This is the rare awards season in which two contemporary movies — Golden Globe winners Hugo and The Artist— celebrate the silent era of filmmaking. Now it’s time to make way for a returning original.

The 1927 film Wings, winner of the first best-picture Academy Award and the only silent film to achieve the honor, has been restored to its original glory. Paramount Pictures is unveiling the refurbished movie at a special Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screening this week and will release it next Tuesday on Blu-ray and DVD.

“This is an incredibly important film and restoration,” says Randy Haberkamp, the academy’s director of educational projects. “Like Star Wars and Avatar later, Wings pushed the limits of filmmaking. It stands as an exciting film, not as a relic.”

The film starred one of the era’s biggest names in Clara Bow, along with Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen, who play pilots shipped off to fly fighter planes in World War I. It also features the breakout performance of Gary Cooper, who would go on to become a screen legend.

“Gary Cooper has a very small scene, but it’s incredibly effective,” Haberkamp says. “This was the film where people sat up and said, ‘Wow, who’s that?’ ” » Read more: Digital restoration lets silent movie ‘Wings’ get its say