The Cinematography category has existed since the creation of the Academy Awards. Until 1938, only one award was given. From 1939 until 1966, two awards were given, one for black-and-white films, the other for color films. The two awards were briefly merged at the 1957 Academy Awards, and were permanently combined once again in a single category starting 1967. However, since foreign language films were not nominated for the Cinematography Award prior to the 1966 Academy Awards, they were unaffected by the splits and mergers that took place in this category.