11 Days Until Oscar! Trivia Party
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at 10:45AM 
I'm beginning to have butterflies. You? Just for fun some random trivia surrounding the number 11 today. Links go to previous articles here at TFE on these films or performers
• Pictures with exactly 11 Oscar nominations
Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Rebecca (1940), Sergeant York (1941), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Sunset Blvd (1950), West Side Story (1961), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Oliver! (1968), The Godfather Pt II (1974), Chinatown (1974), The Turning Point (1977), Gandhi (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), Amadeus (1984), A Passage to India (1984), Out of Africa (1985), The Color Purple (1985), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), The Aviator (2004), Hugo (2011), and Life of Pi (2012)
• Movies that won exactly 11 Oscars
That's the most any movie has ever won and it's a three way tie: Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), The Lord of the Ring: Return of the King (2003). Currently Ben-Hur is being remade and is supposedly opening this very summer... wish them good luck because living up to such a legendary film is never easy and remaking one at all is a fool's errand.
• Only person to win exactly 11 Oscars
Cedric Gibbons won the Production Design category 11 times, back when it was called Art Direction. His first was for The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) and his last for the Paul Newman film Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). That's the second most Oscars won by anyone. Walt Disney has the most with 20.
• Directors who've helmed exactly 11 Best Picture nominees:
None. Steven Spielberg is almost there, with Bridge of Spies being his 10th. He's in second place currently for most with only William Wyler ahead of him with 13. Wyler's record, which once seemed invulnerable, is sure to be defeated in the future now that we have more Best Picture nominees per year.
• Oscar winner of 2011
The Artist, a silent comic homage to the early days of Old Hollywood. And speaking of...
• Oscar winner of 1911
Just kidding, the Oscars didn't exist back then. The first American "feature films" as we know them (i.e. over an hour in length) started showing up soon thereafter and by the mid-teens 100 years ago Hollywood was on fire, and I'm not talking about the flammability of celluloid. By the mid teens the industry was producing over 500 features a year (most of them lost now of course) and some of them totally epic. See: D.W. Griffith's influential 3 hour double whammys of The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)
Bette in DARK VICTORY (1939) which I might call her third best performance
• Actors with exactly 11 Oscar nominations
None. Unless you count Bette Davis's write in for Of Human Bondage (1934) in which case she has 11 nominations. Curiously she won for her first two official nominations (Dangerous and Jezebel) and then just got better and better but never won again despite frequent nominations!
YOUR TURN. Use the number 11 wisely in the comments, however you'd like!
Reader Comments (28)
One True Thing was Meryl Streep's 11th Oscar nomination, which also means for trivia purposes that Streep had 11 nominations in the 20th century.
(Music of the Heart was a 1999 film, but the nomination didn't occur until 2000)
I do count Bette's write in nomination.
Ben-Hur was itself a remake of a very successful film that probably would have garnered a bucketful of Oscars had they existed at the time. That said, I don't know if 2016 audiences are clamoring for another remake...
Maybe you skipped it because it's not a happy thought, but what about most Oscar losses, i.e. the 11 both The Turning Point and The Color Purple lost?
Katharine Hepburn's 11th nomination gave her the record of most Best Actress wins (The Lion in Winter) which she has yet to relinquish.
The Godfather also had 11 nominations initially, but was declared ineligible in the Best Score category.
Laurence Olivier had 11 nominations (10 for acting and 1 for directing). He was born on a 22nd (which is 11 and 11) and died on an 11th.
I think this is more about Ben-Hur getting the 300 treatment for 2016. Why is antiquity suddenly hot again? There have been a lot more bombs than hits since Gladiator.
The only Oscar nominated movie with "11" in the title: "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara".
As Good As It Gets—Jack Nicholson's 11th Oscar nomination, for which he won.
Ocean's Eleven - both versions.
Not sure about that Ben Hur remake, but if they get the chariot race right they may have a chance.
This website goes to 11.
Cate Blanchett has an effective cameo for about 11 minutes in The Shipping News
Ben-Hur is my favorite film. I am dreading this ill-advised remake.
forever1267 -- and yours was the 11th comment. Well done.
Of all movies to remake, why on earth would you choose Ben-Hur?That is one of the last films that needs a(nother) remake.
Bette Davis is tremendous in Dark Victory, but I always groan inside when Bette goes to live the poor, simple life as the wife of a country doctor. I mean she has a large two-story house, a large garden, and multiple servants. That's not the poor life!
Only 11 year old acting winner: ANNA PAQUIN!
The other 11 year old nominees: Haley Joel Osment, Brandon deWilde, PattyMcCormack!
Sawyer - 2000 is still 20th century
Number of times I've cried over Carol not receiving awards season love: 11*
*Actually eleventy thousand.
Between the Academy Award Winners in the leading acting categories - male and female -
only Yul Brynner (The King and I, 1956) was born in a day 11 - july 11, 1920.
Doesn't the Oscar-nominated Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey begin with Bilbo Baggins celebrating his eleventy-first birthday?
Sid -- well done!
Ez -- lol
According to the 'pedia:
"Partial broadcast of the 11th Academy Awards ceremony [in 1939] was shut down after about ten minutes because KHJ did not have permission to broadcast live. (The radio host was whispering the names of the winners as they were announced, out of sight in the balcony.) Later in the evening, at the conclusion of the ceremony, KHJ broadcast a full announcement of winners, live from the ceremony venue, as per its original agreement with the Academy."
Nathaniel - don't forget the word "judgment" (as in Judgment at Nuremberg) has just one "e" in it.
The best bit of trivia I could find was the 11th Academy Awards were the first to feature a foreign language film (Grand Illusion) nominated for Best Picture.
...And between the Academy Award Winners in the supporting acting categories - male and female - born in a day 11:
Thomas Mitchell (Stagecoach, 1939) July 11, 1892.
Rita Moreno (West Side Story, 1961) December 11, 1931.
Margaret Rutherford (The V.I.P.s, 1963) May 11, 1892.
Joel Grey (Cabaret, 1972) April 11, 1932.
Mo'Nique (Precious, 2009) December 11, 1967.
11 Oscars won by Dames excluding honorary wins.
Andrews - 1964
Ashcroft - 1984
Dench - 1998
Hiller - 1958
Jolie - 1999
Mirren - 2006
Rutherford - 1963
Smith - 1969, 1978
Taylor - 1960, 1966
... Also between the Academy Award Winners in the directing category born in a day 11:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz - February 11, 1909.
- A Letter to Three Wives (1949, Direction and Screenplay).
- All About Eve (1950, Direction and Screenplay).
Jerome Robbins - October 11, 1918.
- West Side Story (1961, Direction and Special Award for Coreography).
His only direction for cinema (the other one is for a tv movie), shared with co-director Robert Wise (not a day 11) - the first time the award in the category being shared.
... Also between the Academy Award Winners in the directing category born in a day 11:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz - February 11, 1909.
- A Letter to Three Wives (1949, Direction and Screenplay).
- All About Eve (1950, Direction and Screenplay).
Jerome Robbins - October 11, 1918.
- West Side Story (1961, Direction and Special Award for Choreography).
His only direction for cinema (the other one is for a tv movie), shared with co-director Robert Wise (not a day 11) - the first time the award in the category being shared.
thank you all for responding as so ordered. :) 11 is a great number.