60 Fun Facts About Oscars 2024

On what date was the 96th Academy Awards ceremony held?

The show started an hour earlier than usual, at 4 p.m. Pacific, so the big awards would land before East Coast viewers went to bed.

Which film won Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars?

Nolan's atomic-bomb biopic converted more than half of its nominations and became the highest-grossing Best Picture winner in two decades.

How many Oscars did the 2024 Best Picture winner take home?

It won Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Film Editing and Original Score.

How many nominations did the 2024 Best Picture winner receive, the most of any film that year?

Poor Things was second with eleven and Killers of the Flower Moon third with ten. Killers went home with nothing.

Which comedian hosted the 2024 Oscars for the fourth time?

His wife Molly McNearney co-produced the show. He joked in a press release that he had 'always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times'.

Who won Best Actor at the 2024 Oscars for playing the physicist behind the atomic bomb?

It was his first nomination after six films with Nolan, including the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception.

Who won Best Actress at the 2024 Oscars for playing the reanimated Bella Baxter in Poor Things?

It was her second Best Actress win after La La Land, and she was also nominated as a producer of the film.

Which 2016 musical earned the 2024 Best Actress winner her first Oscar?

She had also been nominated for Birdman and The Favourite, her first film with Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos.

Who won Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Oscars for playing Lewis Strauss?

It was his third nomination and first win, 31 years after his first nod for playing Charlie Chaplin.

The 2024 Best Supporting Actor winner was earlier nominated for Chaplin and which 2008 comedy?

He played an Australian method actor who undergoes surgery to play a Black soldier, a role that earned a supporting nomination.

Who won Best Supporting Actress at the 2024 Oscars for playing grieving school cook Mary Lamb?

Her role in The Holdovers swept the season, taking the Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG award before the Oscar.

The Holdovers is set at a New England boarding school in which year?

Alexander Payne shot it to look like a film of that era, and Paul Giamatti's grumpy classics teacher earned a Best Actor nomination.

The 2024 Best Picture winner was the first to also win both male acting awards since which 1959 film?

Ben-Hur's Charlton Heston and Hugh Griffith did it in 1960. Both of the 2024 winners had never won before.

Who won Best Director at the 2024 Oscars, after earlier nominations for Memento and Inception?

Steven Spielberg presented the award. Nolan also shared the Best Picture prize with his wife and producing partner Emma Thomas.

At 81, who became the oldest Best Director nominee in Oscar history in 2024?

His Killers of the Flower Moon earned ten nominations, including Robert De Niro's first in 32 years, and won none.

Which 2024 nominee became the first US-born Native American person nominated for Best Actress?

She played Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman whose family is murdered for oil money, in Killers of the Flower Moon.

De Niro's 2024 nomination set the record gap between a first and latest Oscar nomination. How many years?

His first was for The Godfather Part II in 1975. He was nominated for playing cattleman William King Hale.

Which song won Best Original Song at the 2024 Oscars?

The Billie Eilish ballad beat the film's own 'I'm Just Ken', which Ryan Gosling performed on the night with 62 Kens.

Billie Eilish became the youngest person to win two Oscars in 2024. Her first was for which film's theme?

She was 22. Both wins were shared with her brother and co-writer Finneas O'Connell.

Ryan Gosling's 2024 performance of 'I'm Just Ken' paid homage to a number from which classic film?

The staging echoed 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend', with cameos from Slash, Wolfgang Van Halen and his fellow Kens Simu Liu and Ncuti Gatwa.

How many actors dressed as Ken backed Ryan Gosling's 2024 Oscars performance?

Guitarists Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen also appeared. Choreographer Mandy Moore, of La La Land, staged it.

Which 2024 Oscar winner was the first non-English-language British film to win Best International Feature?

Glazer's Auschwitz drama, filmed in German, Polish and Yiddish, also won Best Sound.

The 2024 Best International Feature winner follows the family of which real Auschwitz commandant?

It was loosely based on Martin Amis's 2014 novel; Sandra Hüller played his wife Hedwig, tending a garden beside the camp wall.

Which two 2024 winners were the first non-English films to win Best Sound and Best Visual Effects?

The Japanese kaiju film's effects team, led by director Takashi Yamazaki, worked on a reported budget of about $10M.

Which Japanese film won Best Visual Effects at the 2024 Oscars, reputedly made for around $10M?

Its director Takashi Yamazaki also supervised the effects; between a quarter and a third of the budget went on VFX.

Which film won Best Animated Feature at the 2024 Oscars?

Hayao Miyazaki's first film since coming out of retirement took about seven years to make. He did not attend the ceremony.

Which French courtroom drama won Best Original Screenplay in 2024 after taking the Palme d'Or at Cannes?

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari's script also won the Palm Dog for Messi the border collie, who attended the Oscars.

Cord Jefferson won Best Adapted Screenplay in 2024 for American Fiction, based on which Percival Everett novel?

Jeffrey Wright's frustrated novelist writes a deliberately stereotyped book as a joke and watches it become a hit.

Which Ukrainian film won Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 Oscars?

Mstyslav Chernov's footage was shot with a news-agency team during the first weeks of the Russian invasion. Ukraine had originally submitted it for International Feature.

Which US news organisation's journalists filmed the 2024 Best Documentary Feature winner?

The footage was compiled with PBS's Frontline. Chernov said in his speech he wished he had never had to make the film.

Which director won Best Live Action Short in 2024 for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar?

The Roald Dahl adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch was his first Oscar; he skipped the ceremony.

