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Robert De Niro won his second Oscar in 1981 for playing a boxing champ in Raging Bull. And now he has been chosen as the acting champ when it comes to Academy Awards.

His performance for the Martin Scorsese film from 1980 has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actor winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 male leading actors.

Anthony Hopkins finished second for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), with Marlon Brando following in third for The Godfather (1972). Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actor winners is Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona (1928). George Arliss in Disraeli (1929), Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul (1930), Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine (1942), and Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur...

Robert De Niro won his second Oscar in 1981 for playing a boxing champ in Raging Bull. And now he has been chosen as the champ of all actors.

His performance for the Martin Scorsese film from 1980 has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actor winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 male leading actors.

Anthony Hopkins ranked second for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), with Marlon Brando following in third for The Godfather (1972). Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actor winners is Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona (1928). Just above that film performance in the rankings are George Arliss in Disraeli (1929), Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul (1930), Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine...

Henry Cavill began acting while he was still in school, appearing in a production of "Grease" in between trips to the rugby field. The young performer must have taken to the stage; he began seeking a film acting career as soon as he graduated. Cavill landed his first professional role in 2001 in a film called "Laguna." He was only 18. The following year was busy for the young man, as he appeared in a TV movie adaptation of "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," an episode of the British crime drama "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries," and in the somewhat high-profile studio version of "The Count of Monte Cristo." The Alexandre Dumas adaptation also starred Jim Caviezel, Luis Guzman, and Guy Pearce, and it was put out by Spyglass Entertainment, so the 19-year-old Cavill was suddenly in front of millions.

Cavil paid his dues for a few more years (appearing in the eighth "Hellraiser" movie...

The legendary Peter O’Toole was born on August 2, 1932. One of the most esteemed actors of his generation, he also holds the dubious record of earning the most Best Actor Oscar nominations (eight) without a win. O’Toole’s trophy case isn’t exactly bare — he won three Golden Globe Awards from eight nominations and received an honorary Academy Award for his lengthy career.

And as younger generations begin to discover his work, his reputation has only grown over the years, particularly for his big splash on the world’s film stage for his performance in “Lawrence of Arabia,” work that is astonishing in its complexity.

Take a photo gallery tour of his career ranking his 12 best film performances from worst to best. It includes ‘Venus,’ ‘My Favorite Year,’ ‘The Stunt Man’ and more.

Pat Heywood, the veteran Scottish actress who made her film debut as Olivia Hussey’s nurse and confidant in Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died. She was 92.

Heywood died June 26, the Scottish Daily Mail reported.

During her four-decade career, Heywood portrayed the maid in the manor at the center of Freddie Francis’ horror comedy Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1970) and the wife of British serial killer John Christie (Richard Attenborough) in the Richard Fleischer-directed 10 Rillington Place (1971).

Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968), which also starred Leonard Whiting alongside Hussey and featured narration from Laurence Olivier, was a hit at the box office as it introduced a new generation to Shakespearean tragedy. Paul McCartney, Phil Collins and Anjelica Huston had been among those considered for the top roles.

The film won Oscars for cinematography and costumes and was nominated for best picture and director, and Heywood...

Star Wars actor Michael Culver has died at the age of 85.

According to a statement from Culver’s agency, he passed away on February 27th. No cause of death has been revealed.

“We are very sad to confirm the passing of our friend and client Michael Culver,” Alliance Agents shared in a statement also noting his “career spanning over 50 years with notable roles in Sherlock Holmes, A Passage to India, Secret Army and of course one of the most memorable death scenes in the Star Wars franchise.

Culver played a small role as Captain Needa in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In the 1980 film, the character goes to Darth Vader to take responsibility for failing to capture the rebels. After the scene cuts, Culver is seen falling to the floor after Vader uses the Force to choke the life out of him. “Apology accepted, Captain Needa,” Vader quips.

Born in London on June 16th,...

Star Wars actor Michael Culver has died aged 85.

The British actor played a small but famous role in Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back as Captain Needa, whose failure to capture the fleeing Millennium Falcon results in Darth Vader force-choking him to death aboard a Star Destroyer.

“We are very sad to confirm the passing of our friend and client Michael Culver,” said his agency, Alliance Agents, in a statement reported by several websites. The actor passed away on February 27, Alliance Agents added.

The agency noted Culver’s was “a career spanning over 50 years with notable roles in Sherlock Holmes, A Passage to India, Secret Army and of course one of the most memorable death scenes in the Star Wars franchise.”

