Six days til Oscar. Six pieces of number 6 related trivia
Monday, February 18, 2019 at 10:03AM Six is the number of the day so here are six different stats involving that number for distraction & fun.
1. BlacKkKlansman is the only movie this year with exactly six nominations. The other movies this decade with with exactly that number of nominations: Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, Manchester by the Sea, Lion*, Hacksaw Ridge, Bridge of Spies, Spotlight, Carol*, Boyhood, American Sniper, Captain Philllips*, Nebraska*, Dallas Buyers Club, War Horse*, Moneyball*, and 127 Hours*. I was hoping to discover that one of those titles had EXACTLY the same category nominations as BlacKkKlansman but none did. Titles with an asterisk lost all their nominations but the bulk of the six-time nominees won at least 1 Oscar which is good news for Spike Lee's Adapted Screenplay bid for BlacKkKlansman, the category its most likely to win in this coming Sunday.
2. Carol is the only six-time nominee in the past decade not to score a Best Picture nomination...
It currently holds the record for 'most nominations for any film without a corresponding Best Picture nod in the expanded Best Picture era.' The all time record holder for most noms without a Best Picture citation is They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1969) with 9 nominations (but back then there were only 5 nominees for Best Picture). Fun fact: Like Carol, which holds the new era record, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is better than any of the actual Best Picture nominees in its year.
3. There are a dozen movies in history which won exactly six competitive Oscars. Those titles are:
- Mrs Miniver (1942)
- All About Eve (1950)
- A Place in the Sun (1951)
- An American in Paris (1951)
- A Man For All Seasons (1966)
- The Godfather Part 2 (1974)
- Star Wars (1977)
- Forrest Gump (1994)
- Chicago (2002)
- The Hurt Locker (2009)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
- La La Land (2016)
Of those twelve only four lost Best Picture: A Place in the Sun, Star Wars, Mad Max: Fury Road, and La La Land which all happen to be films we adore. That's not a record for most wins without winning Best Picture but it is a four-way tie for the second runner up spot. The all-time most wins without taking Best Picture is Bob Fosse's masterpiece (well, one of them at any rate) Cabaret which won 8 Oscars but lost 1972's top prize to The Godfather while Gravity, which won 7 oscars but lost to 12 Years a Slave (2013) is in the runner-up position.
4. There are exactly six actors who never won competitively despite six or more nominations: Peter O'Toole with 8 nominations... plus one honorary award; Glenn Close and Richard Burton with 7 nominations each; Deborah Kerr with 6 nominations... plus one Honorary; and Thelma Ritter and Amy Adams with 6 nominations each. This statistic could fall apart on Sunday, of course, since both Glenn Close and Amy Adams are nominated again this year.
5. Films that won Best Picture in the '6 years, ranked:
Best of the Best: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Also Wondrous: Moonlight (2016)
Pretty Damn Good: The Departed (2006)
Dont Obsess Over It Like You But Definitely Don't Hate it Like Elaine: The English Patient (1996)
Satisfying Entertainment Even Though It Had Zero Business Winning Over its Miraculous Competitors: Rocky (1976)
Can Barely Remember/ Should Rewatch? [TIE] Platoon (1986), Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
AMPAS Has Always Had Boners for Bad Biopics: The Great Zeigfeld (1936)
N/A "Haven't Seen It," He Said With Embarrassment: A Man For All Seasons (1966)
6. Six multiple-nominated actors who we'd be most thrilled to finally see win in the next few years should the right role surface (ranked by guesstimated enthusiasm level): Michelle Pfeiffer, Annette Bening, Ralph Fiennes, Laura Dern, Michael Fassbender, and Sigourney Weaver.
Reader Comments (48)
I'm really feeling Colman for Sunday night -- it's the same premonition I had for Cotillard in 2008 -- so, I fear poor Glenn might keep her record. Fascinating write-up as always, Nathaniel!
thanks Nancy... but i do hope you're wrong about Glenn!!!
Nancy - I don't feel like Colman has done anywhere near the amount of campaigning that she would need to for an upset win... which isn't her fault of course (I think she's been full-time on The Crown for many months) but also prevents her from taking the win.
I'll be highly surprised if Glenn loses...
Gravity won 7 Oscars without Best Picture.
