Since it is Oscar weekend and, except for the Super Bowl, more Americans watch the Academy Awards each year than any other television program, I thought it would be fun to post some facts I found online that you may not know about regarding this year's ceremony.
- The composer John Williams, who is nominated for his The Book Thief score, has been nominated 49 times (more than any other living person). He already has 5 Oscars to compliment his 21 Grammys. The only other person to ever get more nominations was Walt Disney, which is pretty amazing.
- There are 6,028 voters in the Academy who will decide Oscar winners, a little more than 3,300 people get to attend the event and the red carpet is more than 600 feet long.
- Of the nine Best Picture nominees, six are based on real life: The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, and Captain Phillips. After 160 years, the book Twelve Years a Slave is back on the bestseller lists and has sold more than 150,000 copies since the film came out.
- Viewers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Fresno and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. will get to watch the Oscar show online or on their portable devices because, for the first time ever, ABC will be streaming the ceremony live in those markets.
- Producer Megan Ellison of Her and American Hustle is the first woman and only the third person ever to snag two Best Picture nominations in the same year. Previous achievers include Francis Ford Coppola for The Conversation and The Godfather Part II (the night’s big winner) in 1974, and Scott Rudin for The Social Network and True Grit in 2010. Girl Power!
- Ellen DeGeneres is back for her second time hosting (who doesn't love Ellen?) and many of the show's hosts have emceed the program multiple times over the years, including Johnny Carson, Whoopi Goldberg and, of course, Billy Crystal. The record holder is Bob Hope, however, who hosted the show 19 times between 1939 and 1977.
As I posted in yesterday's blog, the reason there seems to be extra hype involving this year's awards is that, unlike in recent years, there are far fewer front-runners or sure things than usual. The variety of this year's nominees is all over the map, and that makes for more interesting viewing when the winners are announced. Also, years in which there are multiple hits up for nominations tend to be years with increased viewership. This year, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, The Wolf of Wall Street and Gravity all scored big numbers.
I would love to hear your thoughts and predictions regarding any of this year's nominees, and please let me know if you have any fun facts or interesting Academy Awards stories.
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