The composer John Williams (USA) (b. 8 February 1932) has had 45 Academy Award nominations from 1968 – 2006, making him the most nominated living person. His first nomination was for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment for Valley of the Dolls (USA 1967), with his most recent for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score at the 2006 ceremony for both Munich (USA, 2005) and Memoirs of a Geisha (USA, 2005). In all he has won five Oscars:- Schindler’s
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The most Oscar nominations a film has received is 14 given to All About Eve (US 1950) in 1951 and Titanic (US 1997) in 1998. All About Eve eventually won six Oscars, including Best Film, Best Director – Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Best Supporting Actor – George Sanders (1906-1972). Titanic came away with 11. (see also Most Oscars won by a film)
Sammy Cahn (USA, 1913 – 1993) was nominated for the category Best Original Song a total of 26 times between 1943 and 1976 during his career. His first nomination was for ‘It Seems I Heard That Song Before’ from the film Youth on Parade (USA 1942). Of all his nominations, his most prolific singer was Frank Sinatra having sung six of the nominated songs in the films Anchors Aweigh (USA 1945), Tender Trap (USA 1955), The Joker is Wild (USA 1957), Some Came Running (USA
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France holds the record for most Oscar nominations by having a film nominated in the Foreign Language Film category 38 times between 1948 – 2010. The last nomination was for Un prophète (Fr 2009) on 7 March 2010. France has won the category on 12 occasions in 1948, 1950, 1952, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1966, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978 and 1992. A record 67 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards in 2009.
Peter O’Toole (Ireland b.2 August 1932) has been nominated eight times for the Best Actor award, but has never won. O’Toole’s no win span has so far lasted nearly 50 years, with Lawrence of Arabia (UK 1962); Beckett (UK 1964); The Lion in Winter (UK 1968); Goodbye Mr Chips (UK 1969); The Ruling Class (UK 1972); The Stunt Man (USA 1980); My Favourite Year (USA 1982), and Venus (UK 2006). In 2003, when he was offered an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, Peter O’Toole wrote the
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At the 1929/30 Academy Awards held on the 5 November 1930, of the five actresses nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role category, two were nominated twice: Greta Garbo (Sweden) for Anna Christie (USA 1930) and Romance (USA 1930) and Norma Shearer (Canada) for Their Own Desire (USA 1929) and The Divorcee (USA 1930), for which she took the award for her role as Jerry.
Colin Shirlow (UK) ate 233 oysters in three minutes at the World Oyster Eating Championship in Hillsborough, County Down, Northern Ireland on 3 September 2005.
Three films have won 11 Oscars. The first to achieve the record was Ben-Hur (USA 1959) which won from 12 nominations on 4 April 1960, followed by Titanic (USA 1997) from 14 nominations on 23 March 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (NZ/USA 2003) which won all 11 of its nominations on 29 February 2004. Ben-Hur won with: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor; Best Supporting Actor; Cinematography; Art Direction; Sound; Music Score; Film Editing; Special Effects; Costume and loosing
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Cedric Gibbons (USA, 1893-1960) of MGM won 11 Oscars for Art Direction from a total of 40 nominations from 1930 to 1957. The most won by a woman are the eight by costume designer Edith Head (USA, 1907-81).