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ACADEMY of
MOTION PICTURE ARTS and SCIENCES Best Pictures - Facts & Trivia (part 2) |
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Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.
Best Pictures Sections
Facts & Trivia (1) | Facts & Trivia (2) | Genre Biases | Winners Chart (part 1) | Winners Chart (part 2)
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Best Pictures - Facts and Trivia (continued): Non-Hollywood Best Pictures: The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) was the first non-US made film to both earn a Best Picture nomination, and win an Oscar of any sort (Best Actor for Charles Laughton, in this case). The first non-Hollywood (foreign-made) film to win Best Picture was Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948). At the 1928/29 Academy Awards (held in 1930), no film won more than one statuette (there were seven films honored in seven categories) - something that hasn't been duplicated since. Pulitzer-Prize and Best Picture Winners: Only two novels that were made into films have won both the Best Picture Oscar and the Pulitzer Prize: Back-to-Back Appearances in Best Pictures: Only a few actors have starred in the Oscar-winning Best Picture for two years in a row:
Appearances in Three Best Picture-Nominated Films in the Same Year: Only four performers have starred in three Best Picture-nominated films in the same year:
Note: Colbert's, Laughton's and Mitchell's performances came at a time when there were 10 Best Picture nominees, while Reilly's was when there were only 5. Best Picture Oscar Anomaly: John Cazale appeared in only five films in his entire career - all of which were nominated for or won Best Picture:
Color and Black and White Best Pictures:
The first time all five Best Picture nominees were shot in color was 1956. The first film to be released on home video before winning Best Picture was The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Foreign-Language Best Pictures Nominees: It should be noted that 1956 was the first year that the regular competitive category of Best Foreign Language film was introduced. Foreign-language films would no longer be recognized with only a special achievement Honorary Award or with a Best Picture nomination (as in 1938) - see below. The first winner in this new category was Federico Fellini's La Strada (1956). Italy has the most Best Foreign Language Film Oscars - a total of 12 (as of 2003). The first non-English film to be nominated for Best Picture was Grand Illusion (1938). The only foreign-language films nominated for Best Picture include:
Z (1969), Life is Beautiful (1998) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) have been nominated for the simultaneous, double honors of Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film in the same year, all winning the latter. While The Emigrants (1972) had received a Best Foreign Language Film nomination the previous year - without winning. Bertolucci's Chinese/Italian-produced Best Picture winner The Last Emperor (1987) was not a Foreign-Language film nominee. The Italian film The Battle of Algiers (1966) was the only film that earned nominations in two non-consecutive years:
Foreign-language films with the most Oscar nominations include:
So far, three partly foreign-language films have won Best Picture:
Best Picture Genre Biases: There are obvious biases in the selection of Best Picture winners by the Academy. Serious dramas or social-problem films with weighty themes, bio-pictures (inspired by real-life individuals or events), or films with literary pretensions are much more likely to be nominated than "popcorn" movies. Action-adventures, suspense-thrillers, Westerns, and comedies are mostly overlooked (although there are exceptions), as are independent productions. See Analysis of Best Picture Genre Biases here. Remakes, Sequel 'Best Pictures' and Trilogies:
Longest and Shortest:
Best Picture Winning-est Director: William Wyler holds the record for directing more Best Picture nominees (13) and more Best Picture winners (3) than anyone else. The nominated and winning (marked with *) films were:
Best Picture Winners Without a Nomination for Best Director:
The Winning-est and Most-Nominated Best Picture Studios: 1927/28 to 1950 From 1927/28 through the 1950 Academy Awards, the Best Picture nomination went to the production company or studio that produced the film.
The Winning-est and Most-Nominated Best Picture Producers: 1951-present From the 1951 Academy Awards through to the present, the Best Picture nomination went to the producer(s) credited on the film. The producers whose films have won the most Best Picture Oscars from 1951 to the present include:
The producer(s) credited on the film who have received the most nominations for Best Picture from 1951 to the present include:
The first female Best Picture nominee and winner
of a Best Picture Oscar was producer Julia Phillips for The Sting
(1973). Curiously, in the decade of the 1950s, none of the Best
Actress Oscar winners appeared in a Best Picture winning film! |
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