Impress (or annoy) your friends at your Oscars party this weekend with these fun facts.
Six actors have won Academy Awards for performances not in the English language: Sophia Loren in Two Women (1961, Italian); Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful (1998, Italian); Benicio del Toro in Traffic (2000, Spanish); Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose (2007, French); and Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008, Spanish). Those five actors are native speakers of those languages. The sixth winner is Robert De Niro, who had to learn Sicilian for his Oscar-winning role in The Godfather, Part II (1974).
- Two directors have been nominated in the Best Directing category twice in one year. Steven Soderbergh earned nods for Traffic and Erin Brockovich in 2000. He won for Traffic. In 1938, Michael Curtiz was nominated for Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters. He lost to Frank Capra for You Can’t Take it With You.
- The most nominated films in Oscar history are Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950). Both landed 14 nominations. Titanic won 11; Eve won six. That 11 put Titanic into a three-way tie for most-Oscared movie, along with Ben-Hur (1959) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The latter, however, pulled off the only sweep in Oscar history—it won all 11 of the Oscars for which it was nominated.
- The most snubbed movies at the Oscars are The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985). Both received 11 Oscar nominations. Total number of Oscars received by each film: 0.
- Meryl Streep is the most-nominated performer ever at the Academy Awards. This year, she’s up for Best Actress for August: Osage County, her 18th total nominations. Of those 18, she’s won three times—two for Best Actress (The Iron Lady and Sophie’s Choice) and once for Best Supporting Actress (Kramer vs. Kramer). Eleven of her nominated roles have been for fictional characters, and seven for portraying real people.
- Walt Disney was nominated for at least one Oscar for every year from 1942 to 1963, a continuous, record streak of 22 years. He amassed 53 total nominations, also a record, mostly for animated and documentary shorts. In 1954, he won four Oscars in a single year, another record, winning the Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Short Subject – Cartoons, and Best Short Subject – Two-Reel awards.