19 Oscars Facts That Sound Fake, But Are Shockingly True

More than 90 years later, the Academy still has a veeeery long way to go.

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The Oscars are widely considered to be the most prestigious of film awards. Winning a gold-plated statuette is one of the highest honors a creative could wish for.

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Despite the Academy's influence, its track record is far from perfect. The Oscars have an odd history plagued by exclusivity, strange mishaps, and questionable choices.

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Here are 19 wild facts about the Oscars that most people don't know.

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1. The shocking Best Picture mixup of 2017 happened because one person was (allegedly) on Twitter.

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One of the most embarrassing mistakes in awards shows history happened at the Oscars in 2017. Brian Cullinan gave Best Picture presenters, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, the wrong envelope, and thus La La Land was announced as the winner when it was actually supposed to be Moonlight. 

The reason behind the mixup? Cullinan was apparently distracted by his phone. He tweeted a photo of Best Actress winner, Emma Stone, around the time he should've been handing the envelope to Beatty. The tweet has since been deleted.

2. Sammy Davis Jr. was also given an incorrect envelope in 1964.

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Decades before Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope while presenting Best Picture, Sammy Davis Jr. dealt with a similar ordeal. He presented the award for Best Adaptation or Treatment Score to "John Addison for Tom Jones." The problem? Addison hadn't even been nominated in that category. 

3. The LA Times forced the Academy to start using envelopes.

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The reason the Academy Awards implemented envelopes in the first place involved a broken embargo. In 1940, The LA Times published the names of all the Oscar winners before the ceremony happened. After this error, the Academy introduced its strict new procedure.

4. As of 1950, Oscar winners don't really own their statues.

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When presented with their trophy, Oscar winners must sign a special agreement. As of 1950, the show's official regulations state that winners can't sell or get rid of their statuette without first offering to sell it to the Academy for $1. If they refuse to sign, they can't keep their trophy. The rule also applies to their heirs after the winner passes away.

5. An actor had to sell his Oscar to pay for his wife’s health care.

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Harold Russell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1947 for his work in The Best Years Of Our Lives. Because he had received the award before 1950, that meant he never signed the $1 agreement. Sadly, he was forced to sell the statuette in 1992 to raise money for his wife’s medical expenses.

6. It took 81 years for a woman to win the Best Director award.

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The first Academy Awards ceremony took place in 1929. It wasn't until 2010 that a woman secured a victory in the Best Director category. Kathryn Bigelow's historic win happened as a result of her work on The Hurt Locker. 

7. It took 77 years for a non-white filmmaker to win the Best Director award.

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Representation has never been one of the Academy's strong suits. After all, it took them over seven decades to grant a non-white filmmaker the Best Director title. Ang Lee won the award in 2006 for his work on Brokeback Mountain.

8. A Black filmmaker has never won Best Director.

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Let that sink in. While the Academy has bestowed a handful of notable awards to people of color, not a single one of them has been to a Black creator in the Best Director category.

9. The Academy took 50 years to apologize to Sacheen Littlefeather for mistreating her

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Late activist and actress, Sacheen Littlefeather, was booed at the 1973 Academy Awards after she declined the Best Actor award on Marlon Brando’s behalf. She used her limited time on stage to criticize Hollywood for its depictions of Native Americans, which (ironically) earned her a lifetime of mistreatment by the industry. And it only took five decades for them to apologize!

10. The first Black Oscar winner was treated poorly despite her accomplishments.

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Though Hattie McDaniel broke barriers in 1940 as the first Black Oscar winner in history, racism tainted her victory. The ceremony was held at the Ambassador Hotel, which had a strict "no blacks" policy. She wasn't allowed to sit with her costars, instead being escorted to a small table in the back of the room. This carried over to the after-party, which she couldn't attend because the club had a similar racist policy.

11. Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry was not staged (or consensual).

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When Adrien Brody won an Oscar for The Pianist in 2003, he joined presenter Halle Berry on stage and kissed her without her consent. Berry has since addressed the incident, confirming that it wasn't staged and that she wasn't too thrilled about his actions at the time.

12. Roman Polanski won Best Director in 2003... decades after being exposed for his pedophilic behavior.

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Despite having a disgusting history involving minors, the Academy still granted Roman Polanski a Best Director award in 2003. Even worse, he received a standing ovation at the ceremony. It wasn't until 2018 that he was officially expelled from the Academy.

13. The #OscarsSoWhite campaign took off in 2015... only for the following year to be just as white.

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In 2015, all 20 acting nominees for the 87th Academy Awards were of Caucasian descent. This triggered a social media movement called #OscarsSoWhite. The campaign was meant to shed light on the exclusion of actors of color... Yet, the Academy presented another painfully white slate of nominees the very next year.

14. The first Black Oscars host was Sammy Davis Jr., but it wasn't a solo gig.

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In 1972, iconic entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. became the first Black person to host the Academy Awards. However, he didn't run the event on his own. He shared the stage with Helen Hayes, Jack Lemmon, and Alan King.

15. Whoopi Goldberg was the first woman AND the first Black person to host the Oscars entirely on their own.

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Whoopi Goldberg killed two birds with one stone in 1994. Her hosting gig went so well that she was asked to do it again in 1996, 1999, and 2002. She's one of the very few people who've hosted the Oscars four or more times.

16. The year 2000 was a complete disaster for the Oscars before the ceremony even began.

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In 2000, the Oscars had 55 statuettes stolen, and more than 4,000 ballots were lost in the mail. 52 of the trophies were eventually found near a garbage bin a week later. The bizarre chain of problems ultimately didn't derail the show, but it remains one of the most chaotic moments in the Academy's history.

17. In 1962, Rita Moreno became the first Hispanic woman to win an Oscar.

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This is, of course, a great thing. She received the award for her role as Anita in West Side Story. The downside is that she would be the only Hispanic woman to win the award for nearly six decades. And even then...

18. Ariana DeBose is the second Latine woman to win an acting Oscar...and it was for the same exact role as Rita Moreno.

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This is one way to (accidentally) spotlight the lack of diversity within POC roles. The second Hispanic woman in history to win an acting Oscar won for the same exact role as the first Hispanic woman. 

However, DeBose is the first openly queer woman of color to win the award, which is a massive success in its own right.

19. Parasite was the first foreign language film ever to win Best Picture.

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Parasite's Oscars sweep in 2020 was utterly monumental. That being said, it's still baffling that it took so long to celebrate a foreign film this way. As director Bong Joon-ho said: “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

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