Culver had largely stopped acting in the early 2000s to concentrate on political activism, unusually becoming more outspoken as he got older. He was a major...

Since 1940, the record for highest average screen time between same-year lead acting Oscar winners has been held by Robert Donat and Vivien Leigh (“Gone with the Wind”), whose mean of one hour, 54 minutes, and 43 seconds will likely never be surpassed. Nonetheless, there is a brand new pair in second place, as 2024 Best Actor and Actress champs Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) came within 10 minutes of dethroning the long-reigning duo. Indeed, both together and separately, their especially lengthy performances inspired several brushes with Oscars screen time history.

Murphy was specifically awarded for one hour, 53 minutes, and 10 seconds of acting work, while Stone clocked in slightly lower at one hour, 37 minutes, and 19 seconds. Understandably, each far outpaced all of their fellow nominees, respectively landing 27 and 22 minutes above their lineups’ averages. Their own average of one hour, 45 minutes, and 15 seconds makes them only the second pair of lead victors to exceed 100 minutes.

Austin Sipes, student symposium coordinator for the Telluride Film Festival, checked in this year’s class that had traveled far and wide to participate in what he termed as a “life-changing” immersion into the intricacies of filmmaking.

In 2000, as an undergraduate at the University of Vermont, Sipes hitched up in Telluride as one of the few chosen to engage in the student symposium, now in its 33rd year.

Okay, how life-changing was it? “A thousand million percent life-changing,” came the sparky response.

“I tell the students every year that it’s a life-changing experience,” Sipes told me.

(L-r) Austin Sipes, Graydon Hanson and Jacob Stefiuk

“And invariably they come to me afterwards with cries of, ‘You are not kidding!’”

Sipes now works in reality television. He’s currently associate director of Top Chef, and left the shoot for a few days to run the Telluride symposium.

Over the years, I’ve observed scores of students,...

If you’re a fan of Mel Gibson’s classic action flicks, be sure to stream them before they leave Max at the end of August.

All four “Lethal Weapon” movies and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” starring the late, great Tina Turner, will be leaving the streaming service. Luckily, you’ll have all month to watch them.

Watching the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” animated movie in theaters? Max has several films featuring the radical reptilians: the live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze” (1991)

and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III” (1993), as well as the animated “Tmnt” (2007).

Kaiju fans will want to check out “Godzilla” (2014), “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2019), “King Kong” (1933) and “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” (2012).

Finally, if horror is your thing, six “Hellraiser” films and “The Ring Two” make great summer scares.

Here’s everything leaving Max in August 2023

August 5

Hard Knocks:...

Summer is heating up on Max.

Back in May, Max added programming from TLC, HGTV and Food Network. That means Discovery’s popular Shark Week will be available to stream when it kicks off on July 23, with programming to be announced soon.

For fans of unscripted series, Season 3 or “90 Day Fiancé: Love in Paradise: Pillow Talk” (July 4) and Season 5 of “90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way” (July 10) are both streaming, as well as the series premiere of “90 Day Fiancé: UK.”

Home renovation fans will want to catch Season 16 of “Barnwood Builders” (July 6) and the special “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge” (July 16), hosted by Ashley Graham, just in time for the feature film.

Also Read:

Here’s What’s New on Amazon Prime Video in July 2023

“Project Greenlight” (July 13) returns, with executive producer Issa Rae along with Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood serve as mentors throughout the season.

Finally, the six-episode Max Original limited series “Full Circle,...

Max is following DC’s lead with its list of new releases for July 2023.

The two big ticket items this month are of the superhero variety. My Adventures with Superman arrives to Max on July 7 after making its Adult Swim premiere the night before. The end of the month sees Harley Quinn season 4 making its long-awaited debut on July 27. Other original TV titles of note are the Steven Soderbergh-directed Full Circle (July 13) and the third and final season of How To With John Wilson on July 28.

On the movie side of things, documentary Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia premieres on July 20. Before that on July 13 is both a fresh reboot of filmmaking competition Project Greenlight and the movie that came of it, Gray Matter. Library movies in July include Pulp Fiction, V for Vendetta, Lethal Weapon, and more on July 1.

Here is everything else coming to HBO and Max this month.

Timothy Olyphant, Claire Danes, and Dennis Quaid in ‘Full Circle’ (Photograph by Sarah Shatz)

Max’s July 2023 schedule includes the premiere of the drama Full Circle and the return of Shark Week. The hot summer month’s lineup also includes the final season of How To With John Wilson, the premiere of Project Greenlight, and the final episodes of the popular comedy The Righteous Gemstones.

