Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: the Best Facts about the Best Pictures
by Stacy Conradt - March 5, 2010 - 5:47 PM

q10

To finish out the Quick 10 Oscar posts this week, we have a few facts about some of the Best Picture winners and nominees over the years. I usually try to see most of the nominees, but I’m a little embarrassed to say I have only seen two of the 10 this year. If you’re like me and need to hide the fact that you are grossly uninformed about the movies currently up for the big award, maybe you can cover by wowing people with your knowledge of past nominees:

up1. You might already be aware that Disney/Pixar’s Up is nominated for Best Picture this year. But you may not know that it’s only the second animated film to ever be nominated and the first entirely computer-animated film to be nominated. The other animated Best Picture nominee? Another Disney production – Beauty and the Beast. (By the way, did you know the main character in Up, Mr. Frederickson, is based in part on Spencer Tracy?)

2. Only two trilogies have ever been nominated for Best Picture Oscars – as in, all three installments made the cut. Lord of the Rings, of course, and The Godfather. Star Wars didn’t make the cut (to the outrage of fans everywhere, I’m sure).

3. Star Wars fans can take heart, though – the original was the first Sci-Fi movie to ever be nominated for Best Picture. It didn’t win, though – Annie Hall did.

4. Titanic is tied with All About Eve for the most nominations for a single film in the history of the Academy Awards – 14. And it took home 11 of those 14, which puts it in a three-way-tie for the highest number of Oscars won by a single film. The other two are Ben-Hur and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. LOTR won ALL of the Oscars it was nominated for, however, and the other two did not.

5. Midnight Cowboy is the first and only X-rated film to win Best Picture. It was later edited to achieve an R rating, though. A Clockwork Orange was also X-rated and was nominated just two years later, but it didn’t win (it was also later toned down to receive an R rating).

exorcist6. The Exorcist is the first horror film to be nominated for a Best Picture award, but it wasn’t until Silence of the Lambs came along 18 years later that a horror film actually won the coveted Oscar.

7. Speaking of Silence of the Lambs, it’s one of just three movies to win the Oscar Grand Slam – that would be winning in the top five categories of Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Writing. The other two are One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and It Happened One Night.

8. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the first and only martial arts movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

precious9. Would you believe Precious is the first film directed by an African-American to be nominated for Best Picture? Although John Singleton was nominated for Best Director for Boyz n the Hood, the film wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.
10. The longest film to win a Best Picture award is Gone with the Wind at three hours and 54 minutes long. The shortest film to win is Marty at one hour and 31 minutes long, but the shortest film ever nominated was only an hour and six minutes long. Starring Mae West and Cary Grant, it was called She Done Him Wrong, and received the Oscar nod at the 1933 awards.

What movie gets your vote for Best Picture this year?

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Comments (21)

  1. I want UP to win.
    If Avatar wins, I’m going to be mad; it’s a terrible movie.

    posted by Ellie on 3-5-2010 at 8:04 pm

  2. I stopped taking the Oscars seriously when Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan for best picture.

    However, I’m still rooting for Pixar all the way.

    posted by Jason on 3-5-2010 at 8:21 pm

  3. shakespeare in love actually won an award? that’s massively depressing. when I was in high school my english teacher was allowed to show us one rated R movie for the year. we read A Clockwork Orange in class, but rather than watch a movie based on something we actually read, she had us watch shakespeare in love instead. nothing teaches an english class better than a historically inaccurate piece of drivel thats riddled with plot holes. as a fan of shakespeare and anthony burgess (and stanley kubrick for that matter) i was rather disappointed.

    posted by sammylee on 3-5-2010 at 10:04 pm

  4. “as a fan of shakespeare and anthony burgess” I hope you’ve read the latter’s biography of the former, it’s a fun read.

    I agree that “Shakespeare in Love” was historically inaccurate, but c’mon! Nobody was pretending it was a biopic — unlike “Elizabeth”, which was fuel for many an impassioned historical diatribe from my RennFaire-y acquaintances. It was the cinematic equivalent of a colossal spun-sugar dessert assemblage, not much substance and full of holes but by god a tour de force, and as such I never could bring myself to begrudge it its Oscar. Now as for Gweneth Paltrow’s Best Actress Oscar, her costumes did more acting than she did, but that’s another story.

    posted by VM on 3-6-2010 at 12:43 am

  5. i loved the blind side and julie & julia, for me its sandra vs. meryl!

    posted by Jane on 3-6-2010 at 1:47 am

  6. I would love to see “Up” win! If “Avatar” wins, I will be very disappointed; it’s bad enough James Cameron got the Golden Globe for that self-indulgent, special effects-overloaded junk.

