Oscar winners facts

30 Amazing Facts About the Oscars You Probably Didn’t Know

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  1. The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929, and the first winners were announced in 1930.

  2. The Oscars are officially known as the Academy Awards, and are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  3. The Oscar statue is made of gold-plated bronze, stands at 13.5 inches tall, and weighs 8.5 pounds.
  4. Only 3 movies in history have won the “Big Five” Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. These movies are “It Happened One Night” (1934), “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).
  5. The record for the most Oscars won by a single movie is held by “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), which won 11 awards.
  6. The record for the most nominations for a single movie is held by “All About Eve” (1950), which received 14 nominations.
  7. The first African-American actor to win an Oscar was Sidney Poitier, who won Best Actor for “Lilies of the Field” in 1963.
  8. The youngest person to ever win an Oscar was Tatum O’Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress for “Paper Moon” at age 10.
  9. The first person to win an Oscar posthumously was Peter Finch, who won Best Actor for “Network” in 1976, after his death.
  10. The first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director was Kathryn Bigelow, who won for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010.
  11. Only one person has ever refused an Oscar: George C. Scott, who won Best Actor for “Patton” in 1971.
  12. The Academy Awards ceremony has only been postponed three times in history: in 1938, 1968, and 2021.
  13. The first televised Oscar ceremony was held in 1953.
  14. In 2020, the Oscars went hostless for the second year in a row.
  15. The shortest Oscar acceptance speech ever was given by Patty Duke, who won Best Supporting Actress for “The Miracle Worker” in 1963. She simply said, “Thank you.”
  16. The longest Oscar acceptance speech ever was given by Greer Garson, who won Best Actress for “Mrs. Miniver” in 1943. Her speech was five and a half minutes long.
  17. The Academy Awards have been held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, since 2002.
  18. The only person to have won an Oscar in both an acting and a writing category is Emma Thompson.
  19. The oldest person to ever win an Oscar was Christopher Plummer, who won Best Supporting Actor for “Beginners” in 2011 at the age of 82.
  20. The only X-rated movie to ever win Best Picture is “Midnight Cowboy” (1969).
  21. The only animated movie to ever win Best Picture is “The Shape of Water” (2017).
  22. The first person to win an Oscar for a non-English speaking performance was Sophia Loren, who won Best Actress for “Two Women” in 1961.
  23. The first woman to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay was Frances Marion, who won for “The Big House” in 1930.
  24. The first person to win two Oscars in the same year was Mary Pickford, who won Best Actress for “Coquette” and received an honorary award for producing in 1929.
  25. The Oscar statuette was originally called the Academy Award of Merit, but its nickname “Oscar” became widely used in the 1930s.
  26. The Academy Awards have only been postponed three times in history, in 1938, 1968, and 2021.
  27. Walt Disney holds the record for the most Oscar wins by an individual, with 26 awards.
  28. The youngest person to ever win an Oscar was Tatum O’Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress for “Paper Moon” at age 10.
  29. The first African-American actor to win an Oscar was Sidney Poitier, who won Best Actor for “Lilies of the Field” in 1963.

  30. In 2020, the Oscars went hostless for the second year in a row, marking the first time in over 30 years that the ceremony had no official host.