List of Academy Award records

This is a list of Academy Award records. This list is current as of the 85th Academy Awards ceremony held on February 24, 2013.

Most awards

• Most awards won by a single film
  • Three films have won 11 Academy Awards.
    • Ben-Hur (1959)
    • Titanic (1997)
    • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Most nominations received by a single film
  • Two films received 14 nominations.
    • All About Eve (1950)
    • Titanic (1997)
• Highest Sweep (Winning every nominated category)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) won all 11 categories for which it was nominated: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Mixing, Art Direction, Makeup, Costume Design, Film Editing, Visual Effects
• Most awards won by a man
  • Walt Disney won 22 Oscars (22 competitive, four honorary). He also won the most Oscars in one year, with four in 1953.
• Most awards won by a woman
  • Edith Head won eight Oscars, all for Costume Design
• Most nominations/wins in a single year
  • In 1953 Walt Disney won 4 awards out of 6 nominations, both records: He won a 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 additional nominations in Best Short Subject, Cartoons for Rugged Bear and Best Short Subject, Two-reel for Ben and Me
• Most awards won by a person who is still living
  • Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren has won nine Academy Awards: six competitive awards, two "Special Achievement" awards, and one "Technical Achievement" award
• Most competitive awards won by a person who is still living
  • Composer Alan Menken has won eight competitive Academy Awards.
• Directing
  • John Ford won the most directing awards, with four.
• Acting
  • Katharine Hepburn won four awards, all for Best Actress
  • Ingrid Bergman won three awards, one for Best Supporting Actress and two for Best Actress
  • Jack Nicholson won three awards, one for Best Supporting Actor and two for Best Actor
  • Meryl Streep won three awards, one for Best Supporting Actress and two for Best Actress
  • Walter Brennan won three awards, all for Best Supporting Actor
  • Daniel Day Lewis won three awards, all for Best Actor
• Cinematography
  • The highest number of Academy Awards won by any cinematographer is four.
    • Joseph Ruttenberg, in 1938, 1942, 1956 and 1958
    • Leon Shamroy, in 1942, 1944, 1945 and 1963
• Art Direction
  • Cedric Gibbons, who designed the Oscar statuette, won 11 awards out of a total of 39 nominations.
• Makeup
  • Rick Baker won seven Academy Awards (all for Best Makeup)

Awards for debut acting or directing performances on film

• Best Actress
  • Shirley Booth (Come Back, Little Sheba, 1952)
  • Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, 1964)
  • Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl, 1968)
  • Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God, 1986)
• Best Supporting Actor
  • Harold Russell (The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946)
  • Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields, 1984)
• Best Supporting Actress
  • Gale Sondergaard (Anthony Adverse, 1936)
  • Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1943)
  • Mercedes McCambridge (All the King's Men, 1949)
  • Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, 1954)
  • Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden, 1955)
  • Tatum O'Neal (Paper Moon, 1973)
  • Anna Paquin (The Piano, 1993)
  • Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls, 2006)
• Academy Juvenile Award
  • Claude Jarman, Jr. (The Yearling, 1946)
  • Vincent Winter (The Little Kidnappers, 1954)
• Best Director
  • Delbert Mann (Marty, 1955)
  • Jerome Robbins (West Side Story, 1961)
  • Robert Redford (Ordinary People, 1980)
  • James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, 1983)
  • Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves, 1990)
  • Sam Mendes (American Beauty, 1999)

Big Five winners

Three films have received the so-called Big Five Academy Awards (best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay (original or adapted)):

• It Happened One Night (1934)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Most consecutive awards