The two-part documentary The Golden Boy about the life and career of Oscar De La Hoya joins the streaming service’s lineup on July 24th. Shaun White: The Last Run, a docuseries about the Olympian, is set to premiere on July 6th.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In July 2023:

July 1

300 (2006)

17 Again (2009)

20th Century Women (2016)

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

A Walk in the Woods (2015)

American Sniper (2014)

Angels Sing (2013)

Ballet 422 (2014)

Barbershop (2002)

Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004)

Beauty Shop (2005)

Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)

Brandi Carlile: In the...

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds, Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

The speech, sadly, wasn’t preserved in full. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which organises the Oscars each year, says it has newsreel footage of “only portions” of Garson’s address – for a total of three minutes and 56 seconds.

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds, Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

The speech, sadly, wasn’t preserved in full. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which organises the Oscars each year, says it has newsreel footage of “only portions” of Garson’s address – for a total of three minutes and 56 seconds.

The Academy Awards often reward the greatest actors in Hollywood with a shiny trophy, but some screen legends have multiple nominations and no Oscars to show for it. In the first few years of the event, actors were nominated based on their body of work for the entire year. According to Emanuel Levy’s book All About Oscar, by the fourth ceremony, actors were nominated for a specific performance in a single movie, limiting their chances. Katharine Hepburn won more Oscars than any other actor with a grand total of four while Meryl Streep has more nominations than any of her peers with a whopping 21 nods — and three wins.

From Halle Berry’s groundbreaking Monster’s Ball victory to Heath Ledger’s posthumous win for The Dark Knight, the Academy has often rewarded the talent that most deserved recognition. However, there have also been plenty of notorious snubs throughout Oscar history.

Robert Donat snagged an Oscar for this sentimental crowdpleaser, a Best Picture nominee in Hollywood’s ‘Golden Year’ of 1939. The genteel chemistry between Donat’s shy schoolteacher and the charming personality Greer Garson broke hearts, and made Ms. Garson one of MGM’s top names for the next decade. It’s one of the studio’s English productions, filmed in the shadow of the coming war. A glowing new digital restoration redeems 70 years of not-so-good TV prints.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 115 min. / Street Date January 24, 2023 / Available at Amazon.com/ 21.99

Starring: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, Paul Henreid, Judith Furse.

Cinematography: Freddie Young

Art Director: Alfred Junge

Film Editor: Charles Frend

Original Music: Richard Addinsell

Written by R.C. Sherriff, Claudine West, Eric Maschwitz from the novel by James Hilton

Produced by Victor Saville

Directed by Sam Wood

No, it’s not about the terrible Chips Ahoy!

More than five years ago, as Rhea Combs and Doris Berger were in the planning stages of research for an exhibit on early Black cinema that would open at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences planned museum, they got word of a new discovery that would come to define the exhibit.

Archivists at USC and the University of Chicago went through boxes of silent film prints acquired from a collector in Louisiana and found a 30-second reel of two Black vaudeville performers, Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown, dancing and kissing. The reel, titled “Something Good — Negro Kiss,” was dated back to 1898, making it the earliest known kiss between Black performers put to film.

Combs and Berger knew as soon as they saw it that it was the perfect piece to open “Regeneration,” an exhibit that is now running at the Academy Museum through July 16. To them, it embodies...

Bradley Cooper is a triple threat at the Academy Awards, being nominated a total of nine times in the acting, producing and writing categories. However, he has yet to take home the golden statuette. His most recent bid was for producing the Best Picture nominee “Nightmare Alley,” which lost to “Coda” at the 2022 Oscars ceremony. At nine career losses, that means Cooper has quietly now surpassed legendary performers Glenn Close and Peter O’Toole, both of whom failed to win any of their eight bids (all for acting).

Cooper’s three Oscar nominations in the Best Actor race came for “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), “American Sniper” (2014) and “A Star Is Born” (2018), plus he earned one notice in Best Supporting Actor for “American Hustle” (2013). The multi-hyphenate was recognized four times for producing Best Picture contenders “American Sniper,” “A Star Is Born,” “Joker” (2019) and “Nightmare Alley” (2021). And he has a Best Adapted Screenplay mention...

