Largest sweep (winning awards in every nominated category): 11
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) won in every category for which it was nominated: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Makeup, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects
John Williams holds the record for the most nominations by a living person: 54
Most nominations and awards for a person in a single year: 6 & 4
In 1954, Walt Disney received 6 nominations and won 4 awards, both records. He won Best Documentary, Features for The Living Desert; Best Documentary, Short Subjects for The Alaskan Eskimo; Best Short Subject, Cartoons for Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom; and Best Short Subject, Two-reel for Bear Country. He had two additional nominations in Best Short Subject, Cartoons for Rugged Bear; and Best Short Subject, Two-reel for Ben and Me
In 2025, Sean Baker won 4 awards from 4 nominations. He won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing, all for Anora.
Most competitive awards won by a person who is still living: 8
Of note: Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren has won 9 Academy Awards: six competitive awards, two "Special Achievement" awards, and one "Technical Achievement" award
Four non-English language films have won four Academy Awards:
Fanny and Alexander (1982) won Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) won Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score
Parasite (2019) won Best International Feature Film, Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) won Best International Feature Film, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score
Most nominations received by a non-English language film: 13
One non-English language film has been nominated for thirteen Academy Awards:
Emilia Pérez (2024): Best International Feature Film, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song (x2)
Awards for acting and directing debuts
These people won Academy Awards for their debut performances in film:
Walt Disney received record 10 awards in the eight consecutive years from 1931/32 through 1939. Eight (listed below) are for Short Subject (Cartoon), and two were Special Awards: one for the creation of Mickey Mouse, and one recognizing the innovation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Best Picture
David O. Selznick produced two consecutive Best Picture winners Gone with the Wind in 1939 and Rebecca in 1940 (He himself was not awarded the Oscars as at the time the statuette went to the studio instead of the producer)
Best Director
Three directors have won two consecutive awards (of which, one of each of their movies—in bold—won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and one did not):[10]
No consecutive winner for Best Original Screenplay
Best Art Direction
Thomas Little won four consecutive awards for Best Art Direction. He won Best Art Direction, Black and White, for the films How Green Was My Valley in 1941, This Above All in 1942, and The Song of Bernadette in 1943, and then he won an Oscar the next year in 1944 for Best Art Direction, Color for the film Wilson
Of Edith Head's eight awards won for Best Costume Design, three were won in consecutive years: in 1949 for The Heiress, in 1950 for All About Eve, and in 1951 for A Place in the Sun for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; in 1950 she also won for Samson and Delilah for Best Costume Design, Color
First male actor to receive ten nominations for acting
Laurence Olivier received his tenth acting nomination (nine for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor) for the film The Boys from Brazil (1978)
First actor to receive twenty nominations for acting
Meryl Streep received her twentieth nomination (sixteen for Best Actress and four for Best Supporting Actress) for the film Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
Films nominated for Best Picture with no other major nominations
These 32 films were nominated for Best Picture but had no other major nominations (this does not include films that were only nominated for Best Picture and nothing else):
While the musical Titanic, which won the Best Musical in 1997, and the film Titanic (1997), which won the Best Picture, shared the same name, neither production had anything to do with the other, and by coincidence, both opened in the same year.
Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer Prize winning sources
Harold Russell played Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946. For this role he received 2 Oscars, one for Best Supporting Actor and an Honorary Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives."
Most nominations for one acting performance
Barry Fitzgerald was nominated as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for his role as Father Fitzgibbon in 1944's Going My Way. He won Best Supporting Actor.
Only acting win portraying multiple characters in the same film
Most roles played in a single film to be nominated for an acting award
Peter Sellers was nominated for Best Actor for playing 3 characters (Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove) in Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Years where all four acting winners were born outside the United States
To date, technically no one has. However Lee Grant won for Best Supporting Actress for Shampoo (1975) and she directed the Best Documentary Feature, Down and Out in America (1986), but under the Academy rules at the time, only producers were eligible to win the award, so the award went to her producer husband and another co-producer. Under the present rules, the director would now be recognized with the Oscar.
Only person to win for Directing, Editing, and Writing
Sean Baker won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing for Anora (2024); as an Anora producer, he also received an Oscar for Best Picture.
Only person nominated for Acting, Writing, Producing, and Directing for the same film
Citizen Kane was nominated in the four categories, but at the time, the studio rather than the individual producer was eligible for the Best Picture award, meaning that writer/director/producer/actor Orson Welles was not nominated as a producer.
Only person to win for Directing, Editing, Producing, and Writing for the same film
Sean Baker for Anora (2024), which also makes him the only person to win 4 Academy Awards in one night for the same movie.
Only person to receive every nomination in a category
Diane Warren in the Best Original Song category, including eight consecutive nominations from 2017 to 2024 (She received a Academy Honorary Award in 2022)
Most total nominations before receiving an award
Film composer Victor Young was nominated 21 times without winning. He was often nominated multiple times in one year; twice, he was nominated four times at the same Oscars. He won posthumously for Around the World in 80 Days (1956).
Sound re-recording mixer Kevin O'Connell comes in at a close second, with 20 unsuccessful nominations from 1983 until 2016, when he finally won for Hacksaw Ridge.
NOTE: Cuarón's film Roma also won Best International Feature Film, but as the category is awarded to the country rather than the producer or director, this does not count towards his wins and nominations.
Longest time span between the release of a film and winning an Oscar
Limelight (1952) is the only film to have won an award twenty years after its official release. Since it was not released in Los Angeles County until 1972, it was not eligible for any Academy Awards until that time
Adrien Brody spoke for 5 minutes and 40 seconds while accepting Best Actor for The Brutalist at the 97th Academy Awards in 2025.[44] Prior to that, the longest Oscar speech was given by Greer Garson, who spoke for 5 minutes and 30 seconds at the 15th Academy Awards after she was named Best Actress for 1942 for Mrs. Miniver.[45] It was shortly after this incident that the academy set forty-five seconds as the allotted time for an acceptance speech and began to cut the winners off after this time limit. When presenting the Best Actor award at the 24th Academy Awards, Garson quipped, "I think I have ten minutes left over from a highly emotional speech I made a few years ago. I'd be glad to give it to them."[46][bettersourceneeded]
Shortest speech
The shortest Oscar speech was that given by Patty Duke at the 35th Academy Awards after she was named Best Supporting Actress for 1962 for The Miracle Worker. Duke, age 16, was the youngest person at that time to receive an Academy Award in a competitive category. Her acceptance speech was, simply, two words – "Thank you" – after which she walked off the stage[47] (Note: When Fred Zinnemann accepted the Best Picture Oscar for A Man For All Seasons, he simply nodded and smiled. However, minutes earlier he had won Best Director and made his thank-yous then, and thus felt he had nothing to add.)
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