Academy Awards: Best Picture Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wings

William Wellman directed "Wings", and it tells the story of World War One aerial battles. The effects used in "Wings" were state-of-the-art for the time, and it received good reviews. The movie itself had a famous cast including Gary Cooper and (with a change from her role as a gossip columnist) Hedda Hopper.

Answer: Mutiny on the Bounty

"Mutiny on the Bounty" beat odds-on favourites "The Informer", "David Copperfield", "Ruggles of Red Gap", "Alice Adams" and "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" to win the Best Picture award. It starred Charles Laughton and was directed by Frank Lloyd. Both of these were nominated for Oscars themselves but failed to win. All in all, "Mutiny on the Bounty" was nominated for six Academy Awards.

Answer: The Best Years of Our Lives

"The Best Years of Our Lives" was nominated for eight Academy Awards in all, and successfully managed to pick up all but one. It lost out on Best Screenplay. Despite being nominated for all of these awards, the movie received mixed reviews from critics. Pauline Kael of The New Yorker remarked, "Despite it's seven Academy Awards, it's not a great picture; it's too schematic and it drags on after you get the points".

Answer: The Greatest Show On Earth

The shock of Oscar night on 19th March 1953, was when "The Greatest Show On Earth" was announced as Best Picture. The movie was directed by Cecil B. DeMille, but he lost out on the Best Director award. The critics reactions to the movie were mixed, and Variety wrote, "'High Noon' was a cinch to win, a great ovation resounded throughout the theater when 'The Greatest Show On Earth' was announced the winner".

However, The New Yorker printed (about the movie), "awesomely melodramatic. A cornball enterprise."

Answer: In the Heat of the Night

When "In the Heat of the Night" was named as Best Picture of 1967, everyone was shocked. The film was very controversial, and starred Rod Steiger (who was also named Best Actor) and Sidney Poitier. Some people thought that the movie was only given this honour due to the political themes and race relations issues it involved. However, it managed to pick up five Oscars.

Answer: The Godfather

Despite being one of the best gangster movies ever made, "The Godfather" was beaten in almost all its categories by Bob Fosse's musical "Cabaret". However, it managed to pick up three awards for Best Picture and Best Writing: Based On Material From Another Medium. Francis Ford and of course, one for Best Actor for Marlon Brando.

The biggest controversy of the night, was the fact that Brando refused to accept his award. Instead of him coming up on stage, a young woman made her way to the microphone to say: "I'm Apache, and I am President of the Native American Affirmative Image Committee. I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you that he very regretfully cannot accept this generous award. And the reasons for this being the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry."

Answer: The Last Emperor

"The Last Emperor" was awarded with nine statues on Oscar night, including the Best Picture Oscar. The nine awards were: Best Picture, Best Director for Bernardo Bertolucci, Best Writing: Based On Material From Another Medium, Best Cinematogrophy, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Scoring: Original Music.

The movie told the story of the Chinese Emperor thrown out and into common life when the country was taken over by Communists.

Answer: Shakespeare In Love

This romance about William Shakespeare finding his true love starring Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench swept the Academy Awards winning in almost all of the categories it was nominated in. Gwyneth Paltrow was awarded with the Best Actress Oscar and Judi Dench received Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I.

However, "Shakespeare In Love" director John Madden lost out on the Best Director award to Steven Spielberg for his epic war movie, "Saving Private Ryan".

Answer: Gladiator

Nominated for a huge total of twelve Academy Awards, "Gladiator", but lost in more than half of the categories. Russell Crowe was given the Best Actor award, but "Alien" director Ridley Scott lost out on the Best Director gong. There was a big shock on the set of "Gladiator" when Oliver Reed passed away before shooting all of his scenes in the movie.

In order to complete the late actor's unfinished scenes, Reed's head was (with the help of computer graphics) superimposed onto a stand-in's body. This meant that Reed's character could remain in the movie, without having to cut parts out due to the actor's sudden death.

Answer: Misery

"The Great Ziegfeld" was awarded the Best Picture award in 1936, "On The Waterfront" in 1954, and "Tom Jones" in 1963. However, in my opinion, the biggest injustice at the 1990 Academy Awards ceremony was that, director Rob Reiner's movie "Misery" (starring Kathy Bates as a romance novelist's obsessed fan), wasn't even nominated for Best Picture.

However, Kathy Bates was given the honour of receiving the Best Actress Oscar. Also starring James Caan, "Misery" was an extremely frightening movie with Kathy Bates on great form.

She has gone on to star in "Fried Green Tomatoes", "Prelude to a Kiss", "Dolores Claiborne", multi-Oscar winning movie "Titanic", "Primary Colours" and "About Schmidt" with fellow Oscar winner Jack Nicholson.