In the 125 years since the first play based on the life of 17th century author Cyrano de Bergerac premiered, the classic underdog tale’s eternal relevance has been proven time and time again. Its simple love triangle premise has served as the basis for many stage and screen adaptations, two of which captured the attention of Oscar voters. José Ferrer and Gérard Depardieu both earned academy recognition for their portrayals of de Bergerac, and now Peter Dinklage is gunning for a Best Actor bid for starring in the new film “Cyrano.” If he succeeds, the character will become one of only a handful in Oscars history to have inspired three nominations.

Dinklage, who bagged four Emmys during his eight-season tenure on “Game of Thrones,” first played de Bergerac during the Off-Broadway run of the stage musical from which his film derives. His potential Oscar nomination would come 71 years after Ferrer’s,...

As the director and producer of both “House of Gucci” and “The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott is poised to score big when the 2022 Oscar nominations are announced three months from now. Reaping double Best Picture or Best Director bids would make the 83-year-old the first to pull off either feat since Steven Soderbergh did so in 2001. Even if he ends up being left out of both lineups, he could still make history if academy voters decide to recognize the work of his two leading ladies. If Jodie Comer (“The Last Duel”) and Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) are both chosen to compete for Best Actress, Scott will become the fifth person to direct female leads from different films to nominations in a single year.

The first of these rare occurrences dates back to the third Oscars ceremony in 1930 when Nancy Carroll (“The Devil’s Holiday”) and Gloria Swanson (“The Trespasser...

Leslie Bricusse, Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter whose songs for Broadway and Hollywood include “What Kind of Fool Am I?” and “Pure Imagination,” died Tuesday in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. He was 90.

Bricusse wrote the lyrics for James Bond theme songs “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice,” as well as songs for movies including “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (including “The Candy Man”), “Scrooge,” “Hook,” “Doctor Dolittle” and “Superman.”

His close friend, Dame Joan Collins, announced the death on Instagram this morning, calling him “one of the giant songwriters of our time.” Bricusse’s son Adam also announced it on Facebook; neither indicated a cause of death.

Over seven decades, the London-born writer-composer was in demand for his clever, witty and tuneful songs, sometimes in collaboration with others and sometimes serving as both lyricist and composer.

“The music illuminates the meaning of the lyric, just as the lyric can have only that melody and no other,...

Leslie Bricusse, the British songwriter who won Oscars for “Talk to the Animals” from Doctor Dolittle and for his work alongside Henry Mancini on the score to Victor, Victoria, has died. He was 90.

A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Bricusse died Tuesday, his son Adam Bricusse reported on Facebook. No details of his death were immediately available.

Bricusse received eight other Oscar noms: for his work on the scores for Doctor Dolittle (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Scrooge (1970) and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) — he wrote “The Candy Man” and “Pure Imagination” for the film — and ...

Leslie Bricusse, the British songwriter who won Oscars for “Talk to the Animals” from Doctor Dolittle and for his work alongside Henry Mancini on the score to Victor, Victoria, has died. He was 90.

A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Bricusse died Tuesday, his son Adam Bricusse reported on Facebook. No details of his death were immediately available.

Bricusse received eight other Oscar noms: for his work on the scores for Doctor Dolittle (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Scrooge (1970) and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) — he wrote “The Candy Man” and “Pure Imagination” for the film — and ...

The controversial and contentious experiment where Warner Bros. has debuted its 2021 slate of feature films on HBO Max will hit a crescendo in October thanks to the releases of “The Many Saints of Newark” and “Dune” on the streaming platform. Both “Many Saints” producer and co-writer David Chase and “Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve have criticized the corporate decision to release films day-and-date in theaters and via HBO Max, but despite the outcry, the two highly anticipated features lead a massive lineup of acclaimed library movie titles and Emmy Award-winning original series coming to the network in October 2021. Highlights include:

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” (October): Larry David’s Emmy Award-winning series returns for its 11th season in October and will tackle the coronavirus pandemic in a way that feels organic to the show and its protagonist. “We figured out a way that we are definitely living in a reality where the pandemic has happened,...

When Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for “Joker” in 2020, his became the fifth longest to ever win Best Actor and third longest in terms of percentage. However, 28 even longer performances had been nominated in the category over the preceding nine decades, with several coming close to or passing two hours of screen time. Here is a look at the 10 nominees with the highest screen times (and here are the 10 shortest nominated performances):

10. Peter O’Toole

1 hour, 51 minutes, 40 seconds (72.26% of the film)

Since 2007, O’Toole has been the sole record-holder for most acting Oscar nominations without a win. His fourth of eight unsuccessful Best Actor bids came in 1970 for playing benevolent schoolteacher Arthur Chipping. 30 years earlier, Robert Donat won the award for playing the same character in an adaptation of the story that is more dramatic compared to this 40-minute-longer musical version. O’Toole lost to John Wayne, whose screen time...

