Academy Award Fun Facts Flashcards
Only silent film to win Best Picture
Wings (1927/1928) [While The Artist was mostly silent, it had a soundtrack with some sound effects, and several characters with brief dialogue at the end of the film]
First “sound” film to win Best Picture
The Broadway Melody (1928-29)
First color film to win Best Picture
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The last entirely black-and-white film to win Best Picture
The Artist (2011) [Prior to 2011, The Apartment (1960) held this distinction; Schindler’s List (1993) had some color elements]
The only sequels to win Best Picture
The Godfather Part II (1974); Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The only X-rated film to win Best Picture
Midnight Cowboy (1969) [The film was subsequently edited and given an R rating in 1971]
The first foreign-language film to be nominated for Best Picture
Grand Illusion (1938) - French [To date, no foreign-language film has won Best Picture]
The first non-Hollywood film to win an Academy Award
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1932/33) [Charles Laughton won Best Actor]
The first non-Hollywood film to win Best Picture
Hamlet (1948) [Financed and filmed in England]
The only films to win three academy awards for acting
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); Network (1976) [To date, no film has won all four of the Academy Awards for acting]
The first foreign-language performance to win an Academy Award
Sophia Loren, named 1961’s Best Actress for her work in the Italian film Two Women
The only performers to win consecutive Academy Awards (5)
Luise Rainer (1936,1937); Spencer Tracy (1937,1938); Katharine Hepburn (1967,1968); Jason Robards (1976,1977); Tom Hanks (1993,1994).
The only person to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex
Linda Hunt, 1983, Best Supporting Actress for The Year of Living Dangerously
The only performer nominated twice for the same performance
Barry Fitzgerald, 1944, nominated both as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for Going My Way. [Such a feat is not possible under current Academy rules]
The only performer to win two Oscars for the same performance
Harold Russell, 1946, voted Best Supporting Actor for The Best Years of Our Lives, and voted an Honorary Oscar that year for his performance
Most honored individuals at a single ceremony
(male) Walt Disney (1953), in the categories of Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Cartoon Short Subject, and Two-rell Short Subject; (female) Fran Walsh (2003), in the categories of Original Song, Best Picture, and Adapted Screenplay
The first posthumous Oscar winner
Sidney Howard, 1939, winner for writing the screenplay of Gone with the Wind
The two posthumous Acting Oscar winners
Peter Finch, 1976, Best Actor winner for The Network; Heath Ledger, 2008, Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight;
The only years two Oscars were given for Best Director (co-winners)
1961: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, codirectors of West Side Story; 2007: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, codirectors of No Country for Old Men
The first person to win Oscars for Directing and Writing
Leo McCarey, 1944, for Going My Way
The first person to win Oscars for Directing, Writing, and Best Picture
Billy Wilder, 1960, for The Apartment. [This feat was not possible prior to 1951, when the Best Picture award went to the studio rather than individual producers]
The only 3-generation Oscar-winning families
The Hustons: Walter Huston won Best Supportin Actor in 1948; son John Huston won Best Director and Best Screenplay in 1948; and granddaughter Anjelica Huston won Best Supporting Actress in 1985.
The Coppolas: Carmine Coppola won for Original Dramatic Score in 1974; son Francis Ford Coppola’s first win was for Original Screenplay in 1970; and granddaughter Sofia Coppola won for Original Screenplay in 2003.
The only brother and sister to win Acting Oscars
Lionel (1930/31) and Ethel (1944) Barrymore
The only sisters to win Acting Oscars
Joan Fontaine (1941) and Olivia de Havilland (1946 & 1949)
The only brothers nominated for acting Oscars
River (1988) & Joaquin Phoenix (2000, 2005, 2012)
The only married couples to win acting Oscars (2)
Laurence Olivier (1948) and Vivien Leigh (1951) [they were not yet married when Leigh won her first Oscar in 1939]; Paul Newman (1986) and Joanne Woodward (1957) [They were married in 1958, prior to Woodward receiving 1957’s Best Actress award].
The only Oscar winner with parents who both received Oscars
Liza Minneli; her mother Judy Garland received an Honorary miniature Oscar in 1939; father Vincente Minnelli won Best Director in 1958; Liza Minnelli won Best Actress in 1972
The most Oscar-nominated family
The Newmans, with 88 nominations and counting: Brothers Alfred Newman (43 Noms), Emil newman (1), and Lionel Newman (11); second generation Randy newman (20), David Newman (1), and Thomas Newman (12)
The first person to refuse an Oscar
Dudley Nichols, 1935, winner for his screenplay of The Informer
The only write-in Oscar winner
Hal Mohr, 1935, for his cinematography of A Midsummer Night’s Dream [He won without having been a nominee, a feat not possible under today’s Academy rules]
Youngest person to win a standard Oscar
Tatum O’Neal, who was 10 years old when she won the Best Supporting Actress award for 1973’s Paper Moon
Oldest person to win a standard Oscar
Christopher Plummer, who was 82, when he won Best Supporting Actor for Beginners in 2012
Oldest actor to win Best Actor
Henry Fonda, for On Golden Pond in 1981. He was 76.
Oldest actress to be nominated for an Oscar
Gloria Stewart, who was 87 when nominated for her role in 1997’s Titanic
Three movies that won the most Oscars (11 each)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003); Titanic (1997); Ben-Hur (1959)
Two movies nominated for 14 Oscars
Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950)
Actress with most Best Actress oscars
Katharine Hepburn (4)
Actor with most Best Actor awards
Daniel Day-Lewis (3)
Actress with most total acting Oscar nominations
Meryl Streep (18 nominations and 3 wins - 2 Best Actress and 1 Best Supporting Actress)
Actor with most total acting Oscar nominations
Jack Nicholson (12 nominations and 3 wins - 2 Best Actor and 1 Best Supporting Actor)
Director with most Oscar wins
John Ford (Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, The Informaer)
The individual with the most total Oscars
Walt Disney: 26 awards over his lifetime (22 regular + 4 Honorary); 64 total nominations
The three Best Picture winning films longer than 3.5 hours
Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur, Gone With the Wind,
The youngest Best Actor winner
Adrien Brody, 29, for The Pianist
Two films to have been nominated for 11 awards but won 0
The Turning Point (1978) and The Color Purple (1986)
The most nominated writer
Woody Allen (16 nominations for Best Original Screenplay - through 2013 - with 3 wins).
The most nominated character
Henry VIII; three actors have earned nods for playing the king
Country with the most Best Foreign Film Oscars
Italy (with 10)
The “unwinningest” actor in Oscar history
Peter O’Toole, nominated 8 times without ever winning
The three animated films that have received Best Picture nominations
Beauty and the Beast (1991); Up (2010); Toy Stoy 3 (2011)
Youngest Best Actress nominee
Quvenzhane Wallis (9 years old) for Beasts of of the Southern Wild
Youngest Best Actress winner
Marlee Matlin (21 yeasr old) for Children of a Lesser God (1986)
Oldest Best Actress nominee
Emmanuelle Riva (85 years old) for Amour (2012)
Oldest Best Actress winner
Jessica Tandy (80 years old) for Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Youngest Best Supporting Actor winner
Timothy Hutton (20 years old) for Ordinary People (1980)
Only people to win Best Actor for a film they directed (2)
Laurence Olivier (1948) for Hamlet; Roberto Benigni (1997) for Life is Beautiful
First black actress to win an Oscar
Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind (1939)
First black actor to win an Oscar
Sidney Poitier, overlooked for In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, finally won for Lilies of the Field in 1963
Most frequent host
Bob Hope (19 times); Billy Crystal is second with
