8 Things You Didn’t Know About the Academy Awards

Reader s Digest Magazine

Best your pals at your annual movie-awards party with our slate of Academy Awards trivia.

1. Three films have tied for winning 11 awards, the most ever: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997), Ben Hur (1959).

2. The youngest ever Oscar winner was Tatum O'Neal, 10, for Paper Moon (1973); the oldest was Christopher Plummer, 82, for his role in Beginners (2011). In 2013, two actresses made history as the youngest and oldest nominees ever named in the category: Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Emmanuelle Riva, 85, for Amour.

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3. Singer Michael Jackson paid $1.54 million in 1999 to Sotheby's for David Selznick's Best Picture Oscar for the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind.

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4. Walt Disney holds the records for both the most Academy Award nominations (59) and Oscars won (26).

5. Peter O'Toole holds the record for most Best Actor nominations without ever winning. He's been nominated 8 times.

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6. At 234 minutes, Gone With The Wind is the longest film ever to win Best Picture.

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7. The largest U.S. TV audience was in 1998, when 52.2 million people watched Titanic win best picture.

8. 300 limousines are reserved for each year's show.

-By Reader's Digest Editors