In the 84 ceremonies of the Academy Awards, there have been five Best Picture nominees in 68 ceremonies. The Best Picture and Best Actor categories during these years have only matched once: in 1966.
Best Picture Nominees:
Alfie
A Man for All Seasons (winner)
The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming
The Sand Pebbles
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Best Actor Nominees:
Alan Arkin, The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming
Richard Burton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Michael Caine, Alfie
Steve McQueen, The Sand Pebbles
Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons (winner)
Note: The 1964 Best Actor lineup matched the Best Picture one, but not vice versa. This is because of Becket's two Best Actor nominations for Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. Their fellow nominees were Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (the winner), Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, and Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. However, Mary Poppins (the fifth Best Picture nominee) was not nominated in the Best Actor category.
Oooh, interesting trivia Josh. I never thought about Best Picture matching up w/ Best Actor nominees, to me it's more odd when a movie got Best Picture nod but the director is not nominated, or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ruth. The Picture/Director thing happens a lot, so I didn't post anything on it. The more obscure the stat, the better. :)
DeleteLove stuff like this!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm trying to post ones that aren't obvious.
DeleteWould 2013 count? The Best Actor nominees (Bale, Dern, DiCaprio, Ejiofer, McConaughey ) were all from Best Picture Nominees.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it would count if you included years with more than five Best Picture nominees. There would be more years then. For instance, 1935's Best Actor lineup consisted of three actors from Mutiny on the Bounty and Victor McLaglen from The Informer. Both of those films were Best Picture nominees. Still, 1966 remains the only perfect match (5/5) between the Best Picture and Best Actor categories.
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