I thought I was done posting about the 85th Academy Awards but here's one last takeaway post. See I realized we hadn't yet discussed YOUR votes and it is Reader Appreciation Month now (more to come). Plus one Best Actress Supremacy battle I think you'll like to ponder!
Reader's Choice Stats Takeaway
Biggest Landslide: Anne Hathaway (Supporting Actress for Les Misérables) was the only Oscar winner to nab more than 50% of reader votes here. Though she was obviously the most polarizing actor, male or female, during Oscar season that didn't stop her from crushing her competition at the Oscars or here.
Poorest Showing: Denzel Washington's (Actor) return to form in Flight (seriously he's so good in that film) was, remarkably, in last place only 2% of the votes in his field. Yes even Jacki Weaver 4% and Alan Arkin 3% in the supporting categories won more of your love. What gives?
Poorest Showing from an Oscar Winner: Though Christoph Waltz was also only third place in your ballots for Supporting Actor, Jennifer Lawrence actually had a weaker 3rd place showing - she took only 19% of your votes in Best Actress
Most Divisive Polling: Best Picture. Votes were all over the place with the winner (Argo) only managing 19% of the votes which was a very slim margin among the top four vote getters (readers also loved Amour, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty)
Agree to Disagree: Best Actress, always our marquee category here at The Film Experience, had the most votes of any of the polls and there was no agreement between Oscar, Nathaniel and The Film Experience readers: Oscar chose Lawrence; Nathaniel chose Riva; Readers chose Chastain.
Ben Affleck's odd stats and Jennifer Lawrence vs. Joan Fontaine after the jump...
Oscar Trivia Takeaways
Ang Lee is now the second person of color to win the Best Director Oscar. He was also the first. He's still the only.
Ben Affleck now joins the extremely slim ranks of movie stars turned lauded directors who've won multiple Oscars that came from different movies (i.e. most multi-hyphenates who have two Oscars win both for the same film). This is the tiniest of tiny club that really includes only Clint Eastwood (who has Oscars from Unforgiven & Million Dollar Baby), and George Clooney (who has Oscars from Syriana & Argo)... note: it would include Jodie Foster & Barbra Streisand if they were more applauded for directing and weren't so unprolific, and Woody Allen if he didn't start out as a multi-hyphenate (he was always a writer/director who also happened to star in his own film). Curiously, Affleck is now the only multiple Oscar-winning movie star to have not won either of his Oscars from acting or directing, the two disciplines he's most famous for. He won for Screenplay (Good Will Hunting) and for Producing (Argo)
Despite Affleck's big Oscar success, he is still behind Warren Beatty & George Clooney for breadth of nominations: Beatty & Clooney & Orson Welles remain the only three Hollywood titans to have been nominated in all four types of marquee categories (directing, acting, writing, producing).
Jennifer Lawrence vs. Joan Fontaine
At the very young age of 22, Jennifer Lawrence is now the second youngest Best Actress winner ever. Marlee Matlin still holds the record having won at the age of 21 for her starring role in Children of a Lesser God (1986).
But Lawrence did grab hold of one all-time record this year: She's now the youngest two-time Best Actress nominee (Winters Bone & Silver Linings Playbook), beating Joan Fontaine who accomplished it by 24 (Rebecca & Suspicion); both of them won on their second nomination. It took over 70 years for anyone to break Fontaine's record so don't expect Lawrence to see a challenger in your lifetime. The only living actor who is halfway there is Quvenzhané Wallis -- little Keisha Castle-Hughes from Whale Rider is actually older than Lawrence! time flies. If Quvenzhané becomes a major star with Annie (2014) and keeps winning great roles through those awkward teenage years who knows. But it seems highly unlikely since black actresses rarely get a second nomination (only Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg have managed to break that glass ceiling)
But Lawrence's Oscar history battle with Fontaine may not yet be over. The youngest actress to three leading acting nominations is still Joan Fontaine who won her third (and last) nomination at 26 years for The Constant Nymph. If Lawrence wants that record too, she only has a few years to hustle for it.