Film history buffs remember her as the winner who gave the longest Oscar acceptance speech. Perhaps she earned that right, as Greer Garson received an astonishing seven Academy Award nominations and starred in six Best Picture nominees – and only appeared in two dozen theatrical films.

English actress Garson was born on September 29, 1904. She led a rather unremarkable life until she started starring in local theatrical productions and making a couple of appearances in the earliest days of television. For the BBC, she starred in a 30-minute excerpt from “Twelfth Night,” which is the first known occurrence of Shakespeare being performed on television. She was discovered by MGM head Louis B. Mayer while he was scouting for talent. One of her first films was in the 1939 classic “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

SEEOscar Best Actress Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award...

Film history buffs remember her as the winner who gave the longest Oscar acceptance speech. Perhaps she earned that right, as Greer Garson received an astonishing seven Academy Award nominations and starred in six Best Picture nominees – and only appeared in two dozen theatrical films.

English actress Garson was born on September 29, 1904. She led a rather unremarkable life until she started starring in local theatrical productions and making a couple of appearances in the earliest days of television. For the BBC, she starred in a 30-minute excerpt from “Twelfth Night,” which is the first known occurrence of Shakespeare being performed on television. She was discovered by MGM head Louis B. Mayer while he was scouting for talent. One of her first films was in the 1939 classic “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

The powers-that-be at MGM found their niche for the talented redhead,...

I was recently challenged to list my top 10 favorite movies of all time, which proved an impossible task; however, I can easily name my favorite Decade for filmmaking: the 1930s. Movies truly evolved during this decade, with the final one of 1939 becoming the greatest year ever for films: “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Stagecoach,” “Ninotchka,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Wuthering Heights” and so many more! Since that special year is celebrating its 80th anniversary, let’s take a look back.

SEEOscar Best Picture Gallery: History of Every Academy Award-Winning Movie

The film industry was still in its youth as the decade rolled in with “talking pictures” becoming the new standard. Besides mastering the technical aspects of that, they were still learning how to develop a story, how to act for the camera as opposed to stage acting, and how to engineer special effects. At the same time,...

Glenn Close just set a new Oscar record, and not in a good way. With Close’s loss at the 91st Academy Awards for “The Wife,” she now has seven nominations and no wins, more than any other actress in film history. Amy Adams, Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter all have six Oscar misfires, with Adams joining that list during Sunday’s ceremony. As for male actors with the most at-bats without a home run, Close now ties Richard Burton at seven while Peter O’Toole is still in the record books at eight. Click through our photo gallery above for a closer look at Close’s seven Oscar nominations.

See 2019 Oscars: Full list of winners (and losers) at the 91st Academy Awards [Updating Live]

For her role as Joan Castleman, the repressed wife of a Nobel Prize-winning author (Jonathan Pryce), Close earned her fourth bid for Best Actress. Her co-nominees this...

This article marks Part 5 of the Gold Derby series reflecting on films that contended for the Big Five Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted). With “A Star Is Born” this year on the cusp of joining this exclusive group of Oscar favorites, join us as we look back at the 43 extraordinary pictures that earned Academy Awards nominations in each of the Big Five categories, including the following four films that scored a quartet of trophies among the top races.

At the 12th Academy Awards ceremony, this was no stopping Victor Fleming’s blockbuster epic “Gone with the Wind” (1939). With a total of 13 nominations, the most of any film that year, it was the overwhelming favorite for Oscar glory and indeed, on the big night, the picture took home eight prizes, including Best Picture. Fleming, in his lone career Oscar bid, prevailed in Best Director,...

Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Saoirse Ronan (“Lady Bird”), Sally Hawkins (“The Shape of Water”), Meryl Streep (“The Post”) and Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”) have long been our predicted Best Actress Oscar nominees. If they all make the cut, along with their films in Best Picture, they’d join a very exclusive club: It’d be first Best Actress slate in 40 years and just the fifth overall where everyone is in a film nominated for Best Picture.

The only other times this has occurred were for the film years 1934, 1939, 1940 and 1977 — but many of them come with caveats. In 1934, there were still only three acting nominees — winner Claudette Colbert (“It Happened One Night”), Grace Moore (“One Night of Love”) and Norma Shearer (“The Barretts of Wimpole Street”) — and 12 Best Picture nominees, before the academy standardized the categories to five each. This was also the infamous year of the write-in...