Art is not a competition. Unless there are statues involved. Then it’s a dog eat dog world out there. The Academy Awards have been a centerpiece for the motion picture art form and industry for nearly 100 years, for better and often for worse. So, to nominees and fans alike, this is our Super Bowl. We care about who wins, we care about who loses, we care about historical precedent, and we care about stats.
And for 75 years, one statistic has remained the same: No movie had ever earned more than 14 Oscar nominations. It was a record broken with the classic drama “All About Eve,” and until this year it had only been tied twice. Then Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” came along and changed everything. For the first time in three-quarters of a century, a new film has the most Oscar nominations ever, and it’s a historical vampire musical drama. Sometimes, the 2020s are cool.
But the history of Academy Awards record-holders is a lot longer than most people realize. So far, 12 very different films have broken or tied the record for the most Oscar nominations ever. Let’s take a look back and explore the famous, the forgotten, and the occasionally regrettable movies that won the Academy over and made Oscars history.
‘7th Heaven’ — 5 Nominations
The first Academy Awards ceremony would be almost unrecognizable today. The winners were all announced beforehand and there were only 10 categories, including two for Best Picture, which was split between “Outstanding Picture” and “Best Unique and Artistic Picture.” The World War I flying ace epic “Wings” won the former and F.W. Murnau’s experimental melodrama “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” won the latter. Those winners are still well known and celebrated, and yet the film with one the most nominations has fallen into relative obscurity.
Frank Borzage’s “7th Heaven” stars Janet Gaynor as a young Frenchwoman who turns to sex work after falling on hard times. Disowned by her parents and beaten by her own sister, she’s rescued by a street sweeper, played by Charles Farrell. He pretends to be her husband, so to avoid further suspicion they live out that lie, and eventually fall in love. Then World War I tears them away from each other’s arms.
It’s a grand emotional drama that slaps the audience in the face with its desperate attempts to pluck our heartstrings. But also, to be perfectly fair, it still works, and the intense production design gives the film a larger than life quality that suits the operatic story. Frank Borzage won the first Academy Award for Best Director and Benjamin Glazer won the first award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Janet Gaynor won the Academy Award for Best Actress, but in the first ceremony the acting nominees could win for a whole year’s work, so she also won for Murnau’s “Sunrise” and the drama “Street Angel,” also directed by Borzage. It lost the awards for Outstanding Picture and Best Art Direction.
‘In Old Arizona’ — 5 Nominations
It didn’t take long for “7th Heaven’s” record to meet its match. The next year, two films also earned five nominations apiece. The first was the western “In Old Arizona,” based on the O. Henry story “The Caballero’s Way,” starring Warner Baxter as The Cisco Kid. He’s a famous outlaw who gets stuck in a love triangle with a duplicitous woman and a sergeant trying bring him to justice. The sergeant is played by Edmund Lowe, and in a series of cheeky pre-code tête-à-têtes, it’s clear that the Cisco Kid and the sergeant have more romantic chemistry with each other than with anyone else.
“In Old Arizona” was a groundbreaking film on a technical level: It was the first Hollywood talkie that was filmed — believe it or not — outdoors. That was a major step forward for the sound era, and this brisk, conversational western makes the most it can of that development. Warner Baxter won the Academy Award for Best Actor, in a role that was so popular the Cisco Kid appeared in two dozen more films between 1928 and 1994, played by a cavalcade of stars including the first live-action Joker himself, Cesar Romero. It was also nominated for Outstanding Picture, Best Director, Best Writing and Best Cinematography.
‘The Patriot’ — 5 Nominations
The other film that earned five nominations at the second Academy Awards, sadly, is no longer with us. If anything it’s a minor miracle that “The Patriot” is the only Best Picture nominee that’s completely lost, or rather almost completely lost — a few impressive shots from this Russian-themed epic found their way into Josef Von Sternberg’s 1934 classic “The Scarlet Empress,” in an attempt to inexpensively goose that film’s production values. A single reel resides in an archive, and the film’s trailer has also been preserved. “The Patriot” was also remade in France in 1938.
“The Patriot” is a historical drama directed by Ernst Lubitsch, who went on to practically define the motion picture romantic comedy genre with classic films like “Ninotchka” and “The Shop Around the Corner.” Emil Jannings stars as Tsar Paul I and Lewis Stone plays Count Pahlen, who schemes to violently remove the Tsar from the throne. “The Patriot” was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Stone), and Best Cinematography, and won the Academy Award for Best Writing.
