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Speedsters, mistakes and family quarrels

Curious facts about the Oscars

  • A moment that made Oscar history: in 2017, Warren Beatty read off the wrong piece of paper and everyone thought that "La La Land" had been named "Best Film". But there have often been mishaps: find out who got an Oscar with the wrong name, how a streaker made people laugh and why an unknown person has won more Oscars than any Hollywood great ...
  • "And the Oscar goes to ... 'La La Land'" - NOT! Laudator Warren Beatty had already declared the musical film the winner in the "Best Film" category and had the overjoyed crew with him on stage when he was whistled back. The Academy had actually chosen "Moonlight" as the best film.
  • In the end, "La La Land" "only" won six Oscars. The musical also set a historical record: Previously, no film that had been nominated 14 times had not been awarded "Best Picture".
  • Why is the Oscar called the Oscar? According to one anecdote, an employee and later director of the Film Academy once exclaimed: "He looks like my Uncle Oscar!" But Bette Davis (pictured) is also a possible namesake, as she is said to have compared the little, gilded knight to her husband Harmon Oscar Nelson.
  • The very first Oscar ever was won by a German: the actor Emil Jannings won it in 1929 for his role in the silent film "The Way of All Flesh". Nothing has survived of his acceptance speech, unlike ...
  • ... Greer Garson: The actress gave an almost seven-minute acceptance speech in 1942. After that, not only was the time limit introduced at the Oscars - Garson never received the Oscar again, although she was nominated four times in the following years.
  • In 1974, a streaker ran across the Oscar stage. British actor David Niven, who was announcing Elisabeth Taylor, remained calm and proved his quick wit: "Possibly the only laugh the man will ever get is for taking his clothes off and showing others where he fell short!"
  • A moment that went around the world: After Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith at the 2022 Oscars, Will Smith stormed on stage and slapped him in the face. A short time later, Smith did win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for "King Richard". He then apologized publicly, resigned from the Academy and was banned from the Oscars for ten years.
  • For the first time since 1989, the 2019 Academy Awards took place without a permanent presenter. After criticism of old tweets, the originally planned host Kevin Hart withdrew. Instead of a host, changing stars led the evening - such as Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry (pictured), who presented the Oscar for Best Costume Design together.
  • An Oscar moment with plenty of humor: actor and wrestler John Cena presented the award for Best Costume Design at the 2024 Academy Awards - and took to the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles almost naked. The appearance was a reference to the legendary streaker moment at the 1974 Oscars and provided one of the most talked-about moments of the show.
  • Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you ... Gwyneth Paltrow thanked everyone 23 times in her Oscar speech while howling like a castle dog.
  • Actor Clark Gable, on the other hand, was at a loss for words: he accepted his statuette with just a "thank you" - just like Alfred Hitchcock (pictured) in 1968, who was nominated six times for the directing Oscar. He never won. As consolation, there was the Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement - no substitute for Hitchcock.
  • To solve the problem of long acceptance speeches, presenter Jimmy Kimmel promised a jet ski to the winner in 2018 who could keep their speech the shortest. The winner was Mark Bridges (pictured), who "only" spent around 30 seconds thanking the winner of the costume design Oscar for "The Silk Thread". And he didn't keep the speedy vehicle, but donated it to an auction for a good cause.
  • The fact that the Academy denied him an Oscar for decades did not bother Jack Palance. When he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1992 for his role in "City Slickers", he countered questions about his age (73 at the time) with a memorable performance: the actor did four push-ups - on just one arm!
  • The selfie of presenter Ellen DeGeneres in 2014 could be the most expensive photo in the world. Samsung not only donated one dollar for each of the more than 3.3 million re-tweets of the picture on the short message service Twitter, but also paid the US broadcaster ABC 1.5 million dollars for an advertising spot during the broadcast.
  • The words of thanks from Brit Joan Fontaine (right) were forgotten the moment her sister Olivia de Havilland (left) burst onto the stage. She had also been nominated for an Oscar in 1935 and had fallen out with Fontaine. Now the loser rushed to be the first to congratulate her. But Fontaine did not grant her sister the consolation of being able to save face in front of an audience.
  • Only one family has managed to produce Oscar winners in three generations - the Hustons. Walter Huston (pictured) won an Oscar in 1948 for his supporting role in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", his son John won the directing Oscar for the drama. In 1986, John's daughter Anjelica won an award for her supporting role in "The Honor of the Prizzis".
  • Success also runs in the family of Liza Minnelli (pictured, left): she is the only Oscar winner whose parents (Judy Garland, pictured, and Vincente Minnelli) also won an Academy Award.
  • Tom Hanks won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1993 for his role as a lawyer suffering from Aids. The following year, he took home the prize again as "Forrest Gump" (pictured). Only one actor before Hanks managed to defend the title ...
  • And that was Spencer Tracy, who won in 1938 and 1939: at his first award ceremony, he was astonished when he received the Oscar - and "Dick Tracy" was engraved on it, the name of a popular comic hero. He returned the award to have it corrected and made sure that from then on the small statues were only engraved after the award ceremony.
