‘Oppenheimer’ is lucky 13th film to win 7 Oscars

Matthew Stewart
·3 min read
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Rather than fulfilling general expectations by becoming the first film since “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009) to win eight Oscars, “Oppenheimer” left the 2024 Academy Awards with seven, including the coveted Best Picture prize. Although its eventual haul was far from the most impressive ever, it still comfortably ranked as the biggest winner of the night and officially joined a stellar, eight-decade-spanning roster of 12 movies that each merited a lucky seven competitive academy honors.

In addition to the top award, “Oppenheimer” racked up victories for Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. Of the dozen films that preceded it in winning seven Oscars, the one that comes closest to matching its exact haul is “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1958), which took Best Adapted Screenplay rather than Best Supporting Actor (Sessue Hayakawa).

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“The Bridge on the River Kwai” also happens to be the only one of these 13 films that did not enter its ceremony as the nominations leader. Instead, its total of eight bids was surpassed by “Sayonara” (10), which pulled off four wins, including one for Hayakawa’s rival, Red Buttons. Eight is indeed the minimum nominations total for films on this list (initially applicable to “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1947), while the maximum is 13, as in the cases of both “Oppenheimer” and “Shakespeare in Love” (1999).

The awards most often won in these situations are Best Picture and Best Director, which each eluded just one of the 13 films: “Gravity” (2014) and “Shakespeare in Love.” The next most common are Best Film Editing – which went to all but “Going My Way” (1945), “Out of Africa” (1986), and “Shakespeare in Love” – and Best Score, which did not go to “Going My Way,” “Patton” (1971), or “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2023).

Considering all categories from a proportional perspective, the only 100% success rate applies to Best Original Screenplay, which was won by all four of the films in this bunch that vied for it: “Patton,” “The Sting” (1974), “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Conversely, the one category associated with nothing but unsuccessful bids is Best Makeup and Hairstyling, where “Schindler’s List” (1994), “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Oppenheimer” were all passed over.

In all, “Oppenheimer” was bested three times by “Poor Things” (costume design; makeup and hairstyling; production design) and once each by “American Fiction” (adapted screenplay), “The Holdovers” (supporting actress), and “The Zone of Interest” (sound). Based on how its predecessors performed, its adapted screenplay loss is the most unusual of the six, as seven of the 12 (including 1991’s “Dances with Wolves”) competed for it and only one (“Lawrence of Arabia,” 1963) lost.

Along with “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Gravity” as well as “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004), “Oppenheimer” is one of only five 21st century films to achieve at least seven Oscar wins. Given that the club has gained two new entrants in as many years, a large portion of the 2025 Oscars may be fairly easy to predict.

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