Little Known Trivia about the Academy Awards
The 2025 Academy Awards are scheduled to be handed out on Sunday, March 2. First given in 1929, the awards are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The awards have been handed out for 95 consecutive years, even during the dark days of World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic. The awards are based on voting by the nearly 10,000 members of the Academy.
Over the years, the Oscars have seen some strange things. Here are some of the most unusual events in the history of the Academy Awards:
- Actor Barry Fitzgerald was nominated twice in the same year for the same role, winning once. In 2945, Fitzgerald appeared as Father Fitzgibbon alongside Bing Crosby in the classic Going My Way. Fitzgerald was named on the ballots for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, losing to Crosby on the first, but winning on the second.
- In 1929, two films received Oscars for Best Picture—In the Academy Awards’ maiden year, there were actually two categories—Outstanding Picture, and Most Unique and Artistic Picture. The second award was only presented once.
- The shortest screen time for an Oscar-recipient? About 5 minutes—In 1977, Sidney Lumet’s Network won four Academy Awards, including a Best Supporting Actress nod for Beatrice Straight, who, as Best Actor recipient Peter Finch’s wife in the film, appeared on camera for a mere five minutes.
- An X-rated film has only won Best Picture once—1970’s Midnight Cowboy, starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, earned a X rating from the industry, but also took home the trophy for Best Picture. It’s rating was quickly downgraded to R a year later.
- Three people took home Oscars under fictitious names—During the early 50s, with the specter of McCarthyism running rampant in the country, many writers and performers were ostensibly blacklisted. At least three worked in the industry under pseudonyms and won Academy Awards, including Dalton Trumbo, who actually won twice, once under a fake name and once under another writer’s name.
- One year, the awards were all announced in the Los Angeles Times before the ceremony—The year that Gone With The Wind took home eight Oscars, there was little intrigue at the ceremony, as the Academy had given the list of winners to the newspaper beforehand. This brought about an immediate change, with all subsequent ceremonies using sealed envelopes.
