And the Oscar goes to...
A short fact about a short film (but, like, still feature-length).
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Grab a big ol’ bucket of popcorn for this one.
The shortest film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture is Marty, which runs 1 hour and 30 minutes.
The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, also known as “they’re playing me off?!” is celebrating its 98th edition of the show.
It’s a time to honor the people (and occasionally animals) who make the movies we know and love, and sometimes the movies we’re discovering for the first time.
Making a movie is time-consuming, costly, and involves many, many people, so it’s cool to see people geeking out over their victory. Occasionally, you’ll get someone like Adrien Brody, who criticized the show for playing the “please wrap it up” music, and then proceeded to continue rambling for approximately 98 minutes.
In fact, you would not be faulted for thinking that Brody’s speech lasted longer than the 1955 film Marty, which, per IMDb, holds the record for the shortest film to ever win an Academy Award at an even 90 minutes.
That’s a full 59 minutes shorter than Marty Supreme, a movie about a table tennis player that’s up for Best Picture this year.
Timothée Chalamet, the star of the movie, recently made a comment that no one cares about the ballet or opera, and the Internet was outraged. Granted, Chalamet was trying to say that ballet and opera were once very popular and are now more niche, but context and social media do not go together all that well.
Though to be fair, it IS kind of a dumb comment. People care about lots of things. You could find a group of folks who are passionate about lava lamps shaped like kangaroos (Wait a minute, that sounds awesome.), and it’s lovely when people follow their passions.
I have admittedly never seen Marty, but it sounds like a delightful romp that, despite being released in 1955, captures many of the emotions of the present. Ernest Borgnine stars as a Bronx butcher who meets a schoolteacher, played by Betsy Blair. You’ve got themes of loneliness, dating, and societal quirks, and we discover a little bit of heart along the way.
It turns out the Oscar-winning movies were inside of us the whole time. What a treat.
In case you were curious, Gone with the Wind has the longest runtime for Best Picture, clocking in at a robust three hours and 58 minutes. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. I need at least two bathroom breaks during a movie that long.
Enjoy the Oscar festivities this weekend, should you choose to partake. Whether you’re wearing a stunning ballroom gown or rocking the “sweatpants with a leftover meatball stain” line from Ross, you’re award-winning in my book.