Anyone who is passionate about the Academy Awards has spent time looking up facts and figures about the nearly 100-year-old awards show. This might happen when a new batch of nominations are announced, during the actual broadcast, or any time your brain wonders something random, like, “Which movie has won the most Oscars without winning Best Picture?” (If that piqued your interest, you’ll be glad to know the answer is revealed below.)
As for which movie has taken home the most Academy Awards in general, currently, there’s a tie for first place. One movie was released in 1959, another in 1997, and the most recent in 2003. It remains to be seen when (and if) another film will either join that club or exceed it in wins and take the No. 1 slot on its own.
Keep reading to discover which are the most decorated Oscar movies of all time. We’ll also take a look at the movies that have won all “Big Five” awards and those that took home three acting Oscars.
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What films won all five major Oscars?
The Big Five Academy Awards are considered to be Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay—either Adapted or Original. Three movies have won in all of these categories.
The first was 1934’s It Happened One Night. In addition to Best Picture (producers Frank Capra, Harry Cohn) the romantic comedy won Best Director for Capra, Best Actress for Claudette Colbert, Best Actor for Clark Gable, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Robert Riskin.
The second film to win the Big Five was 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which won Best Picture (Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz), Best Director for Miloš Forman, Best Actress for Louise Fletcher, Best Actor for Jack Nicholson, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman.
This sweep most recently happened with 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. The psychological thriller took home Best Picture (Edward Saxon, Kenneth Utt, Ronald M. Bozman), Best Director for Jonathan Demme, Best Actress for Jodie Foster, Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ted Tally.
What movies have won three acting Oscars?
While it’s certainly possible for one movie to win all four acting awards—Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress—that has never happened. Fifteen films have been nominated in all four of these categories, but none of them pulled off the feat. The most recent movie to be nominated in all four acting categories was 2013’s American Hustle.
So, the record for most acting wins stands at three—and three movies have achieved this.
1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire won Best Actress for Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actress for Kim Hunter, and Best Supporting Actor for Karl Malden. Marlon Brando was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen.
The 1976 movie Network also won three acting awards: Best Actress for Faye Dunaway, Best Actor for Peter Finch, and Best Supporting Actress for Beatrice Straight. Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Jason Robards for All the President’s Men. The movie’s fifth acting nomination went to William Holden, who competed against Finch for Best Actor.
Just last year, 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once captured three of four acting awards. Michelle Yeoh won the prize for Best Actress, Jamie Lee Curtis won Best Supporting Actress, and Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor. Everything Everywhere All at Once did not have a nominee in the category of Best Actor, but it did have a second Best Supporting Actress nominee in Stephanie Hsu.
Which Movie Has Won the Most Oscars?
1. Titanic, 11 Wins
Three movies tie for the most Oscar wins with 11 awards. Titanic is listed first here, because not only does it tie for this record, but it also ties for the record of most nominations with 14 nominations out of 17 eligible categories. (The two other movies that were nominated for 14 Oscars are 1950’s All About Eve and 2016’s La La Land. Both of these films won six awards.)
The 1997 disaster movie/love story won in the categories of Best Picture (James Cameron, Jon Landau), Best Director (Cameron), Best Art Direction (Peter Lamont, Michael D. Ford), Best Cinematography (Russell Carpenter), Best Costume Design (Deborah Lynn Scott), Best Film Editing (Cameron, Conrad Buff, Richard A. Harris), Best Original Dramatic Score (James Horner), Best Original Song (Horner, Will Jennings for “My Heart Will Go On” performed by Celine Dion), Best Sound (Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano), Best Sound Effects Editing (Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes), and Best Visual Effects (Robert Legato, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer).
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2. Ben-Hur, 11 Wins
1959’s Ben-Hur also won 11 Oscars, and it was nominated for 12 awards out of 15 possible categories. (The categories have changed over the years, which accounts for these shifts in eligibility.)
The Christian epic won Best Picture (Sam Zimbalist), Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Charlton Heston), Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith), Best Art Direction—Set Decoration—Color (Edward C. Carfagno, William A. Horning, Hugh Hunt), Best Cinematography—Color (Robert L. Surtees), Best Costume Design—Color (Elizabeth Haffenden), Best Film Editing (John D. Dunning, Ralph E. Winters), Best Sound Recording (Frank Milton), Best Original Score (Miklós Rózsa), and Best Special Effects (A. Arnold Gillespie, Robert MacDonald, Milo Lory).
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 11 Wins
The most recent 11-time Oscar winner is 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The third in the early aughts trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien adaptations was nominated for 11 awards out of 17 categories, meaning it won everything it was nominated for.
Those awards are: Best Picture (Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh), Best Director (Jackson), Best Adapted Screenplay (Jackson, Walsh, Philippa Boyens), Best Art Direction (Grant Major, Dan Hennah, Alan Lee), Best Costume Design (Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor), Best Film Editing (Jamie Selkirk), Best Makeup (Richard Taylor, Peter King), Best Original Score (Howard Shore), Best Original Song (Walsh, Shore, Annie Lennox for “Into the West” performed by Lennox), Best Sound Mixing (Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek), and Best Visual Effects (Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, Alex Funke).
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4. West Side Story, 10 Wins
The only film to win a nice, even 10 Oscars is 1961’s West Side Story, which was nominated for 11 awards. The stage musical adaptation won Best Picture (Robert Wise), Best Director (Wise and Jerome Robbins), Best Supporting Actor (George Chakiris), Best Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno), Best Art Direction—Color (Boris Leven, Victor A. Gangelin), Best Cinematography – Color (Daniel L. Fapp), Best Costume Design—Color (Irene Sharaff), Best Film Editing (Thomas Stanford), Best Original Score (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irwin Kostal, Sid Ramin), and Best Sound (Fred Hynes, Gordon E. Sawyer).
