Obscure Oscar Trivia Quiz | Awards and Festivals

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1. In 2007, "Dreamgirls" was nominated for eight Oscars, more than any other film that year, but did not receive a Best Picture nomination. Which of the following was the last film prior to "Dreamgirls" to lead all others in nominations without securing a best picture nod?

Answer: Dreamgirls was the first.

"Dreamgirls" was the first film ever to lead in nominations without a Best Picture nod. In 1990, "Glory" had five nominations, which did not include Best Picture, but winner "Driving Miss Daisy" had nine nominations that year. "Born Yesterday" (1950) and "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971) were nominated for Best Picture.

2. Forest Whitaker won the 2007 Best Actor award for "The Last King of Scotland", a movie with no other nominations. Prior to Whitaker, who was the last to win Best Actor for a film with only one nomination?

Answer: Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas won as the sole representative of "Wall Street" in 1988. Denzel Washington won for "Training Day" in 2002, a film which earned one other nomination (Ethan Hawke, Best Supporting Actor). Peter Fonda was the only nominee for "Ulee's Gold" in 1998, but he lost to Jack Nicholson ("As Good As It Gets"). Jeremy Irons won in 1991 for "Reversal of Fortune," which had two other nominations (for director Barbet Schroeder and screenwriter Nicholas Kazan).

3. The Academy is sometimes accused of favoring young and pretty actresses. When Helen Mirren won Best Actress for "The Queen" in 2007, she was the oldest to win that category since whom?

Answer: Jessica Tandy

Mirren, 61, was the oldest Best Actress winner since octogenarian Jessica Tandy won for "Driving Miss Daisy" in 1990.

Judi Dench was 64 when she won for "Shakespeare in Love" in 1999, but that award was for Best Supporting Actress.

Also up for Supporting Actress was 87 year old "Titanic" star Gloria Stuart, who became the oldest ever to be nominated for an acting award in 1998. But she lost to hottie Kim Basinger from "L.A. Confidential".

It was considered a major upset in 1997 when 72 year old Lauren Bacall lost Best Supporting Actress to the younger and prettier Juliette Binoche.

4. Helen Mirren was the first actress nominated for an acting Oscar for playing a English queen.

Answer: False

Katharine Hepburn won the Best Actress award for "The Lion in Winter" in 1969. She portrayed Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II.

Genevi�ve Bujold was nominated in 1970 for playing Queen Anne Boleyn in "Anne of the Thousand Days".

In addition to her nomination for playing Elizabeth II in "The Queen", Mirren was nominated for Supporting Actress in 1995 for playing Queen Charlotte in "The Madness of King George".

5. Who was the first actress to be nominated two times for playing English queens?

Answer: Judi Dench

Dench was nominated for Best Actress in 1998 for playing Queen Victoria in "Mrs. Brown" and won Best Supporting Actress in 1999 for playing Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love". Mirren was nominated in 1993 for playing Queen Charlotte in "The Madness of King George" (1995), and in 2007 for playing Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen". Blanchett was nominated in 1999 for playing Queen Elizabeth I in "Elizabeth".

6. In 2007, "The Departed" won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Adapted From Another Medium and Best Film Editing. Prior to "The Departed", what was the last film to win all four of those categories?

Answer: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

In 2004, "The Return of the King", the fantasy epic about hobbits questing to destroy an evil magic ring, won 11 Oscars. Among them were the awards for picture, director, adapted screenplay and film editing.

The Kevin Costner western "Dances With Wolves" and the holocaust drama "Schindler's List" both won all four of the awards in question, but in 1991 and 1994 respectively.

"Million Dollar Baby" (2005), a tear-jerker about a female boxer, won picture and director but lost adapted screenplay to "Sideways" and film editing to "The Aviator".

7. In 2007, five acting nominations went to African Americans: Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland", Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy for "Dreamgirls", Will Smith for "The Pursuit of Happyness" and Djimon Honsou for "Blood Diamond". Did that set a new record?

Answer: No

It tied the record set in 2005, when Jamie Foxx was nominated for both "Ray" and "Collateral", Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo were honored for "Hotel Rwanda" and Morgan Freeman won for "Million Dollar Baby".

2007 also matched the record for most African Americans winning acting Oscars in one year. 2007 was the third Oscar show to include two African Americans winning acting trophies: Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won in 2002, Foxx and Freeman won in 2004 and Whitaker and Hudson won in 2007.

8. In 2007 Gustavo Santaolalla won the Original Score Oscar for "Babel", just a year after he won for scoring "Brokeback Mountain". This made him the fourth composer to win scoring awards two years in a row. Identify the one composer below who had not won back-to-back score Oscars by 2007.

Answer: John Williams

Despite five Oscars, Williams had never won awards two years in a row. As stated in the question, Santaolalla won the Original Score prize for "Babel" in 2007 and "Brokeback Mountain" in 2006. Alan Mencken won for "Beauty and the Beast" in 1991 and "Aladdin" in 1992. Alfred Newman won the Scoring of a Musical Picture Oscar in 1952 ("With a Song in My Heart") and 1953 ("Call Me Madam") and also won in 1955 (Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing") and 1956 (Scoring of a Musical Picture, "The King and I"). Franz Waxman won in 1950 for "Sunset Boulevard" and in 1951 for "A Place in the Sun".

9. The three Best Song nominations for "Dreamgirls" tied the record for most song nods for one film. Which of the following did not have three best song nominations?

Answer: Aladdin

"Aladdin" had two songs nominated ("Friend Like Me" and "Whole New World").
"Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" each had three.

10. The Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won both the Documentary Feature and the Best Song prizes in 2007. Prior to that, what was the last documentary to earn a nomination in a category other than Documentary Feature or Documentary Short Subject?

Answer: Hoop Dreams

"Hoop Dreams" was nominated for Film Editing, but not for Documentary Feature. "Bowling for Columbine" scored a Writers Guild nomination for its screenplay, but failed to repeat the feat in the Oscar nominations. "When We Were Kings" won the Doc Feature prize. "Fahrenheit 9/11" received no nominations at all.

Source: Author evenlater

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
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Obscure Oscar Trivia Trivia Quiz

This quiz should challenge the memories of hard core Oscar fans. It covers the winners and nominees of the 79th Annual (2007) Academy Awards and their place in Oscar history. All years refer to the year of the award ceremony, NOT the year of release.

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