‘The Love Parade’ — 6 Nominations
Leave it to Lubitsch! The director of “The Patriot” walloped his own record just one year later, and with his very first talkie. “The Love Parade” is a frothy musical comedy starring romantic icon Maurice Chevalier as a lothario Count who’s forced to marry the Queen of Sylvania — played by Jeannette MacDonald in her screen debut — as punishment for his various scandals. But it’s a token gig, since he has no power and nothing to do, and the film often digresses to follow the Queen’s servants, who are a little too wrapped up in her royal love life.
Ernst Lubitsch hadn’t quite tuned his talkie instrument yet, so let’s just say “The Love Parade” doesn’t live up to his many later rom-com classics. But it was a hit, and it was nominated for six Oscars: Outstanding Production, Best Director, Best Actor (Chevalier), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Sound Recording. It didn’t win in any category.
‘Cimarron’ — 7 Nominations
Wesley Ruggles’ western epic “Cimarron” was the first western to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Weirdly, despite the popularity of the genre through most of the 20th century, it was also the only western with a Best Picture Oscar for almost sixty years, until Kevin Costner’s “Dances with Wolves” won in 1990. (There have only been two since: Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven,” from 1992, and the Coen Brothers’ neo-western “No Country for Old Men” in 2007.)
“Cimarron” stars Richard Dix as Yancey, a frontiersman who stakes a claim in the film’s gigantic opening land rush, which is still a wonder to behold. But he can’t sit still, so he leaves his wife Sabra, played by Irene Dunne, to raise his children, run his business, and adapt with the rapidly changing times.
In some respects this adaptation of Edna Ferber’s novel was ahead of its time, advocating in favor of mixed race marriage and for the respectful treatment of sex workers. But the film’s portrayal of race isn’t consistently positive, and Sabra endures a lot of condescension from her husband, who the movie thinks can do no wrong (except for the whole “abandoning his family” part).
“Cimarron” won the Academy Awards for Outstanding Picture, Writing (Adaptation) and Art Direction, and was also nominated for Best Director, Best Actor (Dix), Best Actress (Dunne) and Best Cinematography.
‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ — 8 Nominations
Frank Lloyd’s fantastic historical adventure “Mutiny on the Bounty” didn’t just make Oscar history by earning eight nominations, toppling “Cimarron” in the process, it’s also the reason the Oscars now have “Supporting Actor” categories. At all.
Until “Mutiny on the Bounty” came along, the Academy only had two acting categories: Best Actor and Best Actress. And everybody seemed to think that was fine. But three of “Mutiny on the Bounty’s” eight nominations were for Best Actor. Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone were all nominated, and they all lost to Victor McClaglen in John Ford’s “The Informer.” To be fair, McClaglen is outstanding in Ford’s harrowing morality tale, but there’s a very good chance the guys from “Mutiny on the Bounty” split their vote.
In response to one film earning three out of five Best Actor nominations, the Academy invented the “Best Supporting Actor” and “Best Supporting Actress” Oscars, which debuted the following year. “Mutiny on the Bounty” was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Music (Scoring) and Best Film Editing. It was the third film to win Best Picture but no other awards, following “The Broadway Melody” and “Grand Hotel.” That’s a feat no other film has pulled off in the 90 years that followed. So far.
‘The Life of Emile Zola’ — 10 Nominations
Take that, “Mutiny on the Bounty!” William Dieterle’s acclaimed biopic blew that naval epic out of the water, earning a whopping 10 Oscar nominations.
It may seem like biopics are the Academy’s favorite genre but when “The Life of Emile Zola” came out, it was only the second biopic to win the Oscar for Best Picture, after the lavish (but rather dull) “The Great Ziegfeld.” (Then again, since “Mutiny on the Bounty” was based on a true story, one could argue that “The Life of Emile Zola” is the third, but the structure and format of the modern biopic is more prevalent in “Ziegfeld” and “Zola,” so that’s probably nitpicking.)
