48 Oscars Trivia Questions and Answers
Academy Awards trivia: Best Picture winners, the actors and directors who won, famous firsts and a few famous refusals. The questions cover ceremonies from the 1930s to 2001. Answers are printed under each question.
There are 48 questions on this page. They are free to use for quiz nights, classrooms and pub quizzes, and each one links to its own page.
Related lists: 90s trivia questions, 80s trivia questions, 70s trivia questions, Halloween trivia questions.
1.In 1981, the Academy Award Winning film was about two runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddel competing in the 1924 Olympics. What was the name of the film, and in which city did the 1924 Olympic Games take place?
Answer: CHARIOTS OF FIRE / PARIS
Open this question2.Which people won the Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Actor for the 1996 film year?
Answer: FRANCIS McDORMAND Fargo / GEOFFREY RUSH Shine
Open this question3.Two females won Oscars for their roles in the 1993 film, "The Piano" - the lead actress as well as the young supporting actress. Can you name these two women?
Answer: HOLLY HUNTER / ANNA PAQUIN
Open this question4.Susan Sarandon was nominated as best actress in 1991, 1992, and 1994, and won in 1996. For which four films?
Answer: THELMA AND LOUISE / LORENZO'S OIL / THE CLIENT / DEAD MAN WALKING
Open this question5.When she won the Academy Award as best actress, Sally Field announced, "You like me! You really like me!" Name this film in which she played a young widow and cotton farmer in the south.
Answer: PLACES IN THE HEART
Open this question6.The title of the Oscar-winning 1994 film contained the name of its primary, fictional character. What was it?
Answer: FORREST GUMP
Open this question7.Which women won Academy Awards as Best Actress and Supporting Actress for their roles in the 1987 film, Moonstruck?
Answer: CHER / OLYMPIA DUKAKIS
Open this question8.Which deaf person won the Oscar as Best Actress in 1986 and for which film?
Answer: MARLEE MATLIN / CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD
Open this question9.Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar in 1997 for his role as a troubled pianist. Name the film and the character he played.
Answer: SHINE / DAVID HELFGOTT
Open this question10.In 1973, this 10-year-old became the youngest performer to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, in a film which starred her father. Name the youngster, the father, and the film.
Answer: TATUM O'NEAL / RYAN O'NEAL / PAPER MOON
Open this question11.Actor Michael Caine received the Oscar as as Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for his role in which Woody Allen film?
Answer: HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
Open this question12.Oliver Stone won the Academy Award as Best Director twice in a four year span: for a 1986 film and a 1989 film, both related to the same subject. What were the film titles?
Answer: PLATOON / BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY Vietnam War
Open this question13.Meryl Streep received another Oscar nomination for her role in what 1995 romantic film co-starring Clint Eastwood?
Answer: THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
Open this question14.The 1991 film, Silence of the Lambs won the four major Oscars: Actor, Actress, Director and Film. Can you name the Oscar-winning actor, actress, and director?
Answer: ANTHONY HOPKINS / JODY FOSTER / JONATHAN DEMME
Open this question15.Dustin Hoffman won the Oscar twice in his career, once in 1979 and once in 1988. For which films?
Answer: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) / Rain Man (1988)
Open this question16.Celine Dion recorded two songs that won the Academy Award as Best Song from what two films?
Answer: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST / TITANIC
Open this question17.In the list of Oscar nominees for Best Actor in 1993, two of them played biographical roles. The films were Chaplin and Malcolm X. Name the nominated actors.
Answer: ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. / DENZEL WASHINGTON
Open this question18.The Best Supporting Actor Oscar in a 1996 film went to an actor named after a Caribbean island. Which actor, which film?
Answer: CUBA GOODING, JR. / JERRY MAGUIRE
Open this question19.What was the name of the film with a sports theme that won the Academy Award as Best Film in 1976?
Answer: ROCKY
Open this question20.Tom Hanks won Best Actor Oscars in 1993 and 1994 for his roles in which films?
Answer: PHILADELPHIA 93 / FORREST GUMP 94
Open this question21.The Academy award-winning best actress from 1980 played the film role of "the first lady of country music." Name the actress, the film, and the singer portrayed in the film.
Answer: SISSY SPACEK / COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER / LORETTA LYNN
Open this question22.In 1987 some of the great films were Broadcast News, Good Morning, Vietnam, Fatal Attraction, and Moonstruck, but the film that won nine Oscars, including best picture, was a true story set in an Asian country. What was the title?
Answer: THE LAST EMPEROR true story of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, who is crowned at age three and lives a cloistered life in the Forbidden City
Open this question23.Paul Newman won his only Best Actor Oscar for his role in which 1986 film somehow related to a sport?