    recaptcha: wesley bathroom (I just thought that sounded funny!)

    posted by Krie on 3-6-2010 at 10:05 am

  7. This year I loved Julie & Julia. I hope it wins something.

    posted by SillyJaime on 3-6-2010 at 11:04 am

  8. The Hurt Locker! It was the best movie this year. It has been a weak year for movies; the same year they decide to give 10 nominations for Best Film, too. That category is loaded with horrible movies this year.

    posted by Dallas on 3-6-2010 at 11:34 am

  9. They have 10 movies nominated this year to try and get more ratings. With 10, there is a greater likelihood that more people will have a favorite film nominated which equals more people likely to watch the show.

    posted by Jim on 3-6-2010 at 1:07 pm

  10. I agree with almost everybody, “Avatar” is just blue trash. I´m pushing for “Precious” as this year “Slumdog”, i´ll not feel any mad if “Up” gets the little bald guy.

    posted by omarzarzuela on 3-6-2010 at 2:07 pm

  11. I’m not arguing that “Avatar” should win Best Picture, but I can’t help but feel that there’s this unspoken notion that if you are at all intellectually inclined (i.e., a mental_floss reader) you’re obligated to hate the movie as proof of you’re intelligence and discerning taste. I don’t buy it.

    Was the plot derivative and packed with cliches? Yes. Was the dialog corny and uninspired? Yes. Did that stop the movie from being one of the most visually-stunning, exciting and entertaining experiences I’ve had in a movie theater? No.

    Again, I’m not defending its nomination (or a win if it gets it), but a movie can be something less than “life-changing art” and still not be “trash.”

    posted by Adam on 3-6-2010 at 3:30 pm

  12. I agree with Jason. Saving Private Ryan was clearly the most influential, stunning, and cinematically important film of 1998. When that garbage gwyneth paltrow vehicle beat it, I stopped taking the academy seriously.

    posted by Mike on 3-6-2010 at 6:40 pm

  13. I saw “UP”, and it was great. It gets my vote, on several levels.

    posted by gus on 3-6-2010 at 8:20 pm

  14. You mentioned “STAR WARS” as the first sci-fi movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture. What about a film called,”2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY”? Came out circa 1968,directed by Stanley Kubrick? I DO seem to recall there was some HUGE BUZZ generated from that film. I guess that was before you were conceived>

    posted by JEREMY on 3-7-2010 at 8:28 am

  15. Uh, Jeremy? “2001: A Space Odyssey” was NOT nominated for Best Picture. It won one Oscar (best visual effects), and was nominated for three others, but none of them Best Picture.

    Is an apology to Stacy in order? I wouldn’t normally suggest it, but that tone…

    posted by Sandy Wood on 3-7-2010 at 11:00 am

  16. Um, Julie and Julia isn’t up for Best Pic. Which is good, because it was an overly self-absorbed bit of drivel.

    I’m pulling for District 9, which was bright, original, and utterly jaw dropping. But it won’t win.

    posted by Scott the Lawyer on 3-7-2010 at 3:06 pm

  17. I just hope that Avatar doesn’t win best director or best film. It was gorgeous but I think that the best picture should depend on more than just scenery. Also, I think it’s rather telling that there were no acting nominations from Avatar. That said, I’d like Up to win. Barring that, Up in the Air was great as well.

    posted by Lindsey on 3-7-2010 at 6:03 pm

  18. I loved Up! It was beautiful visually, made me cry, and was entertaining to watch. It’s a fantastic movie and definitely deserves a prize.

    posted by Tdl on 3-7-2010 at 9:41 pm

  19. That’s great there are so many Up! fans. I have seen it a dozen times (my daughter loves it). I hope someday Pixar snatches an Oscar. Even the most cynically people come away smiling when they see one of them.

    posted by mdely on 3-8-2010 at 10:15 am

  20. “the exorcist” should have won the best picture oscar of 1973. it was the best, if not most controversial film, of that year. i stopped taking the oscars seriously when diane keaton won for basically playing herself in “annie hall.”

    posted by Nathan on 3-8-2010 at 11:09 am

  21. @ Scott the Lawyer i was and still am right there with you on District 9, amazing film, it however lost to Hurt Locker which i have not seen so i cannot comment on….I will however give a HECK YEAH to Sandra Bullock for winning best actress, she truly did a great job in the role and i was pulling for her…

    posted by Jennfier on 3-8-2010 at 12:47 pm

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