“The Life of Emile Zola” starred Paul Muni as the iconic French author, who promoted literary naturalism and social justice, and was a key figure in the political scandal and legal nightmare that was The Dreyfus Affair. Unfortunately, the antisemitism that ran rampant across the The Dreyfus Affair went unmentioned in Dieterle’s film, a symptom of Hollywood’s shameful timidity about making political statements in the build-up to World War II, which also prevented most anti-Nazi sentiment from making it onto the silver screen until the early 1940s.
“The Life of Emile Zola” won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Joseph Schildkraut), and Best Writing (Screenplay). It was also nominated for Best Actor (Muni), Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Music (Score), Best Sound (Recording), Best Writing (Original Story), and Best Assistant Director.
Yes, there used to be an Oscar for Best Assistant Director. It was retired after this particular ceremony. (Sorry, assistant directors.)
‘Gone with the Wind’ — 13 Nominations
Sigh… so yeah, “Gone with the Wind” was kind of a big deal.
The film, credited to director Victor Fleming (who replaced George Cukor after the start of filming, and was briefly replaced by Sam Wood during production), tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), a debutante on a cotton plantation whose seemingly idyllic life — which couldn’t exist without slavery — is ruined when the man she loves is engaged to another woman. Oh, and wouldn’t you know it, the Civil War breaks out the same day, sending her hurtling through historic events while getting repeatedly remarried out of spite and/or financial convenience, and repeatedly dodging the romantic advances of the dashing Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).
“Gone with the Wind” is an undeniably sumptuous production, and still looks impressive on the big screen. Leigh and Gable also have incredible chemistry. But it’s extremely racist in its romanticized depiction of the white supremacist, antebellum American South, and in its portrayal of Reconstruction as a cruel inconvenience to white former slave owners who, according to “Gone with the Wind,” treated their slaves very well. As if that was accurate, or as if that would somehow make it okay.
If you’ve heard that nobody complained about the racism in “Gone with the Wind” when it originally came out, you heard it from people who don’t know what they’re talking about, because the protests were well-documented. Sure, it was a huge financial success — if you adjust for inflation, it’s still the highest-grossing film in American history, which is embarrassing to us all — and yes, it shattered the record for the most Oscar-nominations, but it was still considered offensive by a lot of people, and history has vindicated the film’s critics.
Anyway, “Gone with the Wind” was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won eight competitive Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American Academy Award-winner), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography (Color) and Best Film Editing. It also won a special award for pioneering production designer William Cameron Menzies’s use of color, and a technical award for the film’s use of coordinated equipment. It lost the Oscars for Best Actor (Gable), Best Supporting Actress (Olivia de Havilland), Best Original Score, Best Sound Recording and Best Visual Effects.
‘All About Eve’ — 14 Nominations
It took eleven years but “Gone with the Wind’s” record was finally broken by Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s backstage drama “All About Eve,” which received a mind-blowing 14 nominations, including five for its stunning cast. It’s a record that two other films would eventually tie — we’ll get to those in a minute — but wouldn’t be broken for 75 years. In other words, for three-quarters of a century the Oscars really were all about “All About Eve.”
The film stars Bette Davis as acclaimed Broadway star Margo Channing. She takes pity on an adoring fan, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), and hires her as an assistant. What Margo doesn’t realize is that Eve is not a naive little flower, she’s a crafty schemer with plans to overshadow Margo’s career, by any means necessary. Davis and Baxter both competed for Best Actress (both lost to Judy Holliday, for the comedy classic “Born Yesterday”). George Sanders co-stars as Addison DeWitt, a brilliant and delectably unscrupulous theater critic. Even Marilyn Monroe turns up, briefly, in one of her earliest performances.
“All About Eve” is widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made, because it is. It’s hard not to get swept up in the duplicity, the backstabbing, the manipulation. The film won six Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Sanders), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design (Black and White) and Best Sound Recording. It was also nominated for Best Actress (Davis and Baxter), Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter), Best Art Direction (Black and White), Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Film Editing and Best Scoring (Dramatic or Comedy).
‘Titanic’ — 14 Nominations
James Cameron’s “Titanic” was the first film to tie “All About Eve’s” fourteen Oscar nominations, but the real number you should be focusing on is “47.” It took 47 years for another film to even match “All About Eve’s” Academy Awards record. That means many of the biggest and most epic Best Picture winners in history came up short, including “Ben-Hur,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Godfather” and “Schindler’s List.”
