Oscar Winners Quiz
Best Picture shocks, four-time winners and the wrong envelope: 15 questions on Hollywood's biggest night.
Who won his first Oscar, for Best Actor, playing the frontiersman Hugh Glass in The Revenant?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won at the 2016 ceremony after four earlier acting nominations, for What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond and The Wolf of Wall Street.
He used his acceptance speech to talk about climate change, and the film's director Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director two years running.
Which 1994 film beat both Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption to Best Picture?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump won six Oscars at the 1995 ceremony, including Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis and a second consecutive Best Actor award for Tom Hanks after Philadelphia.
Hanks was only the second actor to win Best Actor in back-to-back years, following Spencer Tracy in 1938 and 1939.
Which film became the first not in the English language to win Best Picture, at the 2020 ceremony?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Parasite
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won four Oscars in February 2020, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature, the first time a film in a language other than English had taken the top prize.
Weeks earlier at the Golden Globes, Bong had joked that once you overcome the one-inch barrier of subtitles you are introduced to many more amazing films.
Which 2022 film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the 2023 ceremony with seven wins, including three of the four acting awards for Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, plus Best Director for the Daniels.
Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress, and Quan had barely acted since playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as a child.
For which film did Heath Ledger win a posthumous Academy Award?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Dark Knight
Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight at the 2009 ceremony, a year after his death in January 2008 at the age of 28.
He was only the second performer to win an acting Oscar posthumously, after Peter Finch for Network in 1977.
Which film was wrongly announced as Best Picture in 2017 before Moonlight was declared the real winner?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
La La Land
Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed a duplicate Best Actress envelope naming Emma Stone for La La Land, and that film's producers were mid-speech before the error was corrected on stage.
Moonlight was made for roughly $1.5 million, one of the cheapest films ever to win Best Picture.
Who holds the record for the most acting Oscars, with four Best Actress wins?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn won for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond, her wins spread across 48 years, and she never attended a ceremony to collect one.
Meryl Streep holds the nominations record instead, with 21 acting nominations, though only three of them turned into wins.
Which actor has won Best Actor three times, for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis is the only performer with three Best Actor wins, taken in 1990, 2008 and 2013; Jack Nicholson also has three Oscars, but one of his is for Best Supporting Actor.
Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting in 2017 after Phantom Thread, then returned in 2025 in Anemone, a film directed by his son Ronan.
Who became the first woman to win Best Director, for The Hurt Locker?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow won at the 2010 ceremony, where her low-budget Iraq War drama also beat Avatar, directed by her ex-husband James Cameron, to Best Picture.
Jane Campion became the third woman to win the award in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, following Chloé Zhao's win for Nomadland the year before.
Which film won Best Picture at the March 2025 ceremony, with Mikey Madison also taking Best Actress?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Anora
Sean Baker's Anora won five Oscars at the 97th Academy Awards, and Baker personally collected four of them, for directing, original screenplay, editing and producing the Best Picture winner.
Adrien Brody won Best Actor that night for The Brutalist, 22 years after his first win for The Pianist.
Which film famously beat Saving Private Ryan to Best Picture at the 1999 ceremony?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love took seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow, after an aggressive Miramax campaign, though Steven Spielberg still won Best Director for Saving Private Ryan.
Judi Dench won Best Supporting Actress for playing Elizabeth I in the film despite being on screen for only about eight minutes.
Which film won Best Picture at the March 2026 ceremony, giving Paul Thomas Anderson his first Oscars?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
One Battle After Another
One Battle After Another won six Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson, who had never won despite many previous nominations.
Sinners set a record that year with 16 nominations, and Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his dual role as twin brothers.
Which 1991 film is the most recent to win the "big five" Oscars: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs swept the five top categories at the 1992 ceremony, with Jonathan Demme, Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster all winning; only It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had done it before.
Hopkins won Best Actor with only around 16 minutes of screen time as Hannibal Lecter, one of the shortest winning performances ever.
Which person has won the most Academy Awards, with 22 competitive Oscars?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Walt Disney
Walt Disney won 22 competitive Oscars and four honorary awards between 1932 and 1969, mostly for animated and documentary short films, and he also holds the record for most nominations with 59.
Costume designer Edith Head is the most awarded woman with eight Oscars, and composer John Williams has five wins from more than 50 nominations.
Which film won the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture, at the 1929 ceremony?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Wings
Wings, a silent First World War flying drama starring Clara Bow, won Outstanding Picture at the first ceremony on May 16, 1929, which lasted about 15 minutes at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Wings remained the only silent film to win Best Picture until The Artist did it 83 years later in 2012.
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All Entertainment quizzes →About the Oscar Winners Quiz
The first Academy Awards took 15 minutes to hand out in a hotel ballroom in 1929. Today the ceremony runs past three hours, and the gold statuettes still decide careers. Katharine Hepburn won four acting Oscars and never turned up to collect one, Walt Disney took home 22, and in 2017 the wrong envelope handed Best Picture to La La Land for two surreal minutes.
