by Eurocheese
Since Nathaniel is flying to Toronto as we speak (TIFF kicks off tomorrow and runs through Sunday, September 15th), I volunteered to handle this week's Oscar Trivia column for him. I thought it might be fun to throw out a little quiz. THE ANSWERS WILL BE AFTER THE JUMP – no peeking! -- and be honest in the comments. How many can you guess correctly?
1. The highest number of Oscar wins for a single person is a whopping 22. Name the person who won them.
2. Last year, Roma won three Oscars. That means it missed the record for the most Oscars won by a foreign language film, a record currently held by which two films?
3. Have there been more female or more African-American Director nominees in the Academy’s history? (Both are sadly too few... bonus points if you can name all of those nominees)
4. The longest screen time for an Oscar nominated performance ended up netting the performer a win. The shortest nominated performance of all time did not. Can you name these two performances?
5. Which country has won the most Best Foreign Language Film Oscars? And which country has been nominated most often in the category?
6. Name the only actor or actress that has multiple posthumous nominations.
7. Only one person has an Olympic gold medal and an Academy Award. Name that person.
8. No film has ever won all four acting categories. Can you name the two films that came closest to that mark?
9. Name the most Oscar nominated woman in the Academy’s history.
10. How many times has a debut performance won the Best Actor Oscar?
OKAY DID YOU TRY TO GUESS BEFORE LOOKING...
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ANSWERS...
THE ANSWERS
Walt with only a smidgeon of his statues
1. Walt Disney
2. Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1983) and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) both won 4 Oscars.
3. The numbers are currently tied with 5 each.
a) Female directors: Lina Wertmüller (76), Jane Campion (93), Sofia Coppola (03), Kathryn Bigelow (09), and Greta Gerwig (17)
b) African-American directors: John Singleton (90), Lee Daniels (09), Barry Jenkins (16), Jordan Peele (17), and Spike Lee (18)
*This was a bit of a trick question as six black men have been nominated for Best Director. But Steve McQueen (13) is British.
4. Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind (1939) is the longest performance ever nominated (that nearly 4 hour running time helps). She won. Hermione Baddeley in Room at the Top (1959) is the shortest at under 3 minutes and she lost.
5. Italy has the most wins but France has the most nominations.
James Dean in Giant (1956)
6. James Dean. Both of his Best Actor nominations were posthumous. He was alive when East of Eden (1955) premiered but tragically died before Rebel Without a Cause opened (1955) and before his star-making year resulted in his first nomiantion (for East of Eden). He was nominated again for Giant (1956) which was still in production when he died.
7. Kobe Bryant
8. A Streetcar Named Desire (Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden, Kim Hunter... Marlon Brando lost best actor) and Network (Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight... Ned Beatty lost best supporting actor) were both nominated in all four acting categories and are the only films to win 3 of the 4 acting Oscars.
9. Costume Designer Edith Head - 35 nominations (she also won 8 times). It's worth noting that she reigned when double-nominations were easier since there were two categories for costume design (black & white / color) for a long time.
10. Another trick question: It’s never happened. Most people think Ben Kingsley's Gandhi performance was a debut but he had made one movie 10 years before it called Fear is the Key.