If you’re already excited for the Academy Awards, scheduled for March 2, here are a few fun facts about some of the previous nominees and winners for Best Picture.
The Books Were as Good as the Movie
In the history of the Academy Awards, two movies that won for Best Picture also had their books of the same name win a Pulitzer Prize for writing. The first was Gone With the Wind. The movie won Best Picture in 1939 and the book won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction two years earlier. All the King’s Men became the second Best Picture with a book of the same name in 1949. The book won the Pulitzer in 1947.
Great Movie, Just Hardly Anyone Saw It
In 2009, The Hurt Locker became the lowest grossing movie ever to win a Best Picture at the Academy Awards. When it received a nomination, the movie had grossed a meager $12.6 million, but getting nominated didn’t help much with theater goers as it only grossed an additional $2.1 million by the time the movie walked off with the Best Picture award. Amazingly, this movie also goes down as the only Academy Award winner without any opening credits, according to IMDB.com.
Toy Story 3 Makes Three for Animated Films
The third of the Toy Story trilogy made for only the third animated picture to be nominated with the Best Picture honor in 2010. The second movie was Up, which was nominated the previous year. Both of these films also walked off with the Best Animated Feature Film, a category created in 2001. The first animated feature to ever to be nominated for Best Picture was Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
It’s Me Clarice, I Made It Home First
While Beauty and the Beast was nominated in 1991, it was Silence of the Lambs that walked off with the Best Picture honor. The amazing fact of the movie was that it became the first Best Picture winner to be featured on home video before taking home the win. The American Film Institute made lists of heroes and villains in 2003 with Anthony Hopkins depiction of Hannibal Lecter as the greatest villain of all time while heroine Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster, ranked sixth on the heroes list.
Ben Affleck Tells the Academy to Argo, F*** Yourself
While Argo took home the Best Picture honor in 2012, Ben Affleck became only the fourth director not to be nominated for Best Director along with winning Best Picture. The last time this happened was in 1989 for Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford. You have to go back to the ’20s and ’30s for the other two films, Wings (1927-28) and Grand Hotel (1931-32). Argo is also tied with 1958 winner Gigi for the shortest title ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Much of the information on these Best Pictures was found at IMDb.com and Filmsite.
