The Quick 10: the Best Facts about the Best Pictures

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:

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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).

exorcist
exorcist

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.

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precious

What movie gets your vote for Best Picture this year?