in 1962. In the time of Wings, that first year, the  category was known as Outstanding Production, and the category for  1927/28 was split three ways by the Academy. 1) "Wings" (1927/28  Outstanding Production) 2) "Sunrise" (1927/28 Outstanding Artistic  Quality of Production) 3) "The Jazz Singer" (1927/28 Pioneering  Outstanding Production) This was done because the Academy did not  feel any one of the three pictures could fairly compete with the  other. How do you place "Sunrise" against "Wings" and say the other  is better? And, of course, they recognized the way in which "The  Jazz Singer" had fundamentally changed the industry. Both the  "Artistic Quality" and "Pioneering" categories were dropped the next  year, though of course the MPAA does occasionally bring back  honorary awards, without suggesting they are a subset of the "Best  Picture" category.