• Any awards
  • Walt Disney was awarded a record of 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 Actress
  • Two actresses have won two consecutive awards.
    • Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld, 1936 and The Good Earth, 1937)
    • Katharine Hepburn (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1967 and The Lion in Winter, 1968)
• Best Actor
  • Two actors have won two consecutive awards.
    • Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous, 1937 and Boys Town, 1938)
    • Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, 1993 and Forrest Gump, 1994)
• Best Director
  • Two directors have won two consecutive awards.
    • John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath, 1940 and How Green Was My Valley, 1941)
    • Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives, 1949 and All About Eve, 1950)
• Best Supporting Actor
  • Jason Robards won two consecutive awards for All the President's Men in 1976 and Julia in 1977
• Best Supporting Actress
  • No consecutive winner for Best Supporting Actress
• 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 Original Screenplay
  • No consecutive winner for Best Original Screenplay
• Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz won two consecutive adapted screenplay awards for A Letter to Three Wives in 1949 and All About Eve in 1950.
  • Robert Bolt won for Doctor Zhivago in 1965 and A Man for All Seasons in 1966.
• Best Cinematography
  • John Toll won for Legends of the Fall in 1994 and Braveheart in 1995.
• Best Film Editing
  • Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter won for The Social Network in 2010 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2011.
• Best Original Score
  • Roger Edens won three consecutive awards for composing the scores for Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), and Annie Get Your Gun (1950).
  • Alan Menken won two consecutive awards for composing the score for Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin' (1992)
• Best Original Song
  • Three composers have won two consecutive awards for best original song, but under different award names:
    • Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) shared the awards for Best Music (Song) for "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961 and "Days of Wine and Roses" from Days of Wine and Roses in 1962
    • Alan Menken (music) won twice consecutively for Best Music (Original Song) for "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast (lyrics by Howard Ashman) in 1991 and "A Whole New World" from Aladdin (lyrics by Tim Rice) in 1992
• Best Short Subject (Cartoon)
  • Walt Disney won eight consecutive awards for Flowers and Trees in 1931–32, Three Little Pigs in 1932–33, The Tortoise and the Hare in 1934, Three Orphan Kittens in 1935, The Country Cousin in 1936, The Old Mill in 1937, Ferdinand the Bull in 1938, and The Ugly Duckling in 1939.
• Best Short Subject (Two-Reel)
  • Walt Disney won four consecutive awards for In Beaver Valley in 1950, Nature's Half Acre in 1951, Water Birds in 1952, and Bear Country in 1953.
• Best Documentary (Feature)
  • Walt Disney won two consecutive awards for The Living Desert in 1953 and The Vanishing Prairie in 1954.

Academy Award firsts

• First French actress to win the Oscar for the Best Actress in a Leading Role
  • Claudette Colbert, for the film It Happened One Night (1934)
• First French actor to win the Oscar for the Best Actor in a Leading Role
  • Jean Dujardin, for the film The Artist (2011)
• First Asian and non-Caucasian to win a directing award
  • Ang Lee (from Taiwan) won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain (2005).
• First person to accrue ten Oscar nominations for acting
  • Bette Davis received her tenth Oscar nomination for Best Actress for the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
• First woman to win Best Director
  • Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)
• First woman to win Best Picture
  • Julia Phillips for The Sting (1973)
• First 3-D films to be nominated for Best Picture
  • Avatar and Up (2009)
• First fantasy film to win Best Picture
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• First animated film to be nominated for Best Picture
  • Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• First (partial) Documentary film to be nominated for Best Picture
• Reds (1981)
• First animated film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film
  • Waltz with Bashir representing Israel (2008)
• First animated film to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay
  • Toy Story (1995)
• First animated film to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Shrek (2001)
• First film to have the most Oscar nominations of its year without having a Best Picture nomination
  • Dreamgirls (2006), with eight nominations
• First X-rated film to win for Best Picture
  • Midnight Cowboy (1969). It was also the first X-rated film to be nominated for Best Picture and the only one to date to have won it.
• First Middle-Eastern actor to be nominated
  • Omar Sharif for Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
• First Middle-Eastern movie to win for the Best Foreign Language Film
  • A Separation (from Iran) (2011) by Asghar Farhadi.
• First posthumous nomination for acting
  • Jeanne Eagels, nominated for Best Actress in 1929 for The Letter.
• First posthumous nomination for a male actor
  • James Dean, nominated for Best Actor in 1956 for East of Eden.
• First posthumous win for acting
  • Peter Finch, who won for Network (1976).
• First actress to win for performing in a language other than English
  • Sophia Loren for Two Women (1960), performing in Italian.
• First actor to win for performing in a language other than English
  • Robert De Niro for The Godfather Part II (1974), performing in Sicilian.
• First African man to be nominated for acting
  • Basil Rathbone (from South Africa) for Romeo and Juliet (1936).
• First African woman to win an acting award
  • Charlize Theron (from South Africa) won Best Actress for Monster (2003).
• First Australian actress to win for acting in a lead role
  • Nicole Kidman won Best Actress for The Hours (2002).
• First Australian actor to win for acting in a lead role
  • Peter Finch won Best Actor for Network (1976).
• First black actress to win for acting
  • Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind (1939).
• First black actor to win for acting
  • Sidney Poitier won Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1963).
• First black actress to win for acting in a lead role
  • Halle Berry won Best Actress for Monster's Ball (2001).
• First black actress to win for debut in acting
  • Jennifer Hudson won Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls (2006).
• First two black actors/actresses to win for acting in a lead role in the same year
  • Denzel Washington won Best Actor for Training Day (2001).
  • Halle Berry won Best Actress for Monster's Ball (2001).
• First Latin American actress to be nominated for Best Actress
  • Fernanda Montenegro was nominated for Best Actress for Central Station (1998).
• First child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination
  • Jackie Cooper, age 9, was nominated for Best Actor for Skippy (1931).
• First black child actor/actress to receive an Academy Award nomination
  • Quvenzhané Wallis Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).
• First Indian Music Director to win for Best Original Score & Best Original Song
  • A. R. Rahman won Best Original Score & Best Original Song for Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

