The Oscars are back, and so is the opportunity to impress your friends and S.O. with your amazing movie knowledge. Here are the people, films, and countries who’ve won the most Academy Awards in history.
It’s that time of year: the Oscars are back, and all the excitement that comes with them can hardly be contained across the nation. As millions gather to find out exactly who takes the statuette this time around, it’s only sensible to know your Academy Award history and trivia. You do want to surprise your friends with your knowledge, after all. Don’t you?
To help you do just that, here are the people and films that have won the most Academy Awards in history. Can you guess who holds the records?
Most Oscars won by a single person
The uncontested record is pretty clear here. Walt Disney won a mind-boggling 22 Oscars:
Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse. US National Archives.
1954 was a golden year for Disney, who established two further records: most nominations in a single year for any single individual, and most awards in a single year (having won four Oscars out of six nominations).
Most awards won by a woman
Edith Head won a total of eight Oscars, all in the Costume Design category, for: The Heiress (1950), Samson and Delilah (1951), All About Eve (1951), A Place in the Sun (1952), Roman Holiday (1954), Sabrina (1955), The Facts of Life (1961), and The Sting (1974).
You can see how she likely inspired The Incredibles' Edna Mode, can't you?
Acting
Katharine Hepburn holds the all-time record for most awards for Best Actor or Actress, with four Oscars to her name out of 12 nominations. She won the Best Actress award for: Morning Glory (1934), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969), and On Golden Pond (1982).
Directing
The record-holder for most awards for Best Director is John Ford, with four won out of five nominations: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952).
Cinematography
We have a tie in cinematography. Two people have won a total of four Academy Awards in this category, the all-time high:
Art Direction
Cedric Gibbons, the person who designed the Oscar Statuette, also holds the record for most Academy Awards for Art Direction with 11 wins out of 39 nominations.
Cedric Gibbons
Most Oscars won by a single film
Here we have a three-way tie. Three films have been awarded a staggering 11 Academy Awards:
Most nominations for a single film
Another three-way tie. The record is 14 nominations in total:
Most Best Foreign Language Film awards won by a single country
And the answer here is… Italy! With 14 awards out of 32 nominations, the European country gets to hold the record for now.
Most Best Foreign Language Film nominations for a single country
But Italy is not the country with the most nominations. France holds that honor, with 40 nominations (and 12 wins).
Most Oscars for a foreign-language film
Yet another tie, with a total of four overall Academy Awards given to two different foreign-language films:
Most nominations for a foreign-language film
Here also the record goes to two different films, both of which received ten nominations:
The Big Five
As for films that have received what is known as “The Big Five” (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay), we have a final three-way tie:
There you have it. Now you can watch the Oscars with your friends or S.O. and amaze them with all your new-found knowledge. Enjoy!
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