Two Best Picture winning films, Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950) both hold the record for the most nominations (14) earned by a single film. Five Best Picture films are tied for second place with 13 nominations (see below), and eight Best Picture films are tied for third place with 12 nominations (see below).

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997), Ben-Hur (1959) are the three Best Picture winning films with the most Oscars wins (11). (The closest Best Picture winning runner-up for most Oscar wins was West Side Story (1961) with 10 Oscars (out of 11 nominations).)

Titanic's awards included two sound awards and no acting prizes, and its screenplay wasn't even nominated. On the other hand, Ben-Hur (1959) lost only its screenplay nomination, plus it racked up two acting awards - and there was only one sound category in 1959. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) won Best Adapted Screenplay, but had no acting nominations in its clean-sweep win.

Oscars®	Best Picture Winning Movie Titles	Year	Nominations
11	Ben-Hur	1959	12
11	Titanic	1997	14
11	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	11
10	West Side Story	1961	11
9	Gigi	1958	9
9	The Last Emperor *	1987	9
9	The English Patient	1996	12
8	Gone With The Wind	1939	13
8	From Here to Eternity	1953	13
8	On The Waterfront	1954	12
8	My Fair Lady	1964	12
8	Gandhi #	1982	11
8	Amadeus	1984	11
7	Shakespeare in Love	1998	13
7	Dances with Wolves	1990	12
7	Schindler's List	1993	12
7	Out of Africa	1985	11
7	The Sting	1973	10
7	Patton	1970	10
7	Going My Way	1944	10
7	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	10
7	The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	8
7	The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	8
6	All About Eve	1950	14
6	Forrest Gump	1994	13
6	Chicago	2002	13
6	Mrs. Miniver	1942	12
6	The Godfather, Part II	1974	11
6	An American in Paris	1951	8
6	A Man For All Seasons	1966	8
5	Gladiator	2000	12
5	Oliver!	1968	11
5	Terms of Endearment	1983	11
4	Million Dollar Baby	2004	7
3	The Godfather	1972	10
# the most successful British film to date
* the only Best Picture winner to have been produced outside of the US or UK, and the first MPAA-rated PG-13 film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (not counting subsequent films that have since been re-rated)

Nominations	Movie Title	Year	Oscars®
14	All About Eve	1950	6
14	Titanic	1997	11
13	Gone With The Wind	1939	8
13	From Here to Eternity	1953	8
13	Mary Poppins *	1964	5
13	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? *	1966	5
13	Forrest Gump	1994	6
13	Shakespeare in Love	1998	7
13	The Lord of the Rings *	2001	4
13	Chicago	2002	6
12	Mrs. Miniver	1942	6
12	The Song of Bernadette *	1943	4
12	Johnny Belinda *	1948	1
12	A Streetcar Named Desire *	1951	4
12	On The Waterfront	1954	8
12	Ben-Hur	1959	11
12	Becket *	1964	1
12	My Fair Lady	1964	8
12	Reds *	1981	3
12	Dances With Wolves	1990	7
12	Schindler's List	1993	7
12	The English Patient	1996	7
12	Gladiator	2000	5
11	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington *	1939	1
11	Rebecca	1940	1
11	Sergeant York *	1941	2
11	The Pride of the Yankees *	1942	1
11	Sunset Boulevard *	1950	3
11	Judgment at Nuremberg *	1961	2
11	West Side Story	1961	10
11	Oliver!	1968	5
11	The Godfather	1972	3
11	Chinatown *	1974	1
11	The Godfather, Part II	1974	6
11	Julia *	1977	3
11	The Turning Point *	1977	0
11	Gandhi	1982	8
11	Terms of Endearment	1983	5
11	Amadeus	1984	8
11	A Passage to India *	1984	2
11	The Color Purple *	1985	0
11	Out of Africa	1985	7
11	Saving Private Ryan *	1998	5
* did not win Best Picture

Best Picture Studios and Producers:

The studios with the most wins for Best Picture (up to the 2003 ceremony) include:

Studio	Best Picture Wins	Best Picture Nominations
Columbia	12	51
United Artists	12	51
Paramount	11	55
MGM	9	57
20th Century Fox	7	55
Warner Bros	6	62
Universal	6	26
Orion	4	6
Buena Vista		6
Dreamworks SKG	3	4
Tri-Star		4
Miramax	3	14
RKO Radio	2	19
Fox	1	7

The Winning-est and Most-Nominated Best Picture Producers:

The producers whose films (+) have won the most Best Picture Oscars include:

• Sam Spiegel (3): On The Waterfront (1954), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (3 awards within 8 years!)
• Saul Zaentz (3): One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) (co-produced), Amadeus (1984), The English Patient (1996)
• Darryl F. Zanuck (3): How Green Was My Valley (1941), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), All About Eve (1950)
• Arthur Freed (2): An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958)
• David O. Selznick (2): Gone With the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940)
  [Note: Selznick is the only one to produce Best Picture winners in consecutive years]
• Irving G. Thalberg (2): Grand Hotel (1932) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• Robert Wise (2): West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965)
• Branko Lustig (2): Schindler's List (1993) and Gladiator (2000)
• Clint Eastwood (2): Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Albert S. Ruddy (2): The Godfather (1972) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)

+ Prior to 1952, studios - not producers - were actually awarded the Best Picture Oscar!

