Top Bizarre And Shocking Facts About The Oscars That Will Blow Your Mind

There are the SAG Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Globe Awards, but let's be honest. The Academy Awards are heavily regarded as the most prestigious and famous honors in the entertainment industry. Every year's ceremony seems to have been accompanied by some sort of astounding triumph or heartbreaking defeat. One of the most thrilling nights of the year is made even more exciting by red-carpet run-ins, gaffes, contentious speeches, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and a pinch of Adele Dazeem. Here are 13 shocking facts about Oscar.

#1. The Oscar statuette

Source: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The coveted Oscar statuette, which weighs 8.5 pounds and measures 13.5 inches in height, is constructed of gold-plated britannium. However, plaster was used instead of metal to create the statuettes between 1942 and the end of World War II. After the war, the winners of these statuettes got the actual trophy. The only Oscar statuette ever made of wood was presented to Edgar Bergen in 1938 for his ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy.

#2. Winners are not owners of the statuette

Source: MGM 

Oscar winners are required to sign an agreement that states that if they want to sell their statuettes, they must first offer them to the Academy for $1. If they refuse, they cannot keep their trophy. This means that victors are not the actual proprietors of the statuettes. The regulation has been in place since 1950, which means that older statues do sometimes appear on the open market. It's interesting to note that Michael Jackson spent almost a million dollars for David Selznick's Oscar in 1999, while Steven Speilberg paid $578,000 for Bette Davis' Oscar in 2001 and donated it back to the Academy. Clark Gable's 1934 Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night was likewise purchased by Steven Spielberg in 1996 for the low cost of $550,000.

#3. Eligibility

Source: IMDb

A movie must fulfill requirements in order to be nominated for an Oscar. The movie needs to be 40 minutes long, shot on 35mm or 70mm film, or in 24- or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format, with a minimum resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels. It must be screened for paid admission in Los Angeles for a minimum of seven days in accordance with Academy regulations. This was the reason why Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 film Limelight won an Oscar only in 1972, only after it played in Los Angeles.

#4. Revision of the winning phrase

Source: Goldwyn Productions

The phrase "And the winner is..." was used to announce winners up until 1989. "And the Oscar goes to..." was used in place of this statement during the 61st Academy Awards in 1989.

#5. The most Oscars... ever

Source: IMDb

Out of all nominees in Academy Awards history, Walt Disney holds the most Oscars. He received 64 nominations and won 26 of them. With 47 Academy Award nominations, composer John Williams is the second-most nominated individual and counting.

#6. Actor or Actress with the most Oscars

Source: PBS

With four Best Actress Oscars to her name, Katharine Hepburn is the actress with the most of them. With a total of 4 awards under his belt, Clint Eastwood is the male actor with the most Oscars; nevertheless, he didn't receive any for acting. For Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, he received two Oscars for Best Director as well as two for Best Picture.

#7. Youngest Oscar winner

Source: Paramount Pictures

Tatum O'Neal, who was barely 10 years old when she won the award for her role in Paper Moon, was the youngest nominee on this list. She turned nine during filming, an amazing accomplishment for such a young actress. Sadly, this achievement did not last for the remainder of her professional life.

#8. Oldest Oscar winner

Source: United Artists

James Ivory, who was 89 years old when he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2018, holds the record for being the oldest winner in any category. Ivory won for the screenplay for Call Me By Your Name, which was adapted from André Aciman's book of the same name.

#9. Most expensive oscar winner

Source: Miramax Films

It should come as no surprise that "Avatar," with a production budget of over $280 million, holds the crown for the most expensive movie ever. It received Oscars for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Visual Effects despite not winning Best Picture or Best Director.

#10. They refused the Oscar

Source: 20th Century Fox

Throughout the history of the Oscars, three persons have turned down the accolade. Dudley Nichols, who won Best Screenplay for The Informer, was the first person to decline an Oscar (1935). Due to ongoing issues between the Academy and the Writer's Guild, he abstained from the Academy Awards presentation.

For his dramatic portrayal of the World War II general movie Patton (1970), George C. Scott declined the Best Actor prize, calling it "a two-hour meat parade."

Marlon Brando declined to receive his Best Actor accolade for The Godfather as well (1972). Brando sent a lady allegedly named Sacheen Littlefeather to pick up his prize after claiming he declined it due to bigotry against Native Americans in the US and Hollywood. Later it was discovered that the woman was actually Maria Cruz, an actor.

#11. Several nominations, no win

Source: Keystone

Sound re-recording engineer Kevin O'Connell has received 20 nominations to date, however, he has not yet taken home a trophy. But his win broke a 20-nomination losing streak, the longest streak in Oscars history.

The record for most Oscar nominations without a win belongs to two movies. Both The Color Purple (1985) and The Turning Point (1977) received 11 Oscar nominations each, but neither film took home a trophy.

#12. The only Oscar to win an Oscar

Source: Abc Photo Archives

That would be Oscar Hammerstein II, a lyricist who is credited with writing over 850 songs. With "The Last Time I Saw Paris" in the 1941 film Lady Be Good and again for "It Might As Well Be Spring" in the movie State Fair, which was released four years later, Hammerstein has won two Oscars for Best Original Song.

#13. One person has ever won two Oscars for the same performance

Source: Bettmann 

Russell made Canadian history by being the first man to win an acting award. His portrayal of a wounded soldier returning from battle in the 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives, which ultimately won Best Picture, earned him the Best Supporting Actor award.

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