Films with the largest number of nominations, but without a Best Picture nomination
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) with 9 nominations
Most Oscars without a nomination for Best Picture
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) with 5 wins
Fewest nominations for a Best Picture winner
Grand Hotel (1932) received only the Best Picture nomination.
Nominations in the most different technical categories
Five films have been nominated in all 7 technical categories (Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Production Design/Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects):
Titanic (1997)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Hugo (2011)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The Revenant (2015)
Most nominations without a major nomination (Picture, Director, Acting and Screenplay)
Pepe (1960) received 7 nominations with no major nominations.
These six films got 6 nominations with no major nominations:
The Rains Came (1939)
Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (note: received 7 nominations when you include a “special achievement”)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Best Picture nominees that won every nomination except Best Picture
These 15 films were nominated for Best Picture and won in every category they were nominated for, except Best Picture:
Bad Girl (1931), 2/3
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1932), 1/2
Naughty Marietta (1935), 1/2
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), 3/4
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), 3/4
Miracle on 34th Street (1947), 3/4
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), 3/4
A Letter to Three Wives (1949), 2/3
King Solomon’s Mines (1950), 2/3
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), 2/3
Jaws (1975), 3/4
Traffic (2000), 4/5
The Blind Side (2009), 1/2
Selma (2014), 1/2
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), 4/5
Films nominated for Best Picture with no other major nominations
These 28 films were nominated for Best Picture but had no other major nominations (this does not include films that were only nominated for Best Picture and nothing else):
Wings (1927), 2 nominations (winner)
42nd Street (1933), 2 nominations
A Farewell to Arms (1933), 4 nominations
Cleopatra (1934), 5 nominations
Flirtation Walk (1934), 2 nominations
The Gay Divorcee (1934), 5 nominations
Imitation of Life (1934), 3 nominations
The White Parade (1934), 2 nominations
David Copperfield (1935), 3 nominations
Les Misérables (1935), 4 nominations
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), 4 nominations (note: really had 2, but 2 more were write in noms)
Naughty Marietta (1935), 2 nominations
Top Hat (1935), 4 nominations
A Tale of Two Cities (1936), 2 nominations
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), 4 nominations
Of Mice and Men (1939), 4 nominations
The Wizard of Oz (1939), 6 nominations
King Solomon’s Mines (1950), 3 nominations
Decision Before Dawn (1951), 2 nominations
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), 3 nominations
The Music Man (1962), 6 nominations
Doctor Dolittle (1967), 9 nominations
Hello, Dolly! (1969), 7 nominations
Jaws (1975), 4 nominations
Beauty and the Beast (1991), 6 nominations
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), 6 nominations
War Horse (2011), 6 nominations
Selma (2014), 2 nominations
Black Panther (2018), 7 nominations
Stories made into multiple Best Picture nominees
7 sets of Best Picture nominees share either original source material or were revised versions of the same story (* =winner):
Cleopatra (1934), Cleopatra (1963)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)*, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Romeo and Juliet (1936), West Side Story (1960)*, Romeo and Juliet (1968). (The plot of another Best Picture winner, Shakespeare in Love, revolves around the original production of Romeo and Juliet)
Les Misérables (1935), Les Misérables (2012)
Pygmalion (1938), My Fair Lady (1964)*
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1978)
A Star Is Born (1937), A Star Is Born (2018)
First Best Picture produced wholly by non-Americans
Hamlet (1948), United Kingdom
First Best Picture produced wholly by non-Americans or non-British
The Artist (2011), France
Most wins by a film produced wholly or partially by non-Americans
The Last Emperor (1987), Italy/Hong Kong/United Kingdom, 9 wins
Most nominations for a film produced wholly or partially by non-Americans
Two non-American films have received 13 nominations:
Shakespeare in Love (1998), United Kingdom/United States
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Zealand/United States
Best Picture with no female speaking roles
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Acting records[edit]
Most awards for leading actress
Katharine Hepburn with 4 awards (1933, 1967, 1968*, 1981) (*Hepburn tied with Barbra Streisand in 1968.)