The Big Five: Only three films have won the top five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay):

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

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.

Best Picture Trivia:

Clean Sweeps: Only two Best Picture winners have won every award for which they were nominated (both were nine for nine, though neither of them was nominated for acting awards):

• Gigi (1958)
• The Last Emperor (1987)

Shut Outs: Two films hold the dubious distinction of being nominated eleven times without a single Oscar win (The record was previously held by The Little Foxes (1941) with nine nominations and no wins):

• The Turning Point (1977)
• The Color Purple (1985)

Only a few actors have starred in the Oscar-winning Best Picture for two years in a row:

• Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (Gable also starred in a third Best Picture a few years later, Gone With The Wind (1939))
• Walter Pidgeon in How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942)
• Meryl Streep in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
• John Gielgud in Chariots of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982)
• Russell Crowe in Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Note that Talia Shire is the only actor to have starred in three consecutive even-year Best Picture winners: The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), and Rocky (1976)

Best Pictures that Failed to Win Any Other Awards: All MGM productions

• Broadway Melody (1928/29)
• Grand Hotel (1931/32)
• Mutiny On the Bounty (1935)

And Grand Hotel (1931/2) is the only Best Picture winner to receive only one nomination.

There are nine films that have won Best Picture without receiving a single acting nomination:

• Wings (1927/8)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30)
• Grand Hotel (1931/2)
• An American in Paris (1951)
• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
• Gigi (1958)
• The Last Emperor (1987)
• Braveheart (1995)

Conversely, Best Picture-nominated films that have won the most Oscar awards without winning Best Picture include:

• the record-holder Cabaret (1973) with eight awards
• A Place in the Sun (1951) with six awards
• Star Wars (1977) with six awards

The film that won the most Oscars (5) without even being nominated for Best Picture is The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

The film that has the most Oscar nominations (9) without being nominated for Best Picture is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969).

Color and Black and White Best Pictures:

Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first film in color that won the Best Picture Oscar. The next four Best Picture color films were: An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Schindler's List (1993) was the first black-and-white film to win the top award since the all B&W The Apartment (1960). Only one Best Picture-winning film was originally a TV comedy drama: the black and white Marty (1955). [It also is the only winner of the Academy's top prize and the Cannes Film Fest's Palme d'Or.]

The first film to be released on video before winning Best Picture was The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Foreign-Language Best Pictures Nominees:

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:

• Grand Illusion (1938, France)
• Z (1969, Algeria)
• The Emigrants (1972, Sweden)
• Cries and Whispers (1973, Sweden)
• The Postman (Il Postino) (1995, Italy)
• Life is Beautiful (1998, Italy)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan)

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.

The Italian film The Battle of Algiers (1966) was the only film that earned nominations in two non-consecutive years:

• Best Foreign Language Film nominee in 1966
• Best Adapted Screenplay nominee in 1968

Foreign-language films with the most Oscar nominations include:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - 10 nominations, 4 wins
• Life is Beautiful (1998) - 7 nominations, 3 wins
• Fanny and Alexander (1983) - 6 nominations, 4 wins
• Das Boot (1982) - 6 nominations, 0 wins

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.

X-Rated, Animated, and Sequel 'Best Pictures':

• The only X-rated film (later reduced to R) to win Best Picture was Midnight Cowboy (1969)
• Before 2001, the only animated film nominated for Best Picture was Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1992)
• The Godfather Part II (1974) - the first and only sequel to win Best Picture; the first sequel to be nominated for Best Picture was The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), the sequel to the previous year's Going My Way (1944)
• The first remake to win Best Picture was Mutiny On the Bounty (1935) (it was a remake of In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian).

Longest and Shortest:

• Gone With The Wind (1939) is the longest Best Picture winner at 222 minutes (3 hours, 42 minutes). [Other longest Best Picture winners are, in order, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Ben-Hur (1959), and The Godfather Part II (1974), all over three and a half hours long).]
• Marty (1955) is the shortest Best Picture winner at 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes), followed by Annie Hall (1977) at 93 minutes. The shortest Best Picture nominee is Mae West's She Done Him Wrong (1933) at 66 minutes.

