Trivia Collection for the 96th Academy Awards

Here's what we came up with as the dust settles from Oscar night. Let us know in the comments if there's any other interesting trivia bits you noticed from this season. 

PICTURE / DIRECTOR

• Oppenheimer is the third consecutive movie to be released before fall film festival season to win the Best Picture Oscar (after Coda and Everything Everywhere All At Once)... so perhaps distributors can learn to start trusting that movies can be released at any time and still factor into awards season? It's also the first movie to go straight to theaters (no festivals) to win Best Picture in ages (well, since The Departed in 2006)

• Three female-directed films Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, and Past Lives were nominated in Best Picture which is an all time record...

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Oscar Trivia: The Beloved Losers Camp gets a new member!

by Nathaniel R

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON marks a third time for Scorsese to reach a particular Oscar stat

Most die-hard movie fans can tell you who the "all time biggest losers" are in Oscar history though they'll usually cite actors (Peter O'Toole, Glenn Close, etcetera) rather than films. The film list is interesting because usually when Oscar really loves a movie they'll find a way to give it at least one Oscar. Yet sometimes they really love you only on the first ballot but are over you when it comes time to pick winners. In the past ten years this list of "losers" had grown. Please take the term "loser" in good fun as being nominated for tons of Oscars is still a rarity in the grand scheme of Hollywood releases. 

After the jump all of the films with 8 nominations or more that won nothing on Oscar night... 

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Oscar Actor Hierarchy 2024 Edition

by Nathaniel R

Just one more nomination and the Poor Things men will make the list!

When we last updated the male version of this list Anthony Hopkins had yet to win his second Oscar for The Father (2021). Also moving up the list since then are Denzel Washington (who forced an expansion of the throne room itself with his 9th acting nod via Tragedy of Macbeth) and Robert De Niro with his 8th nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon. Despite a few moves up the latter the only "new" entry is Bradley Cooper, scoring his 5th acting nod for Maestro though that poor things duo Mark Ruffalo (just nominated) and Willem Dafoe (just missed)  both feel likely to enter in the next year or three given how often they work and the plum roles that come there way. They have identical Oscar stats with 4 nominations and 0 wins each.   

What follows is a list of Oscar's 35 All Time Favorite Actors. As with the women this royal club is restricted to men with 5 or more nominations. Only the acting statistics are accounted for so George Clooney, for example, is not (yet) ranked...

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Oscar Actress Hierarchy 2024 Edition

by Nathaniel R 

Emma & Annette rising

The last time we did this list three years ago, Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) and Frances McDormand (Nomadland) had just risen on the list with new nominations adding to their overall tally. After the nominations that year Glenn lost again and Frances won again. With Emma Stone (Poor Things) taking her second Oscar on Sunday night and Annette Bening &  Jodie Foster (both in Nyad) in the shortlists this season once again, it's time for a refresher. They aren't the only stars to have moved up or entered the hallowed ranks in the past few years. 

What follows is a List of Oscar's 40 All Time Favorite Actresses... 

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Get Ready for a New Oscar Category: Best Casting

by Cláudio Alves

Until today, Animated Feature was the youngest category. SHREK was its first winner .

Though some people say the Oscars already have too many categories, the Academy disagrees. Today, AMPAS announced a new awards category meant to honor casting directors. It won't be an Honorary or Special Achievement Oscar like it happened in the early days of such races as International Film and Visual Effects, but a regular competitive category. We'll see the first nominees for this new prize in two years' time, during the season of the 98th Academy Awards, honoring 2025 releases. One assumes the Board of Governors will use that time to establish specific rules and eligibility requirements…

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