So You Think You Know the Oscars?

This article was originally written for the 31 Days of Oscar programming in the TCM Now Playing newsletter in March 2021.

It’s Oscar season, which turns filmgoers’ eyes to that iconic golden statuette that, after nearly a century, remains Hollywood’s most esteemed prize. Sure, you know which actress has the most Oscars (Katharine Hepburn with four) and which films have won the most Academy Awards (a three-way tie between Ben-Hur, 1959; Titanic, 1997; and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003, with 11 each). You even know what song Snow White and Rob Lowe performed at the 1989 ceremony (“Proud Mary”). But let’s further test your Oscar acumen with this year’s 31 Days of Oscar quiz. 

Who has hosted the most Academy Award ceremonies? 

A.) Johnny Carson
B.) Billy Crystal
C.) Bob Hope
D.) Whoopi Goldberg

Bob “Passover” Hope is the hosting champ with 19 ceremonies. Billy Crystal hosted nine times during the 1990s. Johnny Carson hosted five times, and Whoopi Goldberg hosted four. 

What actor has the most nominations, but no Oscar wins?

A.) Richard Burton
B.) Peter O’Toole
C.) Glenn Close
D.) Thelma Ritter

We have a tie: Peter O’Toole and Glenn Close, nominated for Hillbilly Elegy (2020), at eight nominations. Richard Burton was winless after seven nominations, while Thelma Ritter was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category six times without getting to give an acceptance speech. 

Which actor won an Oscar with the least amount of screen time?

A.) Anthony Hopkins
B.) Ben Johnson
C.) Beatrice Straight
D.) Gloria Grahame

One scene and five defiant and heartbreaking minutes of screen time were all Beatrice Straight needed to win Best Supporting Actress honors for Network (1976). Gloria Grahame made an indelible impression on Academy voters after only nine minutes of screen time in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Nearly four of Ben Johnson’s 10 minutes of screen time as Sam the Lion in The Last Picture Show (1971) are taken by a monologue that likely won him his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. David Niven made the most of his 15 minutes of screen time to win Best Actor for Separate Tables (1958). 

What film had the most Academy Award nominations, but no wins?

A.) The Turning Point (1977)
B.) The Color Purple (1985)
C.) Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
D.) Seabiscuit (2003)

We have another tie! The Turning Point and The Color Purple each received 11 nominations but came up empty come Oscar night. 

Maria Bakalova pulled off a rare feat of being nominated for a comedic performance for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Even rarer is a comedy winning Best Picture. How many comedies have achieved this feat? 

A.) 4
B.) 6
C.) 7
D.) 9

Four comedies have won Best Picture; five, if you count Shakespeare in Love (do you?) They are: It Happened One Night (1934), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), Tom Jones (1963) and Annie Hall (1977). 

Who was presenting when a streaker disrupted the proceedings?

A.) James Mason
B.) Rex Harrison
C.) Douglas Fairbanks
D.) David Niven

In 1974, Niven was poised to introduce Elizabeth Taylor when he was interrupted by a (falsely) self-proclaimed “advertising executive” Robert Opel, who streaked naked across the stage. Still poised, Niven quipped, “Probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?” 

Which country has won the most Oscars for Best Foreign Film?

A.) France
B.) Germany
C.) Italy
D.) Spain

Italy is the Best Foreign Film champ with 12 wins in that category. The last win was in 2014 for Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. 

Who has won the most Academy Awards for Best Director? 

A.) William Wyler
B.) John Ford
C.) Alfred Hitchcock
D.) Steven Spielberg

John Ford earned Best Director honors four times for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). William Wyler was named Best Director three times, but he has the most nominations in Oscar history with 12. Shockingly, Alfred Hitchcock never won a competitive Academy Award. Don’t get me started on Howard Hawks. 

What was the most memorable thing about Charlie Chaplin’s honorary Oscar presentation at the 1972 Academy Award ceremony?

A.) He appeared in costume as his iconic character, the Little Tramp.
B.) He mimed his acceptance speech.
C.) He received a 12-minute standing ovation.
D.) Recreating the style of his silent films, the camera irised in on Chaplin as he walked off the stage.

Chaplin’s appearance at the Academy Awards was his first time in the United States since being forced into exile in 1952 for his supposed Communist sympathies. The 12-minute standing ovation is the longest to date in Oscar history. 

Who was the youngest Oscar nominee?

A.) Jackie Cooper
B.) Justin Henry
C.) Tatum O’Neal
D.) Quvenzhané Wallis

At 10 years old, Tatum O’Neal is the youngest-to-date Oscar winner, but that’s ancient compared to Justin Henry, who was eight when he was nominated for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Quvenzhane Wallis and Jackie Cooper were nine when they were nominated for Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) and Skippy (1931), respectively. 

What is the longest film to win Best Picture?

A.) Gone with the Wind (1939)
B.) Titanic (1997)
C.) The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
D.) The Godfather Part II (1974)

Roger Ebert once said that “No good movie is too long.” Gone with the Wind clocks in at just under four hours. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is the second-longest Best Picture winner at 3:48. 

Every single feature film John Cazale was in was nominated for Best Picture.

A.) True
B.) False

True. All five feature films in which he costarred were nominated for Best Picture, and three of them won. Give yourself extra credit if you can name all five.* 

What was the first Best Picture nominee to be directed by a Black director?

A.) Do the Right Thing (1989)
B.) Boyz n the Hood (1991)
C.) Precious (2009)
D.) Murder in Harlem (1935)

Lee Daniels broke another of the Oscars’ color barriers as the first black director to direct a Best Picture nominee. Neither Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood nor Oscar Micheaux’s Murder in Harlem were nominated for Best Picture. 

This year marks the first time in Oscar history that two women have been nominated for Best Director. Who was the first woman nominated for Best Director?

A.) Ida Lupino
B.) Barbra Streisand
C.) Lina Wertmuller
D.) Jane Campion

Only five women had been nominated for Best Director: Wertmuller was first for Seven Beauties (1976), followed by Campion for The Piano(1993) and Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003). In 2009, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman Best Director Oscar-winner for The Hurt Locker (2008).

15. What was the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture?

A.) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
B.) Phantom of the Opera (1943)
C.) The Fly (1986)
D.) The Exorcist (1973)

William Friedkin’s The Exorcist received 10 nominations, including Best Picture, and won two for its sound mixing and for William Peter Blatty’s adapted screenplay. In an interview, Blatty, an Oscar-winner, mind you, did not take the film’s Best Picture defeat well, calling it a “disgrace,” and added, it was “head and shoulders, the finest film made this year and in many other years.” Maybe the Devil made him do it (you saw that one coming).

*John Cazale’s peerless five-film filmography includes Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974) and The Deer Hunter (1978).