oscars 2018: fun oscar trivia before the big night

It's that magical time of the year again: a film buff's Christmas, the Academy Awards a.k.a. the Oscars!
And this year, it's the 90th anniversary! Having watched almost 20 ceremonies, I can say that I am still excited to watch, as the Oscars are never dull! Especially after last year's Envelope Gate, I am sure that everyone will tune in to see if anyone will match last year's mess up! This year's producers will surely try to beat 2017 telecast viewership, which was 32,9 million, which was the second lowest rating since 1974.

With blockbuster hits competing for Best Picture such as Dunkirk and Get Out, the viewers will surely tune in and it's no harm including in the presenters list Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman and Lupita Nyong’o, or mega stars Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey and Emma Stone and nerd king, Mark Hammil.

Talking about the nominees though, however "certain" as the winners seem after the Golden Globes, the SAG awards and the BAFTA, there will always be surprises. Right now, the categories that seem more uncertain to me, are Best Picture & Best Directing. There is a big possibility that Guillermo del Torro will win both Directing and Best Picture for The Shape Of Water, but what if the Academy wants to send a message and award Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird in Best Directing? Or what if Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri not only win the Best Actress in A Leading Role award, Best Original Screenplay and potentially Best Actor in a Supporting Role (if the Academy chooses to ignore Willem Dafoe's amazing performance in The Florida Project) but also Best Picture? Less suprising things have happened (2005's winner Crash!).

In regards to the other major categories, as I said I believe that Frances McDormand will be awarded Best Actress in a Leading Role, the Best Actor award will either go to Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour or to Daniel Day-Lewis for Phantom Thread, the Best Actor in a Suppoting Role will go either to Sam Rockwell or Woody Harrelson for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri or to Willem Dafoe for The Florida Project. The Best Actress in a Supporting Role award surely go to Allison Janney for I, Tonya, as much as I would like to see the queen Mary J. Blige make a surprising win.

But this year there are also some interesting numbers and statistics for the ceremony and the nominees:

• 13 are the nominations that The Shape of Water has snatched - 1 less than the record toed by La La Land, Titanic and All About Eve
• 21 are the (current) acting nominations that Meryl Streep has on her belt, extending her lead over Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson's total of 12 each
• 774 is the number of new people that were invited to join the Academy in 2017 as a diversifying effort - hence how we see more diverse nominees this year (although there is a way to go still). Among the new voters are Riz Ahmed, Gal Gadot and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
• 1 transgender actress will present this year - A Fantastic Woman star Daniela Vega will be the first transgender actress to present at the Oscars
• 5 times has a woman or a black director been nominated for Best Direction. Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird and Jordan Peele for Get Out mark the fifth nominations respectively
• ZERO is the number of Latin and Asian actors nominated this year (talk about diversity,,,)
• $2,8 Million is how much each 30 second commercial slot is worth
• 13 Commercials focusing on female empowerment and diversity are scheduled to broadcast during the tekecast, as a responce to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements
• 12 nights in Tanzania is the free trip offer in the "goodie" bag that the acting and directing nominees will get
• $188 Million is the US box office total for Dunkirk, marking the most out of this year's Best Picture nominees - Call Me By Your Name was the lowest with just under $16 Million in receipts
• 3.400 is the number of seats in the Dolby Theatre were the Oscars are held

Talking about nominations records, there are some "special" records that some hold, for more times having lost. Everyone remembers the memes and the 2014 hashtag #PoorLeo for Leonardo DiCaprio losing his fifth Oscar from Matthew McConaughey. Luckily he stack at 5 nominations without an award as in 2016 he won his first Oscar for The Revenant. A big Oscar loser is also the queen of nominations Meryl Streep, who has 21 nominations (including this year's) and has lost 17 times. The biggest loser of them all though, is Academy Award veteran composer John Williams, who has been nominated for the astonishing number of 51 Oscars and has lost 46 Oscars! If you think of the fact that he has been nominated more than half of the years that the Oscars have been given, I would say that it's not too shabby! And he holds the record for more nominations for a single living person! Only Walt Disney who died in 1966, earned more nominations than Williams - 59 to Williams' 51.

Apart from those who get nominated constantly and win a lot, there are some other artists that have been contantly snubbed by the Academy. Orson Welles, the greatest director ever (to my humble opinion) never received an Academy Award for Direction - he only got for Screenplay for Citizen Kane. Sir Alfred Hitchcock also never received a Best Direction Academy award - he was only awarded with a special lifetime achievement award when the Academy tried to redeem themselves.

​Some other artists who have shockinlgy never won yet are:

• Sir Ian Mckellen: He has been nominated in 1999 for Gods and Monsters and in 2002 for The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring, but never received an award. He believes that he is being snubbed by the Academy due to the fact that he is openly gay for years
• Glenn Close: She has been nominated 6 times (1983 The World According to Garp, 1984 The Big Chill, 1985 The Natural, 1988 Fatal Attraction, 1989 Dangerous Liaisons and 2012 for Albert Nobbs), but never took the award home
• Robert Downey Jr.: 2 times nominee (1993 Charlie & 2009 Tropic Thunder) - never a winner
• Tom Cruise: 3 times nominated (1990 Born on the Fourth of July, 1997 Jerry Maguire and 2000 Magnolia)
• Harrison Ford: Shockingly only 1 nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Witness (1986)
• Joaquin Phoenix: 3 times nominated (2001 Gladiator, 2006 Walk the Line & 2013 The Master)
• Johnny Depp: For me the shocking thing is the fact that out of his 3 nominations one is for Pirates of The Caribbean... (2004 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2005 Finding Neverland & 2008 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
• Sigourney Weaver: 3 times nominated, 3 times snubbed (1987 Aliens, 1989 Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey & 1989 Working Girl)
• Edward Norton: 3 times nominated (1997 Primal Fear, 1999 American History X & 2015 Birdman)
• Annette Bening: 4 times nominated (1991 The Grifters, 2000 American Beauty, 2005 Being Julia & 2011 The Kids Are All Right)
• Ed Harris: 4 times nominated (1996 Apollo 13, 1999 The Truman Show, 2001 Pollock & 2003 The Hours)
• Michelle Williams: 4 times nominated (2006 Brokeback Mountain, 2011 Blue Valentine,
  2012 My Week with Marilyn & 2017 Manchester by the Sea)
• Bill Murray: 1 time nominated in 2004 for Lost in Translation
• John Travolta: 2 times nominated (1978 Saturday Night Fever & 1995 Pulp Fiction) - and I would say that this is more than enough
• Gary Oldman: 2 times nominated (2012 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 2018 Darkest Hour) - I have a feeling that he will manage to get off this list after tonight
• Liam Neeson: 1 time nominated in 1994 for Schindler’s List
• Ralph Fiennes: 2 times nominated (not for Lord Voldemort but for Schindler’s List in 1994 and in 1997 for The English Patient)
• John Malkovich: 2 times nominated (1985 Places in the Heart & 1994 In the Line of Fire)
• Laura Linney: 3 times nominated (2001 You Can Count on Me, 2005 Kinsey & 2008 The Savages)
• Samuel L. Jackson: 1 nomination in 1995 for Pulp Fiction
• Amy Adams: 5 nominations - 2006 for Junebug, 2009 for Doubt, 2011 for The Fighter, 2013 for The Master and 2014 for American Hustle

That's it for Oscars history lesson for today, happy Oscars Sunday!!

Sources: NY Post, Time