Special Report

Biggest Oscar Winners of All Time

The 94th Academy Awards will be held on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, and this year one film has a chance to make history. That would be “The Power of the Dog,” which has been nominated in 12 categories. If it wins all 12, it would be the biggest haul for any motion picture in a single year, and it would become the second film to sweep every category in which it has been nominated.

The Academy Awards have been presented since 1929, and while some celebrated actors have been frequently nominated but have never won – like Glenn Close (six nominations) and Peter O’Toole (eight) – some individuals, and some films, have captured the golden statue multiple times. (These are 25 of the Oscars’ most egregious snubs.)

To identify the people and films that have won the most Oscars since the Academy Awards began in 1929, 24/7 Tempo consulted listings of awards on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon; and the official website of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and Wikipedia. Details on awards given come from the same sources.

Three motion pictures have won 11 Academy Awards each – two within the last 25 years – and one of these three blockbusters triumphed in every category it was nominated.

When it comes to all-time winners, though, it is doubtful anyone will eclipse the 22-Oscar trove of Walt Disney. In 1954 alone, he was nominated for six Academy Awards and won four, both records. (Because his awards were divided between numerous categories, he’s not represented on this list.) The champion among women is costume designer Edith Head. She won eight awards for movies such as “All About Eve” and “A Place in the Sun,” and was nominated 27 other times for Best Costume Design.

Click here to see the biggest all-time Academy Award winners

You might not know the name of Cedric Gibbons, but you know his work as an accomplished art director. He won 11 Best Art Direction Academy Awards for films such as “Gaslight,” “An American in Paris,” and “The Bad and the Beautiful.” 

Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, and Francis Ford Coppola are among the industry’s honored  directors, but they’ve all actually had more Oscar victories as screenplay writers. (But here’s who won the Oscar for Best Director every year since the Oscars began.)

In 2020, the South Korean movie “Parasite” became the first foreign-language film to win for Best Picture, and it also won for Best International Feature Film, a first for a South Korean movie. By comparison, Italy has won the most Academy Awards in the foreign-film category with 14, and has received 32 total nominations. 

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