During the very first Academy Awards in 1927, the winners were notified well before the official announcement. In addition, only three nominees were listed in each category and each of the nominees were nominated for several movies rather than just one. For instance, the first winner of Best Actress, Janet Gaynor, was officially nominated for "Seventh Heaven," "Street Angel" and "Sunrise."
At the 1930 to 31 Academy Awards, Best Actress nominee Norma Shearer was chosen to announce the winner of Best Actress. This put her in the odd position of either having to call out her own name or stand on stage when another woman won. The latter is exactly what happened. Shearer announced that the winner was Marie Dressler. The Academy then placed a rule that nominees would not be called to announce the winners of the categories they were nominated for.
The movie "Grand Hotel" still holds a rather dubious record regarding Oscar nominations. Generally speaking, the movie that wins the Oscar for Best Picture is nominated in several other categories and typically wins in several of them. The history of the Academy Awards has been one in which the movie that wins Best Picture has also taken home as many as six to ten other awards. By contrast, "Grand Hotel" remains the only movie to win Best Picture without even being nominated in any other category.
The actor who has received the most Academy Award nominations is Meryl Streep, who had received 15 nominations as of 2009. Tied for second place for most nominations are Katherine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who have been both nominated 12 times. The actor who has been nominated the most times without winning is Peter O'Toole, with eight nominations. Walt Disney holds the overall record for both the most nominations and the most wins.
Two films are tied for the record of receiving the most Oscar nominations in a single year. "All About Eve" was the first movie to receive 14 nominations, while "Titanic" became the second. A handful of movies have received 13 nominations, including "Forrest Gump," "From Here to Eternity," "Mary Poppins" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."
Two films are tied for one of the most dubious honors in Academy Awards history. The "Turning Point" and "The Color Purple" were both nominated for 11 awards without winning a single one.
Gangs of New York" was nominated for 10 awards without winning. Sound mixer Kevin O'Connell has been nominated 20 times over the course of his career without winning an Oscar.