20 Interesting Facts About the Oscars

Since the first ceremony in May 1929, the Oscars have become cinema's most celebrated awards. Over more than nine decades they have produced plenty of records, oddities and stories worth retelling, so here are twenty of our favourite facts about the Academy Awards, from the early days to the 2026 ceremony.

1. The most Oscars ever won

Composer John Williams is regularly in the spotlight for the sheer number of his nominations: more than 50, of which he has won five. Unknown to some, there is one figure in history who makes that achievement look easy. Walt Disney was nominated for a total of 59 Oscars and won 26 of them.

2. The youngest ever Oscar winner

For most of us, ten is an impossible age at which to imagine what career we want to pursue. That is exactly how old Tatum O'Neal was when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1974 for her role in Paper Moon. She went on to a successful acting career and later became a well-known author.

3. The oldest ever Oscar winners

At the other end of the scale, Jessica Tandy won Best Actress for her role as Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy at the age of 81, and she is still the oldest woman to win the award. In 2021 Anthony Hopkins went one better, winning Best Actor for The Father at 83 to become the oldest acting winner of all. If you needed proof that you can never be too old to achieve your dreams, this is it.

4. The Oscar statue

Each statue costs a few hundred dollars to produce and is made from Britannia metal plated in copper, nickel, silver and 24-karat gold. Manufacturing starts a year in advance, because it is essential that nothing goes wrong. During the Second World War the statues were made of plaster for three years because of metal shortages. Once awarded, winners sign an agreement stating that they cannot sell their award without first offering it back to the Academy for a single dollar; if they refuse to sign, they cannot keep it. The award got its now legendary name because the statue reminded Academy member Margaret Herrick of her Uncle Oscar.

5. The real stars of the night

The ceremony is notorious for its length, and the longest ever ran for four and a half hours. How does everyone sit still for so long? The simple answer is that they do not. A seat-filler is hired for every seat, and whenever a celebrity heads to the bar, a seat-filler slips in to sell the illusion of a full room. A number of celebrities have said that most people spend the night in the crowded bar and hurry back to their seats once their category is announced.

6. The first female director to win

With the industry now celebrating a wider range of voices, it is hard to believe that the first woman to win Best Director was only awarded in 2010. Kathryn Bigelow won for her ground-breaking war thriller The Hurt Locker. What makes it even more interesting is that she beat her ex-husband James Cameron, who was nominated in the same category for Avatar. The first woman ever nominated for the award was Lina Wertmüller in 1977 for Seven Beauties. Between that first nomination and Bigelow's win, only two other women, Sofia Coppola and Jane Campion, were even nominated. It took another eleven years for a second woman to win: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland in 2021, followed a year later by Campion herself for The Power of the Dog.

7. Refusing the award

For most of us, an Oscar nomination is beyond our wildest dreams. Can you imagine winning and refusing to accept it? That is exactly what George C. Scott and Marlon Brando did after winning for Patton and The Godfather. In Brando's case, Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage to speak on his behalf, politely explaining that he was refusing the award because of the film industry's treatment of Native Americans.

8. There is no such thing as a loser

Nominees in the main categories receive the now famous gift bags, whose contents have been valued at around $100,000. They have included luxury holidays, chocolates, beauty products, jewellery and more. Some years have even included therapy sessions, cannabis-infused chocolates and a cannabis seed facial moisturiser.

9. The most Oscars won by a single film

The most Oscars won by a single film is eleven, and it has happened three times. Ben-Hur was the first, in 1960, followed by Titanic in 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004. Of the three, The Return of the King is the only film to have won every single Oscar it was nominated for. At the 2020 ceremony, Joker was nominated for eleven awards, ahead of The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 1917, which were each nominated for ten.

10. The not-so-good old days

In the very early days of the Academy Awards, the results were not so secret. The winners were given to news outlets in advance so that they could report them shortly after the ceremony. When the winners were leaked before the ceremony in 1940, the system was changed and quickly became the tightly guarded operation it is known for today. In the first year, 1929, the winners were announced publicly three months before the ceremony was held.

11. The total cost

There is no question that an event as extravagant as the Oscars comes with a cost. But how much exactly? In 2016 the Academy spent around $21 million on the event, with an estimated $20 million more on campaigns through the year. That reportedly included about $250,000 for the nominees' luncheon, $40,000 to $50,000 for the statues, $25,000 for the red carpet, $250,000 for security, $15,000 for the host and $2 million for the after-party.

12. The cost of commercials

A 30-second commercial during the ceremony's broadcast has cost around $2 million for years, and for the 2026 ceremony ABC was charging more than that, with rates up by double digits and every slot sold before the night. The advertising alone brings in well over $100 million for the broadcast.

13. Alfred Hitchcock

It may come as a surprise that Alfred Hitchcock, one of the biggest names in cinema, never won an Oscar for directing. He was nominated five times, and one of his films won Best Picture. Perhaps the Academy Awards are not the measure of success we should be using.

14. Five decades of Meryl Streep

With a long list of influential films and three Oscars to her name, Meryl Streep is the only woman to have been nominated in five different decades. Since 1978 she has been nominated a total of 21 times. Laurence Olivier, Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine have also been nominated in five different decades.

15. Disqualified for cheating

In 1982, despite its revolutionary visuals, TRON was disqualified from a Best Visual Effects nomination because the Academy felt that using computer-generated imagery for entire environments was cheating.

16. The first Best Picture not in English

For 91 years, every Best Picture winner had been an English-language film. Then, in February 2020, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite took Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature in one night, the first film in any other language to win the top award.

17. The slap

The 2022 ceremony produced the most replayed moment in Oscar history. After Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith walked on stage and slapped him, then returned to his seat and, less than an hour later, accepted Best Actor for King Richard. The Academy banned him from the Oscars and all its events for ten years, so the earliest he can attend again is 2032.

18. Everything, everywhere, seven Oscars

In 2023, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven awards from eleven nominations, and Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. The following year Oppenheimer also took seven.

19. Four Oscars in one night

Walt Disney's record of four Oscars in a single evening, set in 1954, stood for 71 years. In 2025 Sean Baker matched it, and became the first person to win four for the same film, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing for Anora, a film he also produced.

20. 2026: a new award, and an Irish first

The 98th ceremony in March 2026 added Best Casting as the Academy's 24th competitive category, the first new award since Best Animated Feature in 2002, and it went to casting director Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another, which also won Best Picture. On the same night Sinners set a record with 16 nominations, and Kerry-born Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for Hamnet, the first Irish actress to take the award.

Looking back over the history of the Academy Awards paints a clear picture of how much cinema has changed since the early twentieth century, and how far it still has to go. Which fact surprised you most?

Not every career starts with a statue, but every one starts with a first role, a first audition or a first short film. Actorly is where actors, agencies and casting directors in Ireland find each other, and it is free to join. Join Actorly for free and take the first step.