Today's magic number is four. Since we have no brilliant angle on the number four, a random collection of Fab Four situations after the jump...
4 Nominations This Year
The only films with four nominations this year are Fences and Hell Or High Water.
4th Nomination This Year
Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman both reach their fourth nomination simultaneously in Supporting Actress (which we've just discussed in detail). But there's more. Producer Jeremy Kleiner is on his fourth consecutive Best Picture nomination: 12 Years a Slave (2013), Selma (2014), The Big Short (2015), and Moonlight (2016). He won for the first of those nominations. Obviously this type of consecutive record will become more doable now in the expanded Best Picture era but it's still quite impressive! (His producing partner Dede Gardner has the same four consecutive nods and a win but she was also nominated once previously for Tree of Life (2011).
4th Annual Oscars
The fourth annual Academy Awards were held in November at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. There were only 9 categories that year. This was before they added Supporting Acting, Costume Design, Editing, Original Score, or what have you. The best picture winner was Cimarron, the first western to ever take the prize. It... well, it does not hold up. Yikes! The best actress winner was Marie Dressler for Min and Bill which is awesome. Please see that if you never have. But here's a must note item. One record set this very year will likely be broken on Sunday. As previously noted Norman Taurog won Best Director for Skippy. He has remained the youngest Best Director winner for 80+ years now. If Damien Chazelle wins (as he is expected to) this record will finally be broken.
All 4 Acting Categories?
Here are the only 15 films that were nominated in all of the acting categories. Two interesting notes: Nominations in every acting category, do not help with Best Picture wins -- only 2 of these films achieved them despite obviously huge support from the Academy's largest branch of voters; If there are nominations in every single acting category, the women are far far more likely to win. (* denotes winners)
the nominated cast of the one of the best comedies ever made MY MAN GODFREY (1936) talking to director Gregory La Cava
1936 My Man Godfrey Lombard, Powell, Brady, Auer
This was the first year of the supporting awards so no films before 1936 could have achieved this feat
1942 Mrs Miniver* Garson*, Pidgeon, Whitty, Wright*, Travers
1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls Bergman, Cooper, Paxinou*, Tamiroff
1948 Johnny Belinda Wyman*, Ayres, Moorehead, Bickford
1950 Sunset Boulevard Swanson, Holden, Olson, von Stroheim
1951 A Streetcar Named Desire Leigh*, Brando, Hunter*, Malden*
1953 From Here to Eternity* Kerr, Clift, Lancaster, Reed*, Sinatra*
1966 Who's Afraid to Virginia Woolf Taylor*, Burton, Dennis*, Segal
1967 Bonnie & Clyde Dunaway, Beatty, Parsons*, Hackman, Pollard
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Hepburn*, Tracy, Richards, Kellaway
1976 Network Dunaway*, Finch*, Holden, Straight*, Beatty
1978 Coming Home Fonda*, Voight*, Milford, Dern
1981 Reds Keaton, Beatty, Stapleton*, Nicholson
2012 Silver Linings Playbook Lawrence*, Cooper, Weaver, De Niro
2013 American Hustle Adams, Bale, Lawrence, Cooper
Bonnie & Clyde received 5 acting nominations, but strangely Estelle Parsons was the only winner for supporting actress.
Isn't it nutty that Brando didn't win for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)? This will never stop being insane.
It's fun to wonder how 13 of those 15 films would have done in the modern era of Screen Actors Guild and a plethora of "ensemble" prizes from critics groups. The only two films to achieve all four acting category nominations since the SAG "outstanding performance by a cast" began in 1995 are Silver Linings Playbook (which was nominated, losing to Argo) and American Hustle (which won). Coincidentally David O. Russell is the only director to appear twice on this list (though it should be noted that some of the others had other films with 4 acting nominations, but not at least one in each category)
The Actual Fab Four
Did you know The Beatles were Oscar winners? Paul, John, George, and Ringo won Best Original Song Score for Let It Be (1970). Paul McCartney was nominated two times after that in Best Original Song as well for Vanilla Sky (2001), and Live and Let Die (1974)
Four in the Title
If you don't count Star Wars (which was only referred to as Episode IV after its many sequels made that "episode" part important) four is NOT a lucky number for Oscar. There have been aberrations like a costume nomination for The Four Musketeers (1974), a cinematography nod for The Four Feathers (1939), a sleeper Best Picture nod for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and two documentaries 4 Little Girls (1997), Citizenfour (2014). But most films with four in the title are met with zero nominations even if they're from famous directors, submitted for foreign film, make a ton of money, or are movie star vehicles. Consider... (though in most cases its good that they didn't)... Four's a Crowd (1938), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962), Four Friends (1981), 1984 (1984), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Rocky IV (1985), The Gang of Four (1989), Four Rooms (1995), Lilya 4-Ever (2002), The Four Feathers (2002), Fantastic Four (2005), Four Brothers (2005), The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Four Christmases (2008), Four Lions (2010), I am Number Four (2011), This is 40 (2012), 47 Ronin (2013), and Fantastic Four (2015)