And how about those WGA awards last night?! Man, if only both of those winning films were BP nominated instead of Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book then we'd have such a fun race.
I am *so* torn on Close/Colman but I hope fans of both don't turn on each other and on the actresses (lol okay). It's going to be a happy occasion regardless. It also reminds me that THE WIFE is one of three films I still need to see to complete the major categories (also COLD WAR and BUSTER SCRUGGS).
Adam -- right you are. Fixed.
I agree, @kermit_the_frog, but remember Mark Rylance who hadn't done any? I don't think we can underestimate voters wanting to make smug choices that make them feel like intellectuals.
A Man for All Seasons bored me. Around the World in 80 Days is OK, I guess, but how did it ever beat Giant? I like Platoon. And now I'm dreading my inevitable watch of The Great Zeigfeld.
I think Glenn has the edge over Olivia but it's more like 55/45. Could we really call it a huge upset if Olivia wins? She's won a Globe and BAFTA and a lot of critics awards where Glenn got nothing. So many people have refused to see a movie called "The Wife" thus far it's astounding.
2/6: Michael Caine
2/6: Jessica Lange
2/6: Maggie Smith
1/6: Sissy Spacek
1/6: Vanessa Redgrave
0/6: Amy Adams
I feel like there's still plenty of opportunities for Pfeiffer to pull a Close / Moore -- I just hope it's for a better movie than The Wife.
Ralph Fiennes would be on my list, too. I'm also holding out that we'll see Jude Law return to the Oscars in some capacity. Love him.
I still think there's a chance for Olivia. It has so many other nominations, the voters had to have watched The Favourite. They're only watching The Wife for Glenn so that screener goes to the bottom of the pile...
@Cash:
I've seen The Great Zeigfeld and yes, you should dread watching it, it has its moments but is punishingly long.
A few years ago I finally went through all the BP winners I hadn't seen and turns out 75% of them I hadn't seen for very very good reasons!
@Nathaniel:
"Can Barely Remember/ Should Rewatch? [TIE] Platoon (1986), Around the World in 80 Days (1956)"
Yes to Platoon (I feel it's time for a rewatch myself), absolutely NO to Around the World in 80 Days - it has not held up well at all.
As for A Man for all Seasons, it is not exactly exciting - I found it reasonably entertaining while watching it but barely remember it now, and I just saw it like in 2016. It's one of those Oscar films that you need watch once and only once.
I just watched The Great Ziegfeld for the first time and I concur with Rob's opinion.
"I agree, @kermit_the_frog, but remember Mark Rylance who hadn't done any? I don't think we can underestimate voters wanting to make smug choices that make them feel like intellectuals."
Or maybe they genuinely believed Rylance deserved to win that year? I did.
Gaga = Moore, Close = Zellweger, Colman = Kidman. One peaked too early, one peaked too late, one is in the right place at the right time.
Love that list of films that won six Oscars. Two are on my All Time Top Ten--All About Eve and The Godfather Part II.
Bruno -
Close won "nothing"? She also won a Globe, and won the SAG and Critics' Choice
@ken s.: "a lot of critics awards where Glenn won nothing." Please read more closely next time.
Voters only care about televised precursors. Critics awards mean nothing except to fans on the internet.
@/3rtful: Perhaps. They're still pretty much even in that case.
Bruno -
Those critics awards are absolutely worthless for the Oscars
If the BAFTAs didn’t happen just before ballots were given out, I’d feel differently about Olivia’s chances. Her speech brought the house down. Her film has 10 nominations to The Wife’s sole bid for Glenn. In an odd way, I think Glenn will get more votes from people who don’t bother watching the movie. She’s very good in it, but so many people seem to agree that the film around her actually deters from the work she’s doing. And that’s when folks aren’t joking about still having yet to watch it (another problem entirely).
Look, I get that. If the critics awards meant that much, Toni Collette would have a sure nomination. But they showed that there are people who want to avoid "The Wife" and Glenn Close's narrative. And Colman has been popular through the televised awards season too. The fact that she was televised winning a BAFTA a mere days before voting started is nothing to be sniffed at either.
