Question: What Two Movies Have Earned the Most Oscar Nominations?
Answer: Two movies are tied for the record of most Oscar nominations. What are the two movies and how many Oscars were they nominated for? Here's your hint: despite popular belief, isn't one of them. Though The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King set a record for winning all 11 Oscars it was nominated for (breaking the previous "sweep" record of nine out of nine by 1987's The Last Emperor and 1958's Gigi)
In 1951, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won 6 Oscars. All About Eve won Oscars for Sound, Best Director, Actor in a Supporting Role, Costume Design, Best Picture, and Writing. It was also nominated for Music, Cinematography, Art Direction, and Film Editing. Bette Davis and Anne Baxter each earned Best Actress in a Leading Role nominations for their work in All About Eve, but the Oscar was awarded to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday.
Similarly, both Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter were nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for All About Eve, but the Oscar was awarded to Josephine Hull for Harvey. It's likely that having two actresses from the same movie in both categories split the vote, but the multiple nominations added to the total number of nominations for the movie.
James Cameron's Titanic (1997) earned 14 nominations and won 11 Oscars. Titanic took home Academy Awards for Effects (Sound Effects Editing), Film Editing, Best Director, Best Picture, Cinematography, Music (Original Song), Original Dramatic Score, Art Direction, Effects (Visual Effects), Sound, and Costume Design. Titanic was nominated in the Makeup, Actress in a Supporting Role, and Actress in a Leading Role categories but did not win. Still, Titanic tied Ben-Hur for most Oscar wins (11), a record that was again tied by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Films that came close to the record with 13 Oscar nominations are Gone With the Wind (8 wins), From Here to Eternity (8 wins), Shakespeare in Love (7 wins), Forrest Gump (6 wins), Chicago (6 wins), Mary Poppins (5 wins), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (5 wins), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (4 wins), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (3 wins).
