Horror at the Academy
What is The Silence of the Lambs?
The only nomination received by The Last King of Scotland (2006) was also the only nomination this actor has ever received - and he won.
Who is Forest Whitaker?
Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950) held the record for most nominations with 14, and each won Best Picture; this movie tied that record in 2016, and almost won Best Picture... but then didn't.
What is La La Land?
The Divorcee; The Gay Divorcee; Elephants Away!
What is Elephants Away!?
For the first four years the category existed, documentary nominees were primarily propaganda films aimed at bolstering the war effort, produced by this service branch of the U.S. government.
What is the U.S. Army? (And Air Force)
This man was nominated for Best Actor four years in a row, for A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, Julius Caesar, and On the Waterfront.
Who is Marlon Brando?
This 1973 film terrified moviegoers and initially polarized critics, but its massive cultural success led to 10 Oscar nominations, including becoming the first horror film nominated for Best Picture.
What is The Exorcist?
The Wolfman (2010) only picked up a single nod, for this category, and they won; after all, it can't be easy making actors look like monsters.
What is Best Makeup?
With her Best Song win last year, this musician became the youngest two-time Oscar winner in any category.
Who is Billie Eilish?
The Great Robert Corrigan; Naughty Marietta; Johnny Belinda
What is The Great Robert Corrigan?
This film, at the time the highest-grossing documentary of all time, was ruled ineligible for the Academy Awards because it was aired on TV ahead of the 2004 election.
What is Fahrenheit 9/11?
Robert de Niro has twice appeared in multiple Best Picture nominees in the same year; once in 1990 for Goodfellas and Awakenings; and again in 2019 for The Irishman and this film.
What is Joker?
DAILY DOUBLE
Although the term "social thriller" has been used infrequently since the 1940s, this 2017 Best Original Screenplay winner and Best Picture nominee revitalized both the phrase and the genre.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), a movie about drag queens, quite aptly won an Oscar from its only nomination, in this category.
What is Best Costume Design?
Only two people have won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar: George Bernard Shaw, in Literature and for his 1938 Pygmalion screenplay; and this man, for Poetry and his 2000 song "Things Have Changed" in Wonder Boys (2000).
Who is Bob Dylan?
Rachel, Rachel; One Hundred Men and a Girl; Greta Finch and her Traveling Troupe
What is Greta Finch and her Traveling Troupe?
The first Best Documentary winner to focus on a single person from history was called The Titan (1950), about this famous Italian painter and sculptor.
Who is Michelangelo?
Despite winning zero awards from ten nominations, this 2013 film got nods in all four acting categories for Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Lawrence.
What is American Hustle?
This 1960 film earned Alfred Hitchcock his fifth and final nomination for Best Director; according to Wikipedia, it "set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films."
What is Psycho?
Godzilla Minus One (2023) won this award on a budget of $15 million; the budgets for the previous three winners were all over $150 million.
What is Best Visual Effects?
With his eight statuettes, some for Best Original Score and some for Best Original Song, this man holds the record for most Oscars won by anyone currently living.
Who is Alan Menken?
My Ears are Burning; Three Coins in the Fountain; The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming
What is My Ears are Burning?
DAILY DOUBLE
Roger Ebert called this basketball documentary the best film of 1994; its controversial snub for Best Documentary led to a complete overhaul of the voting process for nominees.
Peter Sellers was nominated for Best Actor for playing three different characters in this 1964 movie: Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and the titular character.
What is Dr. Strangelove?
The Substance (2024), featuring Demi Moore as a woman who takes a black market drug to transform into a younger version of herself played by Margaret Qualley, is considered to be a part of this subgenre of scary movies, famously exemplified by director David Cronenberg.
What is body horror?
This historical epic starring Daniel Day-Lewis picked up its only nomination and win for Best Sound, which also makes it the only movie directed by Michael Mann to win an Oscar.
What is The Last of the Mohicans?
This man is the only person to win three consecutive Best Cinematography Oscars, for Gravity (2013), Birdman (2014), and The Revenant (2015).
Who is Emmanuel Lubezki?
A Soldier's Story; Hope and Glory; Purgatory
What is Purgatory?
This oceanographer won two Best Documentary Oscars, for The Silent World (1956) and World Without Sun (1964).
Who is Jacques-Yves Cousteau?
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have collaborated on five films together; this 2004 film, where Hanks plays a man named Viktor Navorski, is the only one to earn zero Oscar nominations.
What is The Terminal?