It’s hard to believe now but before “Titanic” came out, the word on the street was it was going to be a bust. Cameron’s production went way over schedule, and cost an unfathomable fortune. It seemed as though only way “Titanic” could possibly make money is if it was the number one film at the box office for 15 consecutive weeks, which (and you may have seen this coming) it was. It was also the first film to earn over $1 billion at the box office.
It’s also an exceptional film. James Cameron made his reputation as an action filmmaker, but he took a major turn with “Titanic,” writing and directing an old-fashioned Hollywood love story about class divides, culminating in one of the most epic disaster sequences ever filmed. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were already Oscar-nominated performers, but they weren’t considered box office draws when Cameron cast them as star-cross’d lovers. They blew audiences away, as did Cameron’s lavish cinematic sensibilities and incredible eye for period detail.
“Titanic” won eleven Academy Awards, tying a record set by “Ben-Hur” in 1959, which has yet to be broken (although “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” tied it in 2003). The film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects.
Actually, it would have been faster to list the only awards “Titanic” didn’t win: Best Actress (Winslet), Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Stuart), and Best Makeup.
‘La La Land’ — 14 Nominations
The Academy Awards have a history of celebrating huge, lavish musicals. Weirdly enough, Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” isn’t one of them. The love story between Mia (Emma Stone), a struggling actress, and Seb (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz musician, is a working class tale of Hollywood romance, with only one musical number involving a gigantic cast and eye-popping choreography. And it’s the opening number. And it takes place in gridlocked Los Angeles traffic.
Damien Chazelle earned widespread acclaim for his previous film, “Whiplash,” about a jazz student pushed past his breaking point by an abusive professor. The majority of his films so far have been about the punishing drive for greatness — including his early thriller screenplay “Grand Piano,” about a concert pianist who will be assassinated if he misses a single note. “La La Land” is the one Chazelle film that romanticizes the pursuit, incorporating melancholic elements from the French classic “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” to add depth to an otherwise familiar underdog tale, about artists trying to make it against all odds, even if it costs them their love.
“La La Land” famously lost Best Picture in the biggest gaffe in Oscars history. The presenters, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, were given the wrong envelope, and “La La Land” was briefly announced as the winner. The filmmakers’ acceptance speech had to be interrupted to correct the mistake, and present the award to the actual winner: Barry Jenkins’ queer, independent, absolutely brilliant drama “Moonlight.”
But the film didn’t go home empty-handed. Damien Chazelle won the Oscar for Best Director, making him the youngest winner in the category’s history — 85 years after the record was set by Norman Taurog, the director of “Skippy”. It also won Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (“City of Stars”) and Best Production Design. It lost the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original [“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”], Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
‘Sinners’ — 16 Nominations
16 nominations. It took 75 years for a film to earn more Oscar nominations than “All About Eve,” and it didn’t even eke out the title. It overtook the record by two whole categories. Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster, genre-defying historical vampire musical action drama “Sinners” obliterated Oscars precedent, earning more nominations than any other movie in history.
And although it’s a surprise that any film could earn 16 nominations, it’s not a surprise that the film was “Sinners.” Coogler’s production was technically ambitious and artistically challenging, offering multiple, rich and textured roles for the ensemble cast, amidst outstanding cinematography, production design, music and visual effects. “Sinners” was eligible in 17 categories and nominated in 16. (Heck, if Hailee Steinfeld or Wunmi Mosaku had a little more screen time, it probably could have earned a nomination for Best Actress too.)
Michael B. Jordan stars, opposite himself, as the identical twins Smoke and Stack. They’re gangsters who return to their childhood home in the Mississippi Delta to start their own juke joint. Filmed in glorious IMAX, Coogler tells the tale of their opening day, as they enlist local talent and local businesses, achieving such powerful dramatic heights that they literally pierce the veil of time, and attract the forces of darkness. A horde of vampires, led by the weirdly friendly Remmick (Jack O’Connell), don’t just want to kill Smoke and Stack and their guests, they want to absorb their culture and claim it as their own.
“Sinners” is an astoundingly entertaining and powerful film about race, art, assimilation, business, religion, family, love and everything in between. Time will tell how many Oscars it wins, and if Ryan Coogler will — after 98 years of the Academy Awards, become the first Black person of any gender to win the Best Director Oscar.
The film is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jordan), Best Supporting Actor (Delroy Lindo), Best Supporting Actress (Mosaku), Best Original Screenplay, Best Casting, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.