With the Oscars coming up, here’s some truly fascinating Oscar trivia you might not already know.

Legend has it

Meryl Streep should just hand her the award, but it doesn’t do that as often.

Streep’s only won twice, for Kramer has garnered so many acting nominations over the years (17) that it feels like the Academy Vs of all time, Katharine Hepburn, who won four Best Actress trophies, all for leading roles. Kramer and Sophie’s Choice, a record that fades away in comparison to the winningest actress

The biggest windfall

The biggest Oscar windfall of all came in 2003, when Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King won all 11 of its 11 nominations.

That 100 per cent record is shared by 1958’s Gigi and 1987’s The Last Emperor, both of which won nine awards from nine nominations, while 1934’s It Happened One Night won five from five.

The disappointments

However, just being nominated for a bunch of awards doesn’t guarantee anything.

In 1978, The Turning Point – a film about ballet dancers in Oklahoma – was up for 11 awards and didn’t win a single statue, and the same thing happened to the highly-lauded The Colour Purple back in 1986.

Year of the star

1972’s Cabaret did really well at the Oscars, winning eight out of its 10 nominations, and yet the Oscars themselves that year belonged to another film, the one that won the other two categories, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

It was the year of The Godfather, by Francis Ford Coppola.

Making the right noise

In 1956, Le Ballon Rouge, or The Red Balloon, written and directed by Albert Lamorisse and starring his son Pascal, won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1956.

The unique thing about the win for this lovely film wasn’t just the fact that it came for a short film (34 minutes) but that Lamorisse won Best Screenplay despite a complete absence of dialogue in his script.

Ill-inspired acts

Disney Studios sued the Oscar telecast in 1989 when, in a harebrained idea, Rob Lowe and an actress dressed as Snow White, opened the show with a musical number.

The most critically savaged idea in the history of the Oscar telecast, it led to the Academy apologising unreservedly and Disney dropping the lawsuit.

Poor Rob Lowe hasn’t been allowed near that stage since.

The elusive awards

The legendary Peter O’Toole has lost out on the Best Actor prize eight times, and this is made even more remarkable because each of his nominated performances have been unanimously acclaimed.

His eight nods came for: Lawrence Of Arabia (1962), Becket (1964), The Lion In Winter (1968), Goodbye Mr Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982) and Venus (2006).

That honourary Oscar in 2003 just doesn’t do this man’s work justice.
— Rediff.com