These 15 questions cover the Best Picture winners everyone remembers, the record holders, the famous upsets and the most recent ceremonies up to March 2026, plus a few deeper cuts on the very first winner and the rare "big five" sweep. Ideal for movie buffs and anyone who fills in an Oscars ballot each spring.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Hard. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
Who has won the most Oscars?
Walt Disney, with 22 competitive Academy Awards plus four honorary ones. Among actors, Katharine Hepburn leads with four Best Actress wins.
Which film won Best Picture at the 2026 Oscars?
One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, won Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards in March 2026.
Which films have won the most Oscars?
Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) share the record with 11 wins each.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Who won his first Oscar, for Best Actor, playing the frontiersman Hugh Glass in The Revenant?
Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo DiCaprio finally won at the 2016 ceremony after four earlier acting nominations, for What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond and The Wolf of Wall Street. He used his acceptance speech to talk about climate change, and the film's director Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director two years running. - Which 1994 film beat both Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption to Best Picture?
Forrest Gump Forrest Gump won six Oscars at the 1995 ceremony, including Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis and a second consecutive Best Actor award for Tom Hanks after Philadelphia. Hanks was only the second actor to win Best Actor in back-to-back years, following Spencer Tracy in 1938 and 1939. - Which film became the first not in the English language to win Best Picture, at the 2020 ceremony?
Parasite Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won four Oscars in February 2020, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature, the first time a film in a language other than English had taken the top prize. Weeks earlier at the Golden Globes, Bong had joked that once you overcome the one-inch barrier of subtitles you are introduced to many more amazing films. - Which 2022 film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh?
Everything Everywhere All at Once Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the 2023 ceremony with seven wins, including three of the four acting awards for Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, plus Best Director for the Daniels. Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress, and Quan had barely acted since playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as a child. - For which film did Heath Ledger win a posthumous Academy Award?
The Dark Knight Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight at the 2009 ceremony, a year after his death in January 2008 at the age of 28. He was only the second performer to win an acting Oscar posthumously, after Peter Finch for Network in 1977. - Which film was wrongly announced as Best Picture in 2017 before Moonlight was declared the real winner?
La La Land Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed a duplicate Best Actress envelope naming Emma Stone for La La Land, and that film's producers were mid-speech before the error was corrected on stage. Moonlight was made for roughly $1.5 million, one of the cheapest films ever to win Best Picture. - Who holds the record for the most acting Oscars, with four Best Actress wins?
Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn won for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond, her wins spread across 48 years, and she never attended a ceremony to collect one. Meryl Streep holds the nominations record instead, with 21 acting nominations, though only three of them turned into wins. - Which actor has won Best Actor three times, for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln?
Daniel Day-Lewis Daniel Day-Lewis is the only performer with three Best Actor wins, taken in 1990, 2008 and 2013; Jack Nicholson also has three Oscars, but one of his is for Best Supporting Actor. Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting in 2017 after Phantom Thread, then returned in 2025 in Anemone, a film directed by his son Ronan. - Who became the first woman to win Best Director, for The Hurt Locker?
Kathryn Bigelow Kathryn Bigelow won at the 2010 ceremony, where her low-budget Iraq War drama also beat Avatar, directed by her ex-husband James Cameron, to Best Picture. Jane Campion became the third woman to win the award in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, following Chloé Zhao's win for Nomadland the year before. - Which film won Best Picture at the March 2025 ceremony, with Mikey Madison also taking Best Actress?
Anora Sean Baker's Anora won five Oscars at the 97th Academy Awards, and Baker personally collected four of them, for directing, original screenplay, editing and producing the Best Picture winner. Adrien Brody won Best Actor that night for The Brutalist, 22 years after his first win for The Pianist. - Which film famously beat Saving Private Ryan to Best Picture at the 1999 ceremony?
Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare in Love took seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow, after an aggressive Miramax campaign, though Steven Spielberg still won Best Director for Saving Private Ryan. Judi Dench won Best Supporting Actress for playing Elizabeth I in the film despite being on screen for only about eight minutes. - Which film won Best Picture at the March 2026 ceremony, giving Paul Thomas Anderson his first Oscars?
One Battle After Another One Battle After Another won six Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson, who had never won despite many previous nominations. Sinners set a record that year with 16 nominations, and Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his dual role as twin brothers. - Which 1991 film is the most recent to win the "big five" Oscars: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay?
The Silence of the Lambs The Silence of the Lambs swept the five top categories at the 1992 ceremony, with Jonathan Demme, Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster all winning; only It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had done it before. Hopkins won Best Actor with only around 16 minutes of screen time as Hannibal Lecter, one of the shortest winning performances ever. - Which person has won the most Academy Awards, with 22 competitive Oscars?
Walt Disney Walt Disney won 22 competitive Oscars and four honorary awards between 1932 and 1969, mostly for animated and documentary short films, and he also holds the record for most nominations with 59. Costume designer Edith Head is the most awarded woman with eight Oscars, and composer John Williams has five wins from more than 50 nominations. - Which film won the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture, at the 1929 ceremony?
Wings Wings, a silent First World War flying drama starring Clara Bow, won Outstanding Picture at the first ceremony on May 16, 1929, which lasted about 15 minutes at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Wings remained the only silent film to win Best Picture until The Artist did it 83 years later in 2012.
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