Age-related records

• Youngest winner of an acting award
  • Tatum O'Neal, age 10 (Best Supporting Actress, Paper Moon, 1973)
• Youngest nominee for an acting award
  • Justin Henry, age 8 (Best Supporting Actor, Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979)
• Youngest winner of a lead acting award
  • Marlee Matlin, age 21 (Best Actress, Children of a Lesser God, 1986)
• Youngest male nominee for a lead acting award
  • Jackie Cooper, age 9 (Best Actor, Skippy, 1931)
• Youngest female nominee for a lead acting award
  • Quvenzhané Wallis, age 9 (Best Actress, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012)
• Youngest winner of an Oscar
  • Shirley Temple, age 6, who was awarded the inaugural (now retired) non-competitive Academy Juvenile Award in 1934.
• Youngest winner of Best Director
  • Norman Taurog, age 32 (Skippy, 1931)
• Youngest nominee for Best Director
  • John Singleton, age 24 (Boyz n the Hood, 1991)
• Oldest winner of Best Director
  • Clint Eastwood, age 74 (Million Dollar Baby, 2004)
• Oldest nominee for Best Director
  • John Huston, age 79 (Prizzi's Honor, 1985)
• Oldest winner of an acting award
  • Christopher Plummer, age 82 (Best Supporting Actor, Beginners, 2011)
• Oldest woman to win best Actress Award
  • Jessica Tandy, age 80 (Best Actress, Driving Miss Daisy, 1989)
• Oldest man to win Best Actor Award
  • Henry Fonda, age 76 (Best Actor, On Golden Pond, 1981)
• Oldest nominee for an acting award
  • Gloria Stuart, age 87 (Best Supporting Actress, Titanic, 1997)
• Oldest nominee for a lead acting award
  • Emmanuelle Riva, age 85 (Best Actress, Amour, 2012)

Film records

• Most nominations for a single film
  • Two films received 14 nominations.
    • All About Eve (1950)
    • Titanic (1997)
• Most Oscars without winning Best Picture
  • Cabaret won 8 awards (1972)
• Most nominations without any wins
  • Two films received 11 nominations without winning any awards.
    • The Turning Point (1977)
    • The Color Purple (1985)
• Most nominations without a Best Picture nomination
  • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) with 9 nominations.
• Most Oscars without a nomination for Best Picture
  • The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) with 5 wins
• Fewest nominations for a Best Picture winner
  • 1 - Grand Hotel received no nominations other than Best Picture.
• Nominations in the most different technical categories
  • Three films have been nominated in all 7 technical categories (Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Production Design/Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects).
    • Titanic (1997)
    • Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
    • Hugo (2011)

