Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

CalWilliam wrote:
This is James Ivory’s to lose. Isn’t that wonderful?

And along with a highly possible A Fantastic Woman win the only two reasons for me to watch the show, or part of it anyway this year.

Every best Adapted Screenplay winner was nominated for Best Picture, with the exception of The Bad and the Beautiful, Sling Blade and Gods and Monsters. Fortunately, that clearly pushes James Ivory ahead as practically a lock to prevail. Logan, Molly’s Game and The Disaster Artist don’t have a chance since any movie has won this category with just one citation. Let’s just hope that Mudbound doesn’t get a last minute push. I think this is a very significant statistic. When Sling Blade won, the only other Best Picture nominee in the category was The English Patient, for which a sweep in many other categories was predicted (as well as script), and alongside Gods and Monsters, only The Thin Red Line was representing the Best Picture category, and we know they would have never given it to Terrence Malick, as they didn’t with Kubrick.

The only anomaly here is how The Bad and the Beautiful could have won both The Quiet Man and High Noon in screenplay without being in Best Picture nor Director.

This is James Ivory’s to lose. Isn’t that wonderful?

Uri wrote:The 1961 winners, Maximilian Schell (born December 8, 1930), Rita Moreno (December 11, 1931), George Chakiris (September 16,1934), Sophia Loren (September 20,1934) were all born within less than 4 years. Their average age when winning, 29 years and 61 days, is still the lowest ever, btw.

Thanks, Uri. I had the feeing there was something I was missing, but didn't have the stamina to check any further past 1945.

Big Magilla wrote:

Greg wrote:If, as expected, the acting winners are Oldman, McDormand, Rockwell, and Janney, they will range in age from 49 to 60. Does anyone know how rare it is for the age span of acting winners to only be 11 years?

Talk about trivia!

I think you'd have to go a long way to find a shorter range than the 5-year difference between four winners than those of the 1945 awards - Ray Milland (38), Joan Crawford (39), James Dunn (43) and Anne Revere (41). Pre-1936 the record is 3 years between both Warner Baxter and Mary Pickford and Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

The 1961 winners, Maximilian Schell (born December 8, 1930), Rita Moreno (December 11, 1931), George Chakiris (September 16,1934), Sophia Loren (September 20,1934) were all born within less than 4 years. Their average age when winning, 29 years and 61 days, is still the lowest ever, btw.

Sorry. Didn't see the Best Actress part of it.

mlrg wrote:Farfetched trivia I found

Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

stands for the largest number of characters by anyone ever nominated in best actress (as per my excel file)

Ah: that's why I had so much trouble fitting it on my typed ballot. (Had to abbreviate Missouri to Mo.)

Neither of those were nominated for Best Actress though which seems to be what mlrg was going for.

I can think of two that are longer:

Barbara Harris in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Farfetched trivia I found

Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

stands for the largest number of characters by anyone ever nominated in best actress (as per my excel file)

Greg wrote:If, as expected, the acting winners are Oldman, McDormand, Rockwell, and Janney, they will range in age from 49 to 60. Does anyone know how rare it is for the age span of acting winners to only be 11 years?

Talk about trivia!

I think you'd have to go a long way to find a shorter range than the 5-year difference between four winners than those of the 1945 awards - Ray Milland (38), Joan Crawford (39), James Dunn (43) and Anne Revere (41). Pre-1936 the record is 3 years between both Warner Baxter and Mary Pickford and Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

If, as expected, the acting winners are Oldman, McDormand, Rockwell, and Janney, they will range in age from 49 to 60. Does anyone know how rare it is for the age span of acting winners to only be 11 years?

It's a shame that neither Cradle nor In a Heartbeat were nominated. Both were wonderful films, each for different reasons.

I do find it interesting, and this might be a tad conspiracy-ish, but I notice how the five nominees for Animated Feature are not freely available online. Yet, all the ones that were freely available were not nominated. Could it be that the short films branch doesn't want to recognize anything that could cost the Academy money and decrease interest in catching the shorts program they show in theaters every year?

Let's put it this way: Kobe Bryant could be the first person to win an Olympic Gold Medal and an Oscar Gold Statue.

Neil Paterson, who won the screenwriting Oscar for Room at the Top, played soccer for a year at the Scottish Second Division as an amateur. He supposedly had an opportunity to turn professional, but opted to pursue a career in sports journalism instead.

There are several Oscar nominees who have been involved in amateur sports at various levels (including Icarus's Bryan Fogel this year), but I can't find anyone even of Olympic participant level.

Robert Stack won the U.S. Championship in 20 gauge skeet shooting in 1936, that's the most impressive amateur sportsman record for an Oscar nominee that I can find.