhibits about dinosaurs, arctic life, and the Earth Theater. Interiors at the Old Allegheny County Jail on Fifth Ave & Ross Street stood in for the Baltimore State Forensic Hospital, and the Soldiers and Sailors Museum and Memorial at 4141 Fifth Avenue was used for the Shelby County Courthouse.

In 1998 the darkly funny “American Beauty” took top honors. Kevin Spacey’s fed-up suburbanite Lester Burnham lives at 11388 Homedale Street in Los Angeles, while the exterior of the Colonel’s home can be found at 303 South Windsor Boulevard. The scenes at Mr. Smiley’s Drive-Thru were filmed at a Carl’s Jr at 20105 Saticoy Road in Canoga Park, Los Angeles. The high school scenes were shot at Long Beach Polytechnic High School at 1600 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach and South High School at 4801 Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance, CA. Annette Bening and Peter Gallagher’s target shooting scene was filmed at the Los Angeles Police Academy at 1880 North Academy Drive in L.A.

Several universities stood in during college scenes in 2001’s Best Picture, “A Beautiful Mind”. MIT was represented by Bronx Community College at University Avenue & West 181 Street in New York, while Manhattan College was used as Harvard. Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ and Manhattan College in NY were also used for university footage.

To experience a moment from “Million Dollar Baby,” the prize-fighter of 2004, stop in at the Hollywood Athletic Club at 6525 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

One of the most beloved movies of our time, and an Academy favorite, is 1994’s Best Picture, “Forrest Gump.” As the film spans Forrest’s lifetime and its locations span the country, there’s something near everyone to visit! Perhaps the most famous location in the film is the bench that Forrest sits on, telling his story (and spouting the movie’s most famous line: “Mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re gonna get”). Originally in Chuppewa Square, the bench has been moved to Savannah, Georgia’s History Museum at 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. (Check out a photo here.) The musuem is open til 5:00 pm, and admission is $4.25 for adults. The shrimp boat from the film and one of the ping pong paddles (signed by Tom Hanks) can be found in Orlando, FL, at Downtown Disney’s Planet Hollywood restaurant.

At one point in “Gump” Forrest runs across the country and back. While his arrival in Maine takes place at the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde, when he arrives in California it’s at the Santa Monica Pier, which has been used in several films, television shows (think “Baywatch”) and in some music videos. Also found in California? East Los Angeles College, at 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez in Monterey; Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles (check out our Quick Visit about this Hollywood staple); Marks Hall at USC (612 West 35th Place in Los Angeles), which stood in for Jenny’s dorm; and the Ebell of Los Angeles at 743 South Lucerne Boulevard (also seen as a retirement home in “Cruel Intentions”).

Other locations seen in the film include: the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (also seen in “The Firm,” “Election,” “Wedding Crashers,” and the “National Treasure” films); the Bluff Plantation at 3547 Combahee Road in Yemasse, South Carolina; Glacier National Park in Montana; and the Valley of the Gods in Mexican Hat, UT. The Ocean Fripp Golf Course on Fripp Island, SC stood in for Vietnam in the film’s war scenes.

(One last location featured in “Forrest Gump” was the majestic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC — check out our Quick Visit about this fabulous and oft-used setting.)