  • Two "literary" legends honored by two famous academies: George Bernard Shaw (pictured) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1938 (based on his own novel "Pygmalion"). Bob Dylan won the Oscar for his song "Things Have Changed" in 2000 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.
  • They also won twice: Laurence Olivier ("Hamlet") and Roberto Benigni (pictured, "Life is Beautiful") are the only artists to date to have won best actor awards for films they directed themselves.
  • A sad record: during his short Hollywood career, Italian-born actor John Cazale was in front of the camera for five films: "The Godfather", "The Dialogue", "The Godfather 2", "Dog Days" and "Going Through Hell" (pictured, left). They were all nominated for an Oscar. At the age of 42, Cazale died of bone cancer.
  • Her role was tiny - and cannot be seen in the film: An appearance of five minutes and 40 seconds was enough for Beatrice Straight in "Network" (pictured with Faye Dunaway, 1976) to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
  • Sidney Poitier was the first dark-skinned actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for "Lilies of the Field" in 1964. In 2002, he also received an honorary Oscar for his life's work
  • It was not until 2002 that Halle Berry became the first dark-skinned actress to be awarded Best Actress in a Leading Role. During the sobbing acceptance speech - "a moment so much bigger than me" - the orchestra thankfully held back.
  • Seven Oscar winners were awarded the "Golden Raspberry" for particularly bad acting performances: Roberto Benigni, Liza Minelli, Laurence Olivier, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway, Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock. The latter proved her sense of humor: the actress collected her 2010 "Razzie" for "Crazy for Steve" (pictured) in person.
  • Until 1961, the Academy presented the so-called "Juvenile Award", a special prize awarded irregularly to underage actors. The first winner of the miniature Oscar is still the youngest winner of all time: Shirley Temple was just six years old when she accepted the trophy in 1934.
  • James Ivory won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Call Me By Your Name" in 2018. At 89, he became the oldest Oscar winner of all time.
  • At the age of 23, Jennifer Lawrence was the youngest candidate to hold a bouquet of three Oscar nominations in her hands - for "Winter's Bone", "Silver Linings" (where she even won the award) and "American Hustle". For her leading role in "Joy" (pictured), she was shortlisted for the Oscar for the fourth time in 2016.
  • This lady, on the other hand, had to wait a long time: Actress Judi Dench only received her seven Oscar nominations after she had celebrated her 63rd birthday. For "Shakespeare In Love" (Image, 1998), she won the award for "Best Supporting Actress" for the only time to date.
  • Eight nominations already, but still no Oscar: that is Glenn Close's disappointing record so far. This also makes her the actress who has been "overlooked" the most.
  • Anyone who has been waiting in vain for an award for a long time could ask Kevin O'Connell (pictured, left) how to deal with Oscar defeats: the sound mixer had been nominated a total of 21 times since 1984 before finally winning his first Oscar in 2017 for "Hacksaw Ridge" (pictured).
  • Even later recognized award winners and undisputed directing legends are not immune to a total flop at the Oscars: Steven Spielberg's 1986 southern drama "The Color Purple" came away empty-handed - despite eleven nominations.
  • In case Spielberg is looking for (winning) material again: Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has been nominated four times for "Best Film" in various adaptations, including "Shakespeare In Love". So far, only the musical adaptation "West Side Story" (pictured), whose story is also based on the literary classic, has won.
  • "The Silence of the Lambs" (picture). The thriller won the so-called Best Five in 1991: the Oscars for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Only "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) and "It Happened One Night" (1934) had managed this before.
  • The man with the most Oscar trophies was William Fulgear in 2000: he fished 52 trophies wrapped in polystyrene and plastic out of a dumpster after they had been stolen. For returning them, he not only received a 50,000 dollar finder's fee, but also an invitation to the awards ceremony and a few nice thank-you notes from the stars.

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A moment that made Oscar history: in 2017, Warren Beatty read off the wrong piece of paper and everyone thought that "La La Land" had been named "Best Film". But there have often been mishaps: find out who got an Oscar with the wrong name, how a streaker made people laugh and why an unknown person has won more Oscars than any Hollywood great ...

Image: Mark Suban / © A.M.P.A.S.

No time? blue News summarizes for you

  • The Oscars are the pinnacle of film awards, and if you can secure one, your market value in the industry increases immensely.
  • However, countless older and younger actors and actresses have come away empty-handed so far - including one particularly bitter candidate.
  • You can find most of the nominations without a win in the picture gallery.
Summary created withmyAi

Which Hollywood star made a streaker laugh? Which sisters fell out at the awards ceremony? Whose name was engraved incorrectly on the Oscar statue? And who has held the most trophies to date? Find out in our picture gallery.

The next Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on the night of March 16, 2026.

The Oscars will once again be hosted by US talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien.

More about the Oscars in the "On the Rocks" Oscar Special

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From taciturn and exuberant acceptance speeches, big winners and unknown losers, multi-talents and garbage collectors: curious facts about the Oscars.

Speedsters, mistakes and family quarrels: curious facts about the Oscars