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:

• Dodsworth (1936)
• Dead End (1937)
• Jezebel (1938)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• The Letter (1940)
• The Little Foxes (1941)
• Mrs. Miniver (1942)*
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*
• The Heiress (1949)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• Friendly Persuasion (1956)
• Ben-Hur (1959)*
• Funny Girl (1968)

Best Picture Winners Without a Nomination for Best Director:

• Wings (1927/8)
• Grand Hotel (1931/2)
• Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Best Picture Studios and Producers:

The studios with the most wins for Best Picture include:

• Columbia (12)
• United Artists (12)
• Paramount (11)
• MGM (9)
• 20th Century Fox (7)
• Warner Bros (6)
• Universal (5)
• Orion (4)
• Dreamworks (3)
• Miramax (3)
• RKO Radio (2)

The Winning-est and Most-Nominated Best Picture Producers:

The producers who have won the most Best Picture Oscars include:

• Sam Spiegel (3): On The Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia
• Saul Zaentz (3): One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), The English Patient (1996)
• Darryl F. Zanuck (3): How Green Was My Valley (1941), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), All About Eve (1950)
• Arthur Freed (2): An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958)
• David O. Selznick (2): Gone With the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940)
• Irving G. Thalberg (2): Grand Hotel (1932) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• Robert Wise (2): West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965)
• Branko Lustig (2): Schindler's List (1993) and Gladiator (2000)

The producers who have received the most nominations for Best Picture include:

• Hal Wallis (19) - with only one win, Casablanca (1942)
• Darryl F. Zanuck (14): with 3 wins (see above)
• Henry Blanke (9): with only one win, The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
• Samuel Goldwyn (8): with only one win, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• David O. Selznick (8): with only two wins (see above)
• Irving G. Thalberg (8): with only two wins (see above)

The first female Best Picture nominee and winner of a Best Picture Oscar was producer Julia Phillips for The Sting (1973).

Acting Nominations	Movie Title	Year	Acting Oscars®
5	Mrs. Miniver	1942	2
5	All About Eve	1950	1
5	From Here to Eternity	1953	2
5	On the Waterfront	1954	2
5	Peyton Place *	1957	0
5	Tom Jones	1963	0
5	Bonnie and Clyde *	1967	1
5	The Godfather, Part II	1974	1
5	Network *	1976	3
4	A Streetcar Named Desire *	1951	3
4	Chicago	2002	1
* did not win Best Picture

Most Actor-Actress Nominations
(includes both Leading and Supporting Categories)

(Oscar® Wins are Designated by CAPITAL Letters
S = Supporting Category)

MERYL STREEP 13 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

The Deer Hunter (1978) S KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) S The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982) Silkwood (1983) Out of Africa (1985) Ironweed (1987) A Cry in the Dark (1988) Postcards From the Edge (1990) The Bridges of Madison County (1995) One True Thing (1998) Music of the Heart (1999) Adaptation (2002) S

 

 

KATHARINE HEPBURN 12 Nominations, 4 OSCARS®

MORNING GLORY (1932/33) Alice Adams (1935) The Philadelphia Story (1940) Woman of the Year (1942) The African Queen (1951) Summertime (1955) The Rainmaker (1956) Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (1967) THE LION IN WINTER (1968) ON GOLDEN POND (1981)

JACK NICHOLSON 12 Nominations, 3 OSCARS

Easy Rider (1969) S Five Easy Pieces (1970) The Last Detail (1973) Chinatown (1974) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975) Reds (1981) S TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) S Prizzi's Honor (1985) Ironweed (1987) A Few Good Men (1992) S AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) About Schmidt (2002)

BETTE DAVIS 11/10 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

Of Human Bondage (1934) (unofficial write-in nominee) DANGEROUS (1935) JEZEBEL (1938) Dark Victory (1939) The Letter (1940) The Little Foxes (1941) Now, Voyager (1942) Mr. Skeffington (1944) All About Eve (1950) The Star (1952) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

SPENCER TRACY 9 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

San Francisco (1936) CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937) BOYS TOWN (1938) Father of the Bride (1950) Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) The Old Man and the Sea (1958) Inherit the Wind (1960) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967)

TOM HANKS 5 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

Big (1988) PHILADELPHIA (1993) FORREST GUMP (1994) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Cast Away (2000)

LAURENCE OLIVIER 10 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

Wuthering Heights (1939) Rebecca (1940) Henry V (1946) HAMLET (1948) Richard III (1956) The Entertainer (1960) Othello (1965) Sleuth (1972) Marathon Man (1976) S The Boys From Brazil (1978)

PAUL NEWMAN 9 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) The Hustler (1961) Hud (1963) Cool Hand Luke (1967) Absence of Malice (1981) The Verdict (1982) THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986) Nobody's Fool (1994) Road to Perdition (2002)

MARLON BRANDO 8 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Viva Zapata! (1952) Julius Caesar (1953) ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Sayonara (1957) THE GODFATHER (1972) Last Tango in Paris (1973) A Dry White Season (1989) S

JACK LEMMON 8 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

MISTER ROBERTS (1955) S Some Like It Hot (1959) The Apartment (1960) Days of Wine and Roses (1962) SAVE THE TIGER (1973) The China Syndrome (1979) Tribute (1980) Missing (1982)

AL PACINO 8 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

The Godfather (1972) S Serpico (1973) The Godfather, Part II (1974) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) And Justice For All (1979) Dick Tracy (1990) S Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) S SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992)

GERALDINE PAGE 8 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

Hondo (1953) S Summer and Smoke (1961) Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) You're A Big Boy Now (1966) S Pete 'n' Tillie (1972) S Interiors (1978) The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) S THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (1985)

The Best Actor Academy Award

Best Actor: The Best Actor award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actor in a leading role." The same rules that govern the Best Actor category apply to the Best Actress category. (See the complete list of all Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners