10 Oscar Nerd Facts From the 2016 Academy Awards
Leonardo DiCaprio’s big win for The Revenant was the most buzzed-about (and most tweeted-about) moment of the 2016 Oscars. But it won’t make any nonsocial media-related record books. If you’re an awards nerd like us though, you might appreciate these 10 historical stats from Sunday’s show:
Otherwise Light Night for Spotlight: The journalism drama won the night’s first award (Best Original Screenplay) and last (Best Picture), but none in between, making it the first Best Picture winner to earn only one other Oscar since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1953.
Related: ‘Spotlight’ Wins Oscar as 2016 Best Picture; See the Complete List of Honorees
Two Direction: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu became the first filmmaker in 56 years (and the third of all time) to win consecutive Best Director Oscars, picking up trophies for Birdman and The Revenant. The other two directors to accomplish this feat were Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve) and John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley).
Viva Mexico! Iñárritu’s win also marked the third year in a row the Best Director Oscar has gone to a Mexican-born filmmaker. Prior to Iñárritu’s wins, the Oscar went to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity in 2014.
Ex-cellent Work: By pulling one of the night’s biggest upsets, Ex Machina’s Sara Bennett also became the first woman to win an Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category — an honor she shared with Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, and Mark Williams Ardington.
Related: The Highs and Lows of the 2016 Oscars
Keaton’s Repeat: Michael Keaton became the most high-profile actor to star in two consecutive Best Picture winners (Birdman and Spotlight) since John Goodman (The Artist and Argo). He’ll look to three-peat next year with the biopic The Founder, a feat only accomplished twice: by Wallis Clark (It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Great Ziegfield), and Harry Davenport (The Life of Emile Zola, You Can’t Take It With You, and Gone With the Wind).
Cinematography Paradiso: Revenant director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki became the first person to win Best Cinematography three years straight, having won previously for Gravity and Birdman. His three victories come after five losses.
Unlucky Number 13, Part 1: Despite the fact that he is one of the industry’s most celebrated cinematographers, Roger Deakins (Sicario) is now 0-for-13 at the Oscars after losing to Lubezki for the third straight year. (Deakins has been nominated four years straight).
Unlucky Number 13, Part 2: Despite the fact that he is one of the industry’s most celebrated composers, Thomas Newman (Bridge of Spies) is now 0-for-13 at the Oscars after losing to 87-year-old Hateful Eight maestro Ennio Morricone.
Related: The People With the Most Oscar Nominations Without a Win
Oldest. Winner. Ever. Speaking of Morricone, the Italian composer, 87, became the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar, beating Christopher Plummer’s record. The actor won Best Supporting Actor at 82 for Beginners in 2011.
Sam Smith’s Big Whoopsie: And in a buzzy bit of nonhistory, Best Original Song winner Sam Smith (Spectre’s “Writing On The Wall”) mistakenly proclaimed himself the first openly gay man to win an Oscar. He was off by quite a bit — and then kept compounding the error. There have actually been several gay male honorees, including Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, The Lion King songwriter Elton John, and The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast lyricist Howard Ashman.
