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Oscars Trivia Questions
Academy Awards history: winners, firsts and the ceremonies themselves. 16 questions with answers, and a game you can play now.
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Awards trivia has one trap built into it, and it catches almost everyone: the ceremony year and the film year are different. A film released in one year is honoured at a ceremony held in the next, so the same fact has two defensible dates depending on how the question is phrased. Every question here names which one it means.
The rest is settled history: who won what, which firsts happened when, and the handful of ceremonies remembered for something other than the winners.
All 16 oscars trivia questions with answers
Which film won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?
Answer: ShrekMediumThe category was introduced at the 2002 ceremony.
Which film features Hannibal Lecter opposite Clarice Starling?
Answer: The Silence of the LambsMediumIt swept the five main Oscar categories at the 1992 ceremony.
Which country produced the film Parasite?
Answer: South KoreaMediumBong Joon-ho directed it.
Which actor played the title role in Forrest Gump?
Answer: Tom HanksMediumHe won the Best Actor Oscar for it, his second in consecutive years.
The film Gladiator is set in which empire?
Answer: The Roman EmpireMediumRidley Scott directed it and it won Best Picture for 2000.
Which was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Answer: WingsHardIt took the award at the first ceremony, held in 1929.
Which non-English-language film first won the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Answer: ParasiteHardIt won for 2019, more than ninety years into the awards.
Which was the first film to win all five main Academy Awards?
Answer: It Happened One NightHardIt took picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay in 1935.
Which film festival awards the Palme d'Or?
Answer: CannesHardVenice gives a Golden Lion and Berlin a Golden Bear instead.
Alfred Hitchcock never won Best Director. Which of his films won Best Picture?
Answer: RebeccaHardProducer David O. Selznick collected the award for 1940, not Hitchcock.
Which was the first talking picture to win Best Picture?
Answer: The Broadway MelodyHardIt won for the 1928-29 awards year, the second ceremony.
Which actor won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Gandhi?
Answer: Ben KingsleyHardAttenborough directed the 1982 film and won Best Director for it.
Meryl Streep won her first Academy Award for which film?
Answer: Kramer vs. KramerMediumShe won Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and later Best Actress for Sophie's Choice and The Iron Lady.
Which film about Elizabethan theatre won the Best Picture Oscar for 1998?
Answer: Shakespeare in LoveMediumIt beat Saving Private Ryan at the ceremony held in March 1999, a result still debated by film fans.
Which was the first colour film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Answer: Gone with the WindHardIt won at the ceremony held in February 1940, for the films of 1939.
Which film won Best Picture for 1941, beating Citizen Kane?
Answer: How Green Was My ValleyHardJohn Ford also won Best Director for it, the third of his record four wins.
Answer key
- Shrek
- The Silence of the Lambs
- South Korea
- Tom Hanks
- The Roman Empire
- Wings
- Parasite
- It Happened One Night
- Cannes
- Rebecca
- The Broadway Melody
- Ben Kingsley
- Kramer vs. Kramer
- Shakespeare in Love
- Gone with the Wind
- How Green Was My Valley
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full oscars trivia questions list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
The wider round
These come from the movie set, which has 100 questions across 6 themes, plus tiebreakers and host notes. Movie trivia