Answer: THE COLOR OF MONEY
Open this question24.The Beatles won the Academy Award only once in their career - for the song score of what 1970 film?
Answer: LET IT BE
Open this question25.Humphrey Bogart won the Academy Award as Best Actor only once in his career - for which 1951 film that also starred Katharine Hepburn?
Answer: AFRICAN QUEEN
Open this question26.In 1981, a new category was added to the Academy Award Ceremony, and the first film to win an award in this category was "An American Werewolf in London." What was this new category?
Answer: BEST MAKE-UP
Open this question27.The two male actors who won Academy Awards as Best Actor in 1970 and 1972 both refused the awards. Who were they, and for which films?
Answer: GEORGE C. SCOTT - PATTON / MARLON BRANDO - GODFATHER
Open this question28.For which 1980 film did Robert Redford win the Academy Award as Best Director?
Answer: ORDINARY PEOPLE
Open this question29.The Academy Award winning film from 1935 was a sea adventure starring British actor Charles Laughton. What is the title?
Answer: MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
Open this question30.The first person to win an Oscar while playing the role of a person of the opposite sex occurred in 1983. The Oscar for Best Supporting Actress went to a woman who played the role of a male photographer. What was the name of the film and the name of the woman?
Answer: THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY / LINDA HUNT
Open this question31.This actor, who appeared in 87 films and 21 plays in his 76 years of life, won his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 1981, one year before his death. Who was he, and for what film did he win the Oscar?
Answer: HENRY FONDA / ON GOLDEN POND
Open this question32.Which Humphrey Bogart film won the Academy Award as best picture of 1943?
Answer: CASABLANCA
Open this question33.The first time Clint Eastwood was nominated for an Oscar, he won - for best director and best picture. For what film?
Answer: UNFORGIVEN
Open this question34.In 1972, just after this person had vowed never to step foot again on U.S. soil, he flew to America to receive a special Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he had on motion pictures". Who was he?
Answer: CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Open this question35.1966 was a good year for these two sisters. One starred in the film Blow-Up and the other got an Oscar nomination for her role in Georgie Girl. What were the first and last names of these two ladies?
Answer: VANESSA AND LYNN REDGRAVE
Open this question36.Warren Beatty was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor, Director, Screenplay, and he produced the film nominated as Best film twice - once in 1978, and again in 1981. For which films?
Answer: HEAVEN CAN WAIT / REDS
Open this question37.For her role in the 1939 classic, Gone With the Wind, she became the first African-American winner of an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress). Who was she?
Answer: HATTIE McDANIEL
Open this question38.When 24-year old John Singleton was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director for the 1991 season, he became both the youngest film director and the first black director ever nominated for a directing Oscar. What film did he direct?
Answer: BOYS N THE HOOD
Open this question39.During the 1980's three Oscar-winning films contained the name of a person in the title. Name these films.
Answer: GANDHI 82 / AMADEUS 84 / DRIVING MISS DAISY 89
Open this question40.The Academy Award winning film from 1937 was based on the life of a 19th Century French writer who tried to assist that wrongly accused Captain (Dreyfus); the film starred Paul Muni and was entitled The Life of ... whom?
Answer: EMILE ZOLA
Open this question41.Which two people won the Oscars as Best Actor and Actress at the March, 2000 Academy Award ceremony, and for what films?
Answer: KEVIN SPACEY AMERICAN BEAUTY / HILARY SWANK BOYS DON'T CRY
Open this question42.Julia Roberts' won her first Oscar as Best Actress for for her role in which film?
Answer: ERIN BROCKOVICH
Open this question43.Sir Laurence Olivier won an Academy Award in the 1940s for his film portrayal of which Shakespearean character?
Answer: HAMLET
Open this question44.The 1939 film classic, Gone With the Wind, won the Oscar in all these categories except one. Which one did it not win? Best Actress, Actor, Film, Director.
Answer: BEST ACTOR WAS WON BY ROBERT DONAT FOR THE FILM GOODBYE MR. CHIPS
Open this question45.The 1975 film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won the four major Oscars: Actor, Actress, Director and Film. Can you name the Oscar-winning actor, actress, and director?
Answer: JACK NICHOLSON / LOUISE FLETCHER / MILOS FORMAN
Open this question46.For creating the best-kept movie secret of 1992, writer-director Neil Jordan won the Oscar for Best Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Achievement in Directing, while his film was also nominated for Best Picture of the Year. For which film?
Answer: THE CRYING GAME
Open this question47.Which 1990's animated Disney film earned an Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Picture?
Answer: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Open this question48.Jodie Foster won the Best Actress Academy Award in 1988 and 1991, for her roles in what two films?
Answer: THE ACCUSED / SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
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