The 2024 Best Animated Short winner, 'War Is Over!', was inspired by the music of which couple?

The film was produced by Sean Ono Lennon and follows two soldiers playing chess by carrier pigeon.

Which film won Best Documentary Short at the 2024 Oscars, about a workshop that fixes school instruments?

Composer Kris Bowers co-directed it; the shop repairs instruments for the Los Angeles public schools.

Which composer won Best Original Score in 2024 for the atomic-bomb biopic?

It was his second win after Black Panther. John Williams, nominated for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, extended his own record for nominations.

How many Oscars did Poor Things win in 2024?

It took Best Actress plus Production Design, Costume Design and Makeup and Hairstyling, second only to the Best Picture winner.

Who shot the 2024 Best Cinematography winner, using IMAX black-and-white film for the first time?

Nolan alternated colour and black-and-white sections to separate subjective and objective points of view.

Which was the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee at the 2024 Oscars, with about $636M domestically?

The Best Picture winner was second with $326M. Greta Gerwig's blockbuster went home with just one Oscar, for Original Song.

The 2024 Best Picture winner was the highest-grossing winner in that category since which 2003 film?

It grossed over $983M worldwide, the third-biggest film of 2023, boosted by the 'Barbenheimer' double-feature craze.

Which pair announced the 2024 Oscar nominations on January 23, 2024?

The announcement was made at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Who presented Best Picture alone at the 2024 Oscars after Scarface co-star Michelle Pfeiffer couldn't make it?

He famously skipped reading the nominees and simply blurted out the winner's title, leaving the room briefly confused.

Which star presented Best Costume Design at the 2024 Oscars, appearing to be naked behind the envelope?

The gag referenced the streaker who ran across the stage at the 1974 ceremony. Poor Things' Holly Waddington won the award.

Which two actors presented Best International Feature at the 2024 Oscars?

DeVito and Schwarzenegger, reunited from Twins, presented Visual Effects and Editing while ribbing Michael Keaton, who had beaten both of them as Batman.

Which format did the 2024 producers use for the four acting categories?

The 'fab five' format was revived from 2009; Nicolas Cage, Brendan Fraser, Ben Kingsley, Matthew McConaughey and Forest Whitaker handled Best Actor.

Which singer performed 'Time to Say Goodbye' with his son during the 2024 In Memoriam segment?

The segment was preceded by a tribute to Alexei Navalny, who had died less than a month earlier, using a clip from the Oscar-winning documentary about him.

Which two actors presented the tribute to stunt performers at the 2024 Oscars?

The bit doubled as a plug for their upcoming film The Fall Guy, with the pair trading jabs about their films' summer rivalry.

Roughly how many US viewers watched the 2024 Oscars on ABC?

That was up 4 percent on 2023 and the show later won four Emmys, including Outstanding Variety Special (Live), the first Oscars telecast to do so since 1991.

Which of these received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards ahead of the 2024 ceremony?

Angela Bassett and editor Carol Littleton were also honoured; Sundance's Michelle Satter received the Jean Hersholt award. The event was delayed two months by the 2023 strikes.

For which 2022 film had Angela Bassett lost Best Supporting Actress before her 2024 Honorary Oscar?

The Governors Awards were postponed from November 2023 to January 9, 2024, because of the actors' and writers' strikes.

Which of these was NOT one of the ten 2024 Best Picture nominees?

The Spanish survival drama was nominated for International Feature and Makeup. Maestro got seven nominations and won none.

For the first time in Oscar history, how many 2024 Best Picture nominees were directed by women?

Greta Gerwig, Justine Triet and Celine Song directed them, though only Triet was nominated for Best Director.

Which acting nominee in 2024 was recognised for playing composer Leonard Bernstein?

He also co-wrote, directed and produced Maestro. Carey Mulligan was nominated for playing Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre.

Which 2024 Best Actor nominee played civil rights organiser Bayard Rustin?

It was his first nomination. Rustin was produced by the Obamas' company Higher Ground.

Which 2024 Best Actress nominee played long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad?

It was her fifth nomination without a win. Co-star Jodie Foster was nominated for playing Nyad's coach Bonnie Stoll.

Which two Barbie (2023) stars got supporting-acting Oscar nods while Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were snubbed?

Robbie was still nominated as a producer, and Gerwig with Noah Baumbach for Adapted Screenplay.

Which television director helmed the 2024 Oscars telecast, produced by Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan?

Hamilton, a Super Bowl halftime veteran, won an Emmy for the broadcast, which won four in total.

Which actress hosted the Academy's 2024 Scientific and Technical Awards?

The Sci-Tech awards are handed out separately, at the Academy Museum, a few weeks before the main show.

Which 2024 Oscar winner's Gaza speech was misquoted, prompting duelling open letters?

More than 1,000 industry members signed a letter denouncing the speech; over 450 later signed one supporting it.

From 2024, Best Picture contenders had to meet at least how many of four new inclusion standards?

The standards cover on-screen representation, creative leadership, industry access and audience development. Films not entered for Best Picture were exempt.

Which ABC sitcom aired a new episode as the lead-out after the earlier-starting 2024 Oscars?

The ceremony moved up an hour to 4 p.m. PT, and the red-carpet pre-show shrank from 90 to 30 minutes.

Which comedian-journalist served as the 2024 Oscars' social media and red carpet correspondent?

She and Reece Feldman interviewed guests for Facebook and TikTok; Mandy Moore choreographed 'I'm Just Ken'.