Most awards for leading actor
Daniel Day-Lewis with 3 awards (1989, 2007, 2012)
Most awards for supporting actor
Walter Brennan with 3 awards (1936, 1938, 1940)
Most consecutive leading actress nominations
Two actresses have been nominated 5 years in a row:
Bette Davis (1938–1942)
Greer Garson (1941–1945)
Most consecutive leading actor nominations
Marlon Brando with four nominations (1951 to 1954)
Actress with most total nominations for acting
Meryl Streep with 21 nominations
Actor with most total nominations for acting
Jack Nicholson with 12 nominations
Most acting nominations without an award
Peter O’Toole with 8 nominations (He received an Honorary Award in 2002)
Most actress nominations without an award
Glenn Close with 7 nominations
Most nominations for an actor performing in a foreign language
Marcello Mastroianni with 3 nominations. He was nominated for Best Actor for Divorce, Italian Style (1962); A Special Day (1977) and Dark Eyes (1987), performing in Italian
Longest gap between first and second award
Helen Hayes won in 1932 for The Sin of Madelon Claudet and in 1971 for Airport, a 39-year gap
Longest time span between first and last nomination and between first and last award
Katharine Hepburn: 48 years from Morning Glory (1933, in the 1932/33 awards) until On Golden Pond (1981)
Most acting nominations before first award
Both Geraldine Page and Al Pacino won on their 8th nomination
Most posthumous nominations
James Dean with 2 (1955 for East of Eden and 1956 for Giant)
Shortest performance to win an acting Oscar
Beatrice Straight in Network (1976) – 5 minutes and 2 seconds
Shortest performance to win a lead acting Oscar
Patricia Neal in Hud (1963) – 21 minutes and 51 seconds[18]
Shortest performance to be nominated for an acting Oscar
Hermione Baddeley in Room at the Top (1959) – 2 minutes and 19 seconds
Shortest performance to be nominated for a lead acting Oscar
Spencer Tracy in San Francisco (1936) – 14 minutes and 58 seconds
Longest performance to win an acting Oscar
Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939) – 2 hours, 23 minutes and 32 seconds
Longest performance to win a supporting acting Oscar
Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon (1973) – 1 hour, 6 minutes and 58 seconds
Longest performance to be nominated for an acting Oscar
Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939) – 2 hours, 23 minutes and 32 seconds
Longest male performance to be nominated for a supporting acting Oscar
Frank Finlay in Othello (1965) – 1 hour, 30 minutes and 43 seconds
Longest female performance to be nominated for a supporting acting Oscar
Jennifer Jones in Since You Went Away (1944) – 1 hour, 15 minutes and 38 seconds
Most awards by an African American actor
Two African-American actors have won two Oscars:
Denzel Washington, winning Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and Best Actor for Training Day (2001)
Mahershala Ali winning Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight (2016) and Best Supporting Actor for Green Book (2018)
Most awards for one acting performance
Harold Russell played Homer Parish in The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946. For this role he received 2 Oscars, one for Best Supporting and an honorary award for being an inspiration to all returning veterans.
Most nominations for one acting performance
Barry Fitzgerald was nominated as Best Actor and won for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Father Fitzgibbon in 1944’s Going My Way
Years where all four Acting winners were born outside the United States
1964
Best Actor – Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady, United Kingdom
Best Actress – Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins, United Kingdom
Best Supporting Actor – Peter Ustinov for Topkapi, United Kingdom
Best Supporting Actress – Lila Kedrova for Zorba the Greek, Russia
2007
Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, United Kingdom
Best Actress – Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose, France
Best Supporting Actor – Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men, Spain
Best Supporting Actress – Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton, United Kingdom
Miscellaneous records[edit]
Most nominations in different decades
John Williams:
1960s: 1968
1970s: 1970 (2 nominations), 1972, 1973 (2 nominations), 1974 (3 nominations), 1975, 1976, 1978 (2 nominations), 1979
1980s: 1981, 1982, 1983 (2 nominations), 1984, 1985 (2 nominations), 1988 (2 nominations), 1989
1990s: 1990 (2 nominations), 1991 (2 nominations), 1992 (2 nominations), 1994, 1996 (3 nominations), 1997, 1998, 1999
2000s: 2000, 2001, 2002 (2 nominations), 2003, 2005, 2006 (2 nominations)
2010s: 2012 (2 nominations), 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018
Elmer Bernstein:
1950s: 1956
1960s: 1961, 1962, 1963 (2 nominations), 1967 (3 nominations), 1968
1970s: 1970, 1975
1980s: 1984
1990s: 1994
2000s: 2003
Only people to win both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar
George Bernard Shaw: Won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925, and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1938 for the film Pygmalion
Bob Dylan: Won an Oscar for Best Original Song for the song “Things Have Changed” from Wonder Boys in 2000, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
Only person to win both an Olympic medal and an Oscar
Kobe Bryant: Won gold medals in Basketball in 2008 and 2012, and an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2018 for the film Dear Basketball
Only woman to win Best Actress and Best Original Song
Barbra Streisand: Best Actress (joint) for Funny Girl (1968); Best Original Song for the Love Theme (“Evergreen”) from A Star Is Born (1976)
Only person to win an Academy Award for acting and writing
Emma Thompson: Best Actress for Howards End (1992); Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Only person nominated for Acting, Writing, Producing, and Directing the same film
Warren Beatty was nominated in the four categories for Heaven Can Wait (1978), and again for Reds (1981).