I really liked Platoon. I'd put it in the Pretty Damn Good category. Around the World in Eighty Days is satisfying entertainment, but had no business beating the likes of any of the other nominees. A Man for All Seasons was technically good, but was also boring. It may benefit from a re-watch, but I'm not sure how much more I'd get from it.
@MJ: It's funny how The Wife became Glenn's monumental performance with this albatross of a movie around her neck, even though the movie has actually done quite well with critics. It has a higher Metacritic rating than Green Book, for example. If anything, I think The Wife is being underrated because people have some aversion to watching a movie about a woman that they perceive will be boring.
While Z and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid are fine films and I have a soft spot for historical epics like Anne of the Thousand Days I'd agree that They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is a more trenchant film than any of them. However masterful it is though, and I respect the hell out of it, I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it. It's like a season in hell.
A Man for All Seasons is not for everyone. It has a stately pace and is very word driven as opposed to actions. But the acting is of the highest caliber from the entire cast and if you're a history buff it will entertain. It would never have been my choice for the win. Out of the rather bizarre lineup that year it would have to be Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? even though I'm not a big fan of the picture. In an open field my vote would go to Fahrenheit 451 followed by The Battle of Algiers, Cul-de-Sac, King of Hearts and Woolf.
Even with what would seem the unbeatable combination of William Powell, Myrna Loy and Luise Rainer The Great Ziegfeld is pretty torturous to sit through.
The Best Years of Our Lives though is a stone cold classic.
Bruno - Agreed. The Kingmaker would’ve been a more head-turning and apropos title, in my opinion.
God, I hope the Academy doesn't tell Close to fuck off again this year. That would be heartbreaking.
@Mareko: Yep. And I think I'll be telling the Academy to fuck off this year if they do so. It's bad enough they're going to be rewarding movies like Green Book & Bohemian Rhapsody & possibly Vice.
@Bruno & Mareko: This year has been such a clusterfuck for so many reasons, and this issue is just more of that cluster. I loved Olivia Colman in The Favourite, and if anyone has to beat Glenn Close I hope it's her, but I just want Close to get the Oscar she should have gotten for Fatal Attraction and/or Dangerous Liaisons. And besides, she really is deserving for The Wife. Well I think so, anyway.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS is a perfect example of a movie that won on its hype (producer Mike Todd campaigned to make it all about his big swinging d... I mean his epic vision). It doesn't work at all today -- it's so unfunny and un-involving that I couldn't be bothered to be offended by it. (Tho there's plenty of exoticization of "the other" to take offense at -- Shirley Maclaine in brown face, for starters.) ...I do remember it had a fascinating DVD extra, a lengthy interview with Liz Taylor sitting amid a spray of red roses and jewels while she talked about Mike Todd after he died.
Oscars for Glenn, Amy and Spike, please.
@Rob: Same here. And she's ABSOLUTELY deserving for The Wife...most people who say otherwise haven't actually seen it or are rooting for someone else so they don't have to say they didn't see the Best Actress winning film. Even if Colman were a little more deserving, so what? Close should've won for both movies you mentioned a long time ago and lost to inferior competition (at least once).
Glenn Close loosing again on Suday would be as awful as the time they give the second Oscar she shoud've one (after the one for Fatal Attraction) for Dangerous Liaisons to Jodie Foster...
I cherish all of you out there who are able to see the blatant sexism and ageism of how people have treated Glenn Close and THE WIFE all season. It's not a *great* movie but it is hardly a *bad* movie which is what most of the naysayers are trying to make the narrative. If they succeed, it's a blow to all women really.
Now, i'm not saying that not letting Glenn Close get her long-since deserved Oscar is a blow to all women but treating an authentic woman's picture with this much disrespect, like it's some sort of pariah of blahness and boredom (an old unfamous woman? Ewww. who wants to see that???) is damaging to everyone in the long run (sexism is not actually good for anyone, including men) and it's alarming that so many people dont see a problem with buying into it and even celebrating this "ewww, THE WIFE" thing.
When will we stop doing this as a culture? So what if THE WIFE isn't a great film. Neither are BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and VICE (both or which are actively bad films at times) and that didn't stop people from showering them with prizes and nominations and considering them "important". But oh yes, they're about actual real life famous men, not an overlooked fictional woman.
