20 things you didn’t know about the Academy Awards

Shockingly, 2017 wasn’t the first time a presenter has been given the wrong envelope, although in the previous case it was for a more minor award. At the 1964 Oscars, Sammy Davis Jr., presenting the Oscar for Best Adaptation or Treatment Score, read the name on the card he was handed, John Addison for Tom Jones – but as Addison hadn’t even been nominated in the category, the mistake was immediately apparent. “They handed me the wrong envelope,” Davis told the crowd. Upon being presented with the correct one and taking out his glasses, he quipped, “I ain’t gonna make no mistake this time,” before announcing the real winner, André Previn for Irma La Douce.

It’s hard to believe the Academy Awards are almost 100 years old. The very first Oscars were held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Thursday, May 16, 1929, with movies eligible from 1927 and 1928. The first Best Picture winner was the World War I aviation epic Wings, starring Clara Bow. The film, which won in part because of its amazing aerial scenes, also holds the distinction of being the only silent movie ever to win Best Picture. (Although The Artist, 2011’s winner, was a throwback to the silent era with no dialogue until the very end, it featured sound effects and music, so doesn’t count as a true “silent picture.”)

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It’s hard to believe, but a search of the Academy’s official database yields only one person named Oscar that ever actually won an Oscar: lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He was nominated for five Oscars and won two, for “The Last Time I Saw Paris” from Lady Be Good (1941) and “It Might As Well Be Spring” from State Fair (1945). His music partner Richard Rodgers, who shared Hammerstein’s 1945 award, later became the first EGOT winner in history: A person so accomplished they nabbed all four major entertainment awards, an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

It’s no secret that some legendary families of Hollywood have created entertainment dynasties, but only two have achieved three-generations of Oscar winners. The first is the Hustons: Walter Huston won for Best Supporting Actor for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), son John Huston won for directing the same film, and granddaughter Anjelica Huston won for Best Supporting Actress for Prizzi’s Honor (1985) – also directed by John Huston. The Coppolas are the second: Carmine Coppola won for best original dramatic score for The Godfather Part II (1974), son Francis Ford Coppola won his first Oscar in 1971 for writing Patton, and granddaughter Sofia Coppola won for her Lost in Translation (2003) screenplay.

The only Oscar winner in history whose parents also both won Oscars is Liza Minnelli, who won for Best Actress in 1973 for Cabaret. Her mother, Judy Garland, won an honorary juvenile Oscar in 1939; her father, director Vincente Minnelli, won for Gigi in 1959. Interestingly, if Renee Zellweger, nominated for Best Actress for playing Garland in this year’s Oscar contender Judy, takes home the statue, she’ll be only the second Oscar winner to win for playing an Oscar winner. The only person to have done so, so far, is Cate Blanchett, who won in 2005 for portraying Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator.

Speaking of director Sophia Coppola, only sever women have ever been nominated for best director – resulting in three winners: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2009); Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, 2020) and Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog, 2021). In addition, only six black people, all men, have ever been nominated for Best Director – but not one has won.

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In recent years, minority representation at the Oscars does seem to be improving – if slowly. Following an Oscar boycott and the social media hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy vowed to level the playing field. “The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse,” read a 2016 statement. “The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.”

The first person of colour to ever win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind in 1940; the first black man was Sidney Poitier for Best Actor in 1964 for Lilies of the Field. Halle Berry was the first black woman to win Best Actress, in 2002 for Monster’s Ball.

Many siblings have also been nominated for Oscars, including Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eric and Julia Roberts, Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty (did you know they were brother and sister?), and Joaquin and River Phoenix. But only two pairs have ever won for acting awards, including Lionel Barrymore, who won in 1931, and sister Ethel, who won in 1944. The second set, though, takes the cake for reportedly fuelling the flames of a long-simmering rivalry. At the 1942 Oscars, Joan Fontaine and sister Olivia de Havilland were both nominated for Best Actress, but Fontaine won for Suspicion. The feud, one of the most famous sister rivalries in history, lasted throughout their lifetimes: Fontaine died at 96 in 2013; de Havilland passed away in 2020 at the age of 104.

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The most nominated actor or actress in history may come as no surprise, as she’s considered the greatest living actor: Meryl Streep, who’s been nominated a whopping 21 times. But, she’s “only” won three; the most acting Oscars record, male or female, goes to Katharine Hepburn, who won four times out of 12 nominations. Streep ties for second place for female actor wins with Ingrid Bergman, who also has three statuettes. The most nominated male actor is Jack Nicholson with 12 nominations and three wins – Daniel Day-Lewis and Walter Brennan also have three wins, but only six and four nominations respectively.

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The longest acceptance speech ever was Greer Garson for her 1942 Best Actress win for Mrs Miniver. The actress droned on for over five minutes, which many believe led to the first time limits. Other verbose winners included Hilary Swank in 2000 for Boys Don’t Cry and Adrien Brody in 2002 for The Pianist, both at over three minutes. In 2010, the Academy stressed a 45-second time limit in an effort to stop winners from taking out a literal laundry list of people to thank, encouraging them to use the time instead for more meaningful content. On the flip side, the shortest acceptance speech (in which there was only one speaker) was Patty Duke in 1963. The 16-year-old, who won Best Supporting Actress for The Miracle Worker, said two simple words: “Thank you.”