The big night is less than a week away, and predictions are flowing thick and fast. We can’t wait to find out what the stars have to say on the red carpet, what jokes host Chris Rock will make and, of course, who gets to take Oscar® home.
Before limos arrive and speeches are made, we decided to take a look at a few fun facts about the Academy Awards®. Check them out here:
1. Three films have tied for winning the most Oscars®: Ben Hur, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King each won eleven awards. Will The Revenant, a movie with twelve nominations, join them or beat them this year?
2. The ceremony was not always televised. This only happened from the 25th Academy Awards, in 1953. Today the show is watched in more than 200 countries, including South Africa, which broadcasts the event live on M-Net Movies Premiere.
3. Location! Location! Hollywood is now the permanent home of the Oscars. In the ‘50s a few ceremonies took place in New York, but then it moved to LA for good. This year it will take place at the Dolby Theatre.
4. What do you do with Oscar once you’ve won? Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet keep theirs in the bathroom; Russell Crowe keeps his in a chicken coop, and Timothy Hutton’s is in the fridge. You can do whatever you please with it…except sell it. This is forbidden by the Academy, unless you sell it back to them. Their price? $1.
5. You might not be allowed to sell your Oscar, but the Academy can’t really stop you from losing it. Angelina Jolie, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon have all lost theirs. Whoopi Goldberg and Olympia Dukakis, on the other hand, had theirs stolen. Goldberg’s was found in an airport rubbish bin, and Dukakis had hers replaced by the Academy for a fee of $78.
6. Cate Blanchett became the first actor to win an Oscar for playing an Oscar-winning actor when she received Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for playing Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. This year Blanchett has been nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, for Carol.
7. Everyone always harps on about how Leonardo DiCaprio has still not won an Oscar. However, the actor to have been nominated the most times without winning is Peter O’Toole, with eight nomiations to his name. Outside of the acting categories, sound re-recording engineer Kevin O’Connell holds the record. He’s been nominated twenty times with no Oscar to show for it. Could this year see DiCaprio move into the winners’ circle?
8. If you won an Oscar, what would you say? What would you do? Gwyneth Paltrow, Octavia Spencer, Charlize Theron and Halle Berry cried. Adrien Brody kissed Halle Berry. Melissa Leo swore. Jack Palance did one-armed push ups. Roberto Benigni climbed over the seats. As for Joe Pesci, Patty Duke and Alfred Hitchcock? They simply said “Thank you.” What will this year’s recipients do?
9. From singing to streaking, you can expect all kinds of things at the Academy Awards. In 1974 photographer and art gallery owner Robert Opel streaked across the stage while David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor.
10. Only two directors have won Best Director in consecutive years, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and John Ford. Last year’s Best Director winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu will join their record if he wins this year, for The Revenant.
Watch the 88th Academy Awards live on Monday 29 February at 03:30 on M-Net Movies Premiere, and in prime time on the same day at 19:30 on M-Net.