Also, just as a reminder, THE WIFE made more money than AT ETERNITY'S GATE, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, COLD WAR, FIRST REFORMED, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS and ROMA and you dont hear people all "Ugh, who even saw that?!?" dismissive about those pictures. Gee, I wonder what the difference is?
@Nathaniel: Thanks, very nicely expressed as usual.
It dawns on me that we're likely not having this discussion had Close won BAFTA. It's easy to pass that off as "Olivia's a national treasure," but it showed the chinks in her armor and brought all this back up again. Imagine if Gaga had won the Globe...
Time for my seemingly regular twice-yearly defence of Around the World in Eighty Days.
The Maclaine casting is of its time, and uncomfortable for us now (although her performance is fine) But this is a great film - funny and elegant and a true epic and a jaw-dropping production - and, not incidentally, a very good adaptation of the classic novel. David Niven is sublime. Cantinflas is perfect. The cameo stars are fun to spot. The travelogue makes you want to travel. The animals are awesome. The ending is as suspenseful as the climax of Goldfinger. The music soars.
Five Oscars. Deserved all eight. (Look at those costumes.)
And don't forget, it didn't just win the Oscar - it got the Golden Globe, the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics awards for best film. None of which is a measure of its quality, but all of which show that it wasn't just the Academy who preferred it to Giant, The Searchers, etc.
See it again, Nathaniel!
Since you are all talking about Glenn, you must vote in my Glenn fave performance bracket on twitter. We start with 16 and only one can be named the favorite. Here's the link:
https://twitter.com/ME_Says/status/1097570852395196416
@Nathaniel: thank you! I was actually riveted throughout The Wife; I feel it brings up so many currently relevant issues of privilege, artistic canons, artistic jealousy, white male mediocrity, etc. And sexism, lots of sexism - but more through the reactions to the movie than what's in the movie itself.
If Close doesn't win on Sunday, she should go on the stage grab the Oscar and say "You don't like me, you really don't like me!"
"Don't hate it like Elaine!" Hee! There's also a clip from the old ROSIE O'DONNELL SHOW where says she saw it and didn't enjoy it. Was there a weird sense of intellectual elitism going on in '96? Like if you didn't like THE ENGLISH PATIENT, you didn't "get it"?
I was born in '86 so I feel like I should see PLATOON at some point.
@jakey: The English Patient was just soooooo divisive, I guess mostly due to its length. I wouldn't necessarily say that the intellectual elitist faction who liked it were any more annoying than the opposite faction who didn't.
" The Best Years of our Life" is very emotional specially the scenes with the the sailor. The best thing about " The Great Ziegfield" are the production numbers specially that incredible spinning stair case sequence. I really do hope Close wins.
Love this connection between THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES and MOONLIGHT, which just happen to be two greatest Best Picture winners.
i secretly did this post for frequent commenter par3182 whose favourite number is six and he didn't even show up to comment on it *cries*
I did a Best Picture project a few years ago and watched every winner. It was such fun - especially dreading certain films and then being surprised when I enjoyed them. Around the World in 80 Days and The Great Ziegfeld are two such examples. I expected them both to be a slog, but thought they were both very entertaining.
Others I liked more than expected: Cavalcade, The Life of Emile Zola, Patton, Slumdog Millionaire.
I rink Weisz has a betta chance o winning the Oscar than Colman.
Close may not hav won the Bafta but she HAS the momentum! Close is v active n visible on the campaign trail n u can sense tt everyone luvs her n many agreed tt It's Time!
Colman is still a relative newbie stateside n truth be told her Queen Anne has the shortest screentime among the three ladies, many voters would argue whether hers shld've been in the supp cat, while thr's no doubt tt Glenn IS the Lead n carries the whole pic on her shoulders.
One more pt: for those voters who feel bad NOT voting for Colman, they cld probably vote for Weisz n a win for her is like a recognition for all three ladies!
@Nathaniel
Would you mind if I change a little this list?
"6. Six multiple-nominated actors who we'd be most thrilled to finally see win in the next few years should the right role surface (ranked by guesstimated enthusiasm level): Michelle Pfeiffer, Annette Bening, Ralph Fiennes, Laura Dern, Michael Fassbender, and Sigourney Weaver."
Answer: Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Ralph Fiennes, Ian McKellen, Max Von Sydow, Liv Ullmann.