Acting records

• Most wins for leading actress
  • Katharine Hepburn with 4 awards (1934, 1968, 1969, 1982)
• Most wins for leading actor
  • Daniel Day-Lewis with 3 awards (1989, 2007, 2012)
• Most consecutive leading actress nominations
  • Two actresses have been nominated 5 years in a row.
    • Bette Davis (1938–1942)
    • Greer Garson (1941–1945)
• Most consecutive leading actor nominations
  • Marlon Brando with four nominations (1951 to 1954)
• Most total nominations for acting
  • Meryl Streep with 17 nominations.
• Most acting nominations without a win
  • Peter O'Toole with 8 nominations. (He received an Honorary Award in 2002.)
• Longest gap between first and second win
  • Helen Hayes won in 1932 for The Sin of Madelon Claudet and in 1971 for Airport, a 39-year gap.
• Longest time span between first and last nomination
  • Katharine Hepburn (48 years from 1932/33 to 1981)
• Most posthumous nominations
  • James Dean with 2 (1956 for East of Eden and 1957 for Giant).
• Shortest performance to win an acting Oscar
  • Beatrice Straight in Network (1976) - 5 minutes and 40 seconds.
• Shortest performance to win a lead acting Oscar
  • David Niven in Separate Tables (1958) - 15 minutes and 38 seconds.
• Shortest performance to be nominated for an acting Oscar
  • Hermione Baddeley in Room at the Top (1959) - 2 minutes and 32 seconds.
• Most wins by a black actor
  • Denzel Washington with 2, winning Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and Best Actor for Training Day (2001).
• Most awards for one acting performance
  • Harold Russell played Homer Parish in The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946. For this role he received 2 Oscars, one for Best Supporting and an honorary award for being an inspiration to all returning veterans.
• Most nominations for one acting performance
  • Barry Fitzgerald was nominated as Best Actor and won for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Father Fitzgibbon in 1944's Going My Way.

Miscellaneous records

• Most total nominations without a win
  • Sound re-recording mixer Kevin O'Connell has had 20 unsuccessful nominations since 1983, with his most recent coming in 2007.
• 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, four times at the same Oscars. He won posthumously for Around the World in 80 Days, alongside yet another nomination (also posthumous).
• Most nominations for a person
  • Walt Disney with 59 nominations.
• Most nominations for a living person
  • Film composer John Williams with 48 nominations.
• Most nominated woman
  • Edith Head with 35 nominations.
• Highest "perfect score"
  • Sound editor Mark Berger has four nominations and four wins.
• Most nominations for directing
  • William Wyler with 12 nominations.
• Most wins for producing
  • Three producers received 3 awards.
    • Sam Spiegel
    • Saul Zaentz
    • Darryl F. Zanuck
• Most nominations for producing
  • Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy with 8 nominations.
• Most nominations for directing in a single year
  • Two people have received 2 nominations for Best Director in the same year.
    • Michael Curtiz for Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters in 1938.
    • Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich and Traffic in 2000.
• Most Best Picture awards for a film series
  • The Godfather series with 2 (for The Godfather and The Godfather Part II).
• Most nominations and awards for a film series
  • The Middle-earth series with 17 wins out of 33 nominations (for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit).
• Most nominations for Best Original Screenplay
  • Woody Allen with 15 nominations and 3 wins
• Longest time 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.
• Most posthumous award wins
  • William A. Horning won in 1958 for Best Art Direction for Gigi, and for Best Art Direction for Ben-Hur in 1959.
• Most posthumous award nominations
  • Howard Ashman with four.
• Lowest grossing film to win Best Picture
  • The Hurt Locker with just under $50,000,000.
• Longest film to win Best Picture
  • The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003) 251 minutes (extended edition)
• Longest film to win an award
  • War and Peace (1968) 431 minutes (Academy Award for best Foreign picture).
• Shortest film to win Best Picture
  • Marty 94 minutes.
• Award-winning actors to embody the same film character
  • Marlon Brando (1972) and Robert De Niro (1974) for Vito Corleone from The Godfather series (part I and II).

See also

• Academy Awards
• List of Academy Award-winning films
• List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners
• List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of films receiving six or more Academy Awards
• List of films with all four Academy Award Acting Nominations
• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of people who have won multiple Academy Awards in a single year
• List of persons who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards
• List of posthumous Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of superlative Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of fictitious Academy Award nominees
• List of Black Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of Academy Awards for Walt Disney
• List of Academy Award Winning Families
• Little Golden Guy

External links

• Oscars.org (official Academy site)
• The Academy Awards Database (official site)
• Filmsite.org