5. The English Patient, 9 Wins
The 1996 romantic epic The English Patient won nine Oscars out of 12 nominations: Best Picture (Saul Zaentz), Best Director (Anthony Minghella), Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Art Direction (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan), Best Cinematography (John Seale), Best Costume Design (Ann Roth), Best Film Editing (Walter Murch), Best Original Dramatic Score (Gabriel Yared), and Best Sound (Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, Christopher Newman).
6. Gigi, 9 Wins
The 1958 musical Gigi also boasts nine Academy Awards. It won all nine categories in which it was nominated: Best Picture (Arthur Freed), Best Director (Vincente Minnelli), Best Adapted Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Best Art Direction (William A. Horning, E. Preston Ames, Henry Grace, F. Keogh Gleason), Best Cinematography—Color (Joseph Ruttenberg), Best Costume Design (Cecil Beaton), Best Film Editing (Adrienne Fazan), Best Original Score (André Previn), and Best Song (Lerner, Frederick Loewe for “Gigi” performed by Louis Jourdan).
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7. The Last Emperor, 9 Wins
This 1987 biopic of the last emperor of China, Puyi, received nine awards out of nine nominations. It won: Best Picture (Jeremy Thomas), Best Director (Bernardo Bertolucci), Best Adapted Screenplay (Bertolucci, Mark Peploe), Best Art Direction (Ferdinando Scarfiotti, Bruno Cesari, Osvaldo Desideri), Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro), Best Costume Design (James Acheson), Best Film Editing (Gabriella Cristiani), Best Original Score (Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su), and Best Sound (Bill Rowe, Ivan Sharrock).
8. Gone With the Wind, 8 Wins
Eight movies have scored eight Oscars wins. The first to set this record was Gone With the Wind. The 1939 Civil War epic won eight awards from 13 nominations: Best Picture (Selznick International Pictures), Best Director (Victor Fleming), Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel), Best Screenplay (Sidney Howard), Best Art Direction (Lyle Wheeler), Best Cinematography—Color (Ernest Haller, Ray Rennahan), and Best Film Editing (Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom)
9. From Here to Eternity, 8 Wins
Like Gone With the Wind, 1953’s From Here to Eternity took home eight Oscars from 13 nominations. The awards the war drama won are: Best Picture (Buddy Adler), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), Best Supporting Actress (Donna Reed), Best Screenplay (Daniel Taradash), Best Cinematography—Black and White (Burnett Guffey), Best Film Editing (William Lyon), and Best Sound Recording (John P. Livadary).
10. On the Waterfront, 8 Wins
The very next year after From Here to Eternity, another film won eight awards at the Oscars. This time, it was On the Waterfront, which had 12 total nominations. The 1954 movie won: Best Picture (Sam Spiegel), Best Director (Elia Kazan), Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Eva Marie Saint), Best Story and Screenplay (Budd Schulberg), Best Art Direction—Black and White (Richard Day), Best Cinematography—Black and White (Boris Kaufman), and Best Film Editing (Gene Milford).
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11. My Fair Lady, 8 Wins
Musical adaptation My Fair Lady won its eight Academy Awards from 12 nominations. The 1964 movie about a linguist and a flower girl won awards for: Best Picture (Jack L. Warner), Best Director (George Cukor), Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Art Direction—Color (Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, George James Hopkins), Best Cinematography—Color (Harry Stradling), Best Costume Design—Color (Beaton), Best Original Score (André Previn), and Best Sound (George R. Groves).
12. Cabaret, 8 Wins
Cabaret stands alone on our list of movies with the most Oscars as the film that won the most awards without winning Best Picture. Instead, The Godfather won the top prize of the night back in 1972.
Cabaret‘s eight awards from 10 nominations are: Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Liza Minnelli), Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Best Art Direction (Hans Jürgen Kiebach, Rolf Zehetbauer, Herbert Strabel), Best Cinematography (Geoffrey Unsworth), Best Film Editing (David Bretherton), Best Original Score (Ralph Burns), and Best Sound (Robert Knudson, David Hildyard).
13. Gandhi, 8 Wins
This 1982 biopic of Mahatma Gandhi scored eight wins out of 11 nominations: Best Picture (Richard Attenborough), Best Director (Attenborough), Best Actor (Ben Kingsley), Best Original Screenplay (John Briley), Best Art Direction (Stuart Craig, Robert W. Laing, Michael Seirton), Best Cinematography (Billy Williams, Ronnie Taylor), Best Costume Design (John Mollo, Bhanu Athaiya), and Best Film Editing (John Bloom).
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14. Amadeus, 8 Wins
Another biopic, Amadeus, took home eight awards two years after Gandhi. The 1984 film inspired by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart won: Best Picture (Saul Zaentz), Best Director (Miloš Forman), Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Adapted Screenplay (Peter Shaffer), Best Art Direction (Patrizia von Brandenstein, Karel Černý), Best Costume Design (Theodor Pištěk), Best Makeup (Dick Smith, Paul LeBlanc), and Best Sound (Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Todd Boekelheide, Christopher Newman).
15. Slumdog Millionaire, 8 Wins
Lastly, there’s Slumdog Millionaire, which also scored eight Academy Awards. The 2008 drama about a young man who ends up on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? won Oscars for: Best Picture (Christian Colson), Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), Best Cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle), Best Film Editing (Chris Dickens), Best Original Score (A. R. Rahman), Best Original Song (Rahman, Gulzar for “Jai Ho” performed by Sukwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Vijay Prakash), and Best Sound Mixing (Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Ian Tapp).