Can a movie about a movie win Best Picture? | Our annual Oscars Quiz

If you’re a film fan who follows the annual Academy Awards ceremonies that resume for the 93rd time on Sunday night, take a shot at answering this question:

Can a film about Hollywood, especially a movie about a movie, win the Best Picture Oscar at a time when bigger dramas involving racism, sexism and ageism are playing out across America?

If you’re intrigued by Hollywood’s machinations, you’re probably ready for our annual Oscars Quiz. It features 10 questions below about this year’s nominees and some about classic films about Hollywood that didn’t make the cut for Best Picture.

After all, wouldn’t it seem self-indulgent to vote for a movie about rescuing a delusional former silent film star’s career (“Sunset Boulevard”) or a musical about rescuing a dull silent film by turning it into a talkie (“Singin’ in the Rain”)?

That thinking would change in 2012, however, when “The Artist,” another film about rescuing a fading silent film star’s career, won the Best Picture award. A year later, the winner was “Argo,” whose plot hinges on rescuing American hostages in Iran by passing them off as members of a fake Hollywood film crew.

And this year there’s “Mank,” a Best Picture front-runner about rescuing the legacy of another great movie — “Citizen Kane” — which lost the Best Picture Oscar in 1942 chiefly because its unflattering story line closely paralleled the life of publishing titan William Randolph Hearst, whose newspapers sabotaged its chances.

But does “Kane” need rescuing? The American Film Institute rates it the best movie of the 20th century. It got nine nominations! That includes an Oscar for Herman Mankiewicz, who fashioned most of the script co-authored by Orson Welles.

Does Mankiewicz’s legacy need rescuing? Academy Award voters seem to think so.

“Mank” has 10 nominations, one more than “Kane” and more than each of its seven Best Picture rivals — “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Collectively, these films suggest other kinds of rescue — from racial injustice, government abuse, homelessness, misogyny