Oscars 2026 & 98th Academy Awards: Full Winners List, Major Records & 20 MCQs

AMPAS is an honorary professional organization founded in Beverly Hills, California, in May 1927 to advance cinematic excellence.

The first Academy Awards ceremony took place on 16th May 1929 at a private dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of around 270 people.

The Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood has hosted every Oscar ceremony since its inauguration in 2002.

Bhanu Athaiya won the Oscar for Best Costume Design in 1983 for her work on Richard Attenborough's epic biographical film ‘Gandhi'.

Satyajit Ray was conferred the Honorary Academy Award in 1992 in recognition of his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures; the award was presented to him in Kolkata shortly before his passing.

A.R. Rahman won two Oscars at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 for his work on Danny Boyle's British-Indian drama ‘Slumdog Millionaire'.

Sound engineer Resul Pookutty, alongside Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke, won the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing in 2009.

Gulzar penned the lyrics for ‘Jai Ho', winning the Oscar for Best Original Song alongside composer A.R. Rahman.

‘Naatu Naatu' from S.S. Rajamouli's period action epic ‘RRR' became the first song from an Indian feature film to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Veteran music director M.M. Keeravani composed ‘Naatu Naatu', with lyrics written by Chandrabose and vocals by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava.

Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, ‘The Elephant Whisperers' won Best Documentary Short, depicting an indigenous couple caring for orphaned calves.

Mehboob Khan's rural classic ‘Mother India' starring Nargis was India's first submission to earn a nomination at the 30th Academy Awards in 1958.

Mira Nair's poignant depiction of street children in Mumbai, ‘Salaam Bombay!', earned India's second nomination in the foreign-language category at the 61st Oscars.

Starring Aamir Khan, ‘Lagaan' was nominated at the 74th Academy Awards, narrowly losing to the Bosnian war film ‘No Man's Land'.

Only three Indian films have ever made the final top-5 nominations list: Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay! (1988), and Lagaan (2001).

These three legendary cinematic productions hold the record with 11 Oscar statuettes each.

Daniel Day-Lewis is the only performer to win Best Actor three times: for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007), and Lincoln (2012).

Katharine Hepburn won 4 Best Actress Oscars: Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).

Pioneering animator and studio founder Walt Disney won 22 competitive Oscars from 59 nominations, plus 4 honorary awards during his career.

Kathryn Bigelow made history at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010 by winning Best Director for the war thriller ‘The Hurt Locker'.

Directed by Bong Joon-ho, ‘Parasite' swept the 2020 Oscars winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature.

Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress at the 95th Oscars for her multi-dimensional performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once'.

While affectionately called ‘Oscar', the official name of the gold-plated statuette is the ‘Academy Award of Merit'.

Since 2016, the statuettes have been hand-cast in solid bronze by the Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry in New York before being electroplated with 24-karat gold.

Following two brothers in New Delhi who rescue and treat injured black kites, ‘All That Breathes' earned an Oscar nomination in 2023.

‘Writing with Fire' chronicled the fearless Dalit women journalists running the grassroots digital news platform Khabar Lahariya.

In April 2019, AMPAS voted to rename the category starting from the 92nd Academy Awards to reflect a more inclusive, global perspective on cinema.

Sidney Poitier won the Best Actor Oscar in 1964 for his portrayal of Homer Smith in ‘Lilies of the Field', breaking racial barriers in Hollywood.

Legendary composer John Williams (famous for Star Wars, Jaws, and Indiana Jones) has earned 54 Oscar nominations, the most for any living artist.

Oscar winners are chosen by secret ballot voting among AMPAS members across 19 specialized craft branches (actors, directors, cinematographers, sound designers, etc.).