Only actor to win an Academy Award for portraying a real Academy Award winner
Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress for portraying Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator
Only actor to win an Academy Award for portraying a fictional Academy Award nominee
Maggie Smith won Best Supporting Actress in California Suite
Most total nominations without a win
Greg P. Russell has earned 16 nominations in the Best Sound Mixing category. (This does not include his nomination at the 89th Academy Awards for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which was revoked the day before the ceremony.)[19]
Most total nominations before receiving an award
Film composer Victor Young was nominated 21 times without winning. He was often nominated multiple times in one year; twice, four times at the same Oscars. He won posthumously for Around the World in 80 Days, alongside yet another nomination (also posthumous).
Sound re-recording mixer Kevin O’Connell comes in at a close second, with 20 unsuccessful nominations from 1983 until 2016, when he finally won for Hacksaw Ridge.
Most nominations for a person
Walt Disney with 59; followed by composer John Williams with 51; composer Alfred Newman with 43; production designer Cedric Gibbons with 39; costume designer Edith Head with 35; songwriter Sammy Cahn with 26; composer Max Steiner with 25; Woody Allen with 24; composer Victor Young with 22; sound mixer Kevin O’Connell, Billy Wilder and Meryl Streep tied with 21.
Most nominations for a living person
Film composer John Williams with 51
Most nominated woman
Edith Head with 35
Highest “perfect score”
Sound editor Mark Berger has four nominations and four wins
Most nominations for directing
William Wyler with 12 nominations
Most wins for producing
Two producers received 3 awards:
Sam Spiegel
Saul Zaentz
Most nominations for producing
Steven Spielberg with 10 nominations
Most nominations for directing in a single year
Two people have received 2 nominations for Best Director in the same year:
Michael Curtiz for Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters in 1938
Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich and Traffic in 2000
Most Best Picture awards for a film series
The Godfather series with 2 (for The Godfather and The Godfather Part II)
Most nominations and awards for a film series
The Middle-earth series with 17 competitive wins out of 37 nominations (for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit).
Most nominations for Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen with 16 nominations and 3 wins
Longest time between the release of a film and winning an Oscar
Limelight (1952) is the only film to have won an award twenty years after its official release. Since it was not released in Los Angeles County until 1972, it was not eligible for any Academy Awards until that time.
Most posthumous award wins
William A. Horning won in 1958 for Best Art Direction for Gigi, and for Best Art Direction for Ben-Hur in 1959
Most posthumous award nominations
Howard Ashman with four
Lowest-grossing film to win Best Picture
Cimarron with $1,380,000
Longest film to win Best Picture
Gone with the Wind, 224 minutes (238 with overture, entr’acte, and exit music)
Longest film to win an award
O.J.: Made in America (2016), 467 minutes (Academy Award for Best Documentary)
The longest fictional film to win an award was War and Peace (1968), 431 minutes (Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film)
Shortest film to win Best Picture
Marty, 90 minutes
Most acting awards for a character
Portrayals of Vito Corleone won:
Best Actor for Marlon Brando in The Godfather
Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II
Most nominations for a character
Three portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I of England earned nominations for:
Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Best Actress)
Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love (winner, Best Supporting Actress)
Three portrayals of King Henry VIII of England earned nominations for:
Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII (winner, Best Actor)
Robert Shaw in A Man for All Seasons (Best Supporting Actor)
Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days (Best Actor)
The lead characters of three different versions of A Star Is Born have been nominated:
Female leads:
1937 : Janet Gaynor as actress Esther Blodgett
1954 : Judy Garland as actress/singer Esther Blodgett
2018 : Lady Gaga as singer/musician Ally Campana
Male leads:
1937 : Fredric March as actor Norman Maine
1954 : James Mason as actor Norman Maine
2018 : Bradley Cooper as singer/musician Jackson Maine
21 other characters have been nominated twice – (*) = winning portrayal:
Abraham Lincoln – Raymond Massey, Daniel Day-Lewis (*)
Arthur Chipping – Robert Donat (*), Peter O’Toole
Cyrano de Bergerac – Jose Ferrer (*), Gerard Depardieu
“Fast Eddie” Felson – Paul Newman (*); Newman played Felson in The Hustler and its sequel, The Color of Money, winning for the sequel.
Father Chuck O’Malley – Bing Crosby (*); Crosby played O’Malley in Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary’s, winning for Going My Way.
Father Fitzgibbons – Barry Fitzgerald (*) – nominated for Best Actor and won for Best Supporting Actor, for the same performance in Going My Way
Henry Higgins – Leslie Howard, Rex Harrison (*)
Howard Hughes – Jason Robards, Leonardo DiCaprio
Iris Murdoch – Judi Dench, Kate Winslet – portrayals of the same character at different ages in the same film (Iris)
Joe Pendleton – Robert Montgomery, Warren Beatty
King Henry II of England – Peter O’Toole
King Henry V of England – Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh
Leslie Crosbie – Jeanne Eagels, Bette Davis
Max Corkle – James Gleason, Jack Warden
Michael Corleone – Al Pacino
Richard Nixon – Anthony Hopkins, Frank Langella
Rocky Balboa – Sylvester Stallone
Rooster Cogburn – John Wayne (*), Jeff Bridges
Rose DeWitt Bukater – Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart – portrayals of the same character at different ages in the same film (Titanic)
Vincent Van Gogh – Kirk Douglas, Willem Dafoe
Vito Corleone – Marlon Brando (*), Robert De Niro (*)
Most Royalty and Leaders portrayed
46 portrayals of monarchs or civil leaders (real and fictional), have been nominated for acting awards, with 11 winners.
The United Kingdom is the most represented nation.
Overall, there have been 16 nominations and 5 wins for portrayals of British monarchs.
In addition, Vanessa Redgrave was nominated for her portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Three portrayals of British Prime Ministers have been nominated, with 3 wins
The only portrayal of a non-British monarch to win an award was Yul Brynner as King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I.
10 portrayals of Presidents of the United States – two of them fictional – have been nominated, with Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of Abraham Lincoln the only winner.
Portrayals of four French kings and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte have nominations.
Three portrayals of dictators have been nominated:
Forest Whitaker won for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland
Charlie Chaplin and Jack Oakie were nominated for their respective turns as the dictators of Tomainia and Bacteria in The Great Dictator.
11 portrayals of spouses/consorts of leaders have been nominated, with Katharine Hepburn’s Eleanor of Aquitaine the only winner.
Acting winners who won a Tony for portraying the same character
Anne Bancroft–Annie Sullivan
Helen Mirren–Queen Elizabeth II (Won Tony Award for 2015 play The Audience)
Jack Albertson–John Cleary
Joel Grey–Master of Ceremonies
Jose Ferrer-Cyrano de Bergerac
Lila Kedrova–Madame Hortense (Won Tony Award for 1984 musical Zorba)
Paul Scofield–Sir Thomas More
Rex Harrison-Henry Higgins
Shirley Booth-Lola Delaney
Viola Davis–Rose Maxson
Most Honorary Awards
Bob Hope received 5 honorary awards – 2 Special, 2 Honorary, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.[20]
Oscar speeches[edit]
Main article: Oscar speech
Longest speech
The longest Oscar speech was that given by Greer Garson at the 15th Academy Awards after she was named Best Actress for 1942 for Mrs. Miniver. Her speech ran for nearly six minutes.[21] It was shortly after this incident that the Academy set forty-five seconds as the allotted time for an acceptance speech and began to cut the winners off after this time limit. When presenting the Best Actor award at the 24th Academy Awards, Garson quipped, “I think I have ten minutes left over from a highly emotional speech I made a few years ago. I’d be glad to give it to them.”
Shortest speech
The shortest Oscar speech was that given by Patty Duke at the 35th Academy Awards after she was named Best Supporting Actress for 1962 for The Miracle Worker. Duke, age 16, was the youngest person at that time to receive an Academy Award in a competitive category. Her acceptance speech was, simply, two words – “Thank you” – after which she walked off the stage.[22]
Tied winners[edit]
There have been six two-way ties:
1931/32: Best Actor – Wallace Beery (The Champ) and Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
1949: Best Documentary Short – A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little
1968: Best Actress – Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl)
1986: Best Documentary – Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America
1994: Best Short Film (Live Action) – Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor
2012: Best Sound Editing – Paul N. J. Ottosson (Zero Dark Thirty) and Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers (Skyfall)
