93rd Oscars Trivia

[danfrank]

How do you factor in Daniel Day-Lewis, who has also won 50% of his nominations with 3 of 6 (and 2 of his first 3)?

[Sabin]

HarryGoldfarb wrote
By winning for The Father, Hopkins became the actor with the fewest nominations (in Leading) to win 2 Leading Actor awards (2/4). At the other end of the spectrum is Spencer Tracy, who won two statuettes out of 9 nominations.

That's fascinating because women have a higher track record of this phenomenon:
- Luise Rainer (2/2)
- Vivien Leigh (2/2)
- Hilary Swank (2/2)

And with other supporting nominations:
- Sally Field (2/2)

Frances McDormand has the distinction of losing all of her supporting nominations but winning all of her leading nominations (3/3).

[HarryGoldfarb]

By winning for The Father, Hopkins became the actor with the fewest nominations (in Leading) to win 2 Leading Actor awards (2/4). At the other end of the spectrum is Spencer Tracy, who won two statuettes out of 9 nominations.

[Sabin]

danfrank wrote
I would rather have seen Frank Langella in the film version than Sir Anthony. Although Hopkins was impressive in a certain way, I was also distracted by his actorly machinations. I think it’s a performance that Damien would have slammed as overly “mannered.” Langella plays more from the gut than from the head, and no one does irritable better than he.

I think I agree.

[danfrank]

Frank Langella won his fourth Tony for The Father.

I would rather have seen Frank Langella in the film version than Sir Anthony. Although Hopkins was impressive in a certain way, I was also distracted by his actorly machinations. I think it’s a performance that Damien would have slammed as overly “mannered.” Langella plays more from the gut than from the head, and no one does irritable better than he.

[Sabin]

Not The English Patient?

[Big Magilla]

Oops.

Yeah, Miramax was a subsidiary of Disney from 1993-2010 but as far as I know, Miramax handled its own DVD distribution until it partnered with Lionsgate for their distribution after the break from Disney so there's that but Disney's first Best Picture Oscar thanks to its ownership of Miramax at the time would have been Shakespeare in Love. This would be their second.

[Sabin]

Wasn't Miramax a subsidiary of Disney?

[Big Magilla]

Nomadland becomes the first Disney film to in Best Picture.

The film was released by Fox Searchlight which was part of Disney's acquisition of 20th Century-Fox. Disney released the film on DVD and Blu-ray this week.

Unless I'm missing something, Disney also becomes the first studio to have released both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature.

[Big Magilla]

Good one, Tee. I'd forgotten that Frank Langella won his fourth Tony for The Father.

[Mister Tee]

Here's one: Anthony Hopkins becomes the first lead acting winner for a role that previously won a Tony since Marlee Matlin in 1986. (There've been two such supporting winners in the intervening years: Jennifer Hudson in 2006 and Viola Davis in 2016.) Renee Zellweger's 2019 role was Tony-nominated, but not -winning.

This used to be a far more common occurrence. In the 50s, Vivien Leigh, Shirley Booth, Grace Kelly, Anna Magnani and Yul Brynner all pulled it off. In the 60s, Anne Bancroft, Rex Harrison and Paul Scofield all won replicating their own Tony performances, and Katharine Hepburn/Maggie Smith closed out the decade in roles that won for Rosemary Harris and Zoe Caldwell (two stalwarts, there) on-stage.

Semi-related: the five acting nominations for Ma Rainey, The Father and One Night in Miami make this the most stage-derived acting slate in some time. You have to go back to 2008 to match it (and that was largely because Harvey manipulated categories to get the entire cast of Doubt nominated). To top it, you need to travel to 1989 (Driving Miss Daisy doing the heavy lifting that year).

Again, this is something that was more commonplace in the 50s and 60s. By my count, 1956 holds the championship belt, with 11 of its 20 acting nominees (and the entire best actress slate) from stage adaptations. (Curiously, no one film truly dominates -- The Bad Seed's 3 the high-scorer.) 1964 comes second, with 10 (mainly from My Fair Lady and Becket), and 1951 and 1966, buttressed by the four-category casts of Streetcar and Virginia Woolf, follow with 9.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
Seems this decade must be one of the kindest for no-longer-young actresses. You still have your Brie Larson and Jennifer Lawrence, but Streep & McDormand/twice have won in their 60s, while Moore and Zellweger were both triumphant in their 50s (the latter I recall Mike Kelly documenting as the toughest age for an actress to win).

It's worth noting that it took the weakest lineups of the decade for these women in their 50s to win. Still Alice and Judy wouldn't be unfathomable as Emmy winners, not Oscar winners.

[Heksagon]

although the days of the split black & white/color craft categories might have a year where a lot of people won multiple awards.

Five people won two Oscars in 1950. Art Direction was something of a studio effort in those days. Paramount won both color and monochrome AD categories, and Hans Dreier, Samuel Comer and Ray Moyer were a part of each winning group. Also, Edith Head shared both costume design wins and Joseph Mankiewicz won both writing and directing.

[Mister Tee]

McDormand, winning at 63 years and 306 days, is surpassed only by Jessica Tandy (80 years) and Katherine Hepburn (74 years) and has displaced Marie Dressler to 4th place.

Seems this decade must be one of the kindest for no-longer-young actresses. You still have your Brie Larson and Jennifer Lawrence, but Streep & McDormand/twice have won in their 60s, while Moore and Zellweger were both triumphant in their 50s (the latter I recall Mike Kelly documenting as the toughest age for an actress to win).

[dws1982]

McDormand, winning at 63 years and 306 days, is surpassed only by Jessica Tandy (80 years) and Katherine Hepburn (74 years) and has displaced Marie Dressler to 4th place.

On the list of the ten oldest Best Actress recipients, Frances McDormand and Katharine Hepburn now occupy five of the spots.

7 movies won multiple awards, which is a record.

First time since the 78th awards that no movie won more than three awards, although that year three movies won three. The last time a movie won three awards like Nomadland, and it won more awards than any other movie of the night, was The Thief of Baghdad in 1940, which was not one of the few times a movie not up for Best Picture won the most awards of the evening.

I haven't been able to confirm this, but with Frances McDormand and Chloe Zhao both winning two awards, I believe this is the first time that two women have won multiple Oscars at the same ceremony. It seems almost crazy that it would be the case because so many groups of men have won multiple Oscars in one night* and not just in the money categories (for every Bong Joon-ho and Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo Del Toro who wins Director and something else, there's also a Paul N.J. Ottosson, a Richard Taylor, and a Walter Murch who win a couple of Oscars in technical categories), but as I've looked through ceremonies where I know women have won multiple Oscars, I haven't found any cases where another woman won multiple awards on the same night.

* - Just two years ago, Alfonso Cuaron, Peter Farrelly, and Nick Vallelonga all won multiple Oscars in one night, and I guess 2003 where Return of the King mowed down the competition might hold the record for most people winning multiple awards in one night--Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Richard Taylor, and Howard Shore all left with more than one award that night--although the days of the split black & white/color craft categories might have a year where a lot of people won multiple awards. You could always count on Walt Disney to win about three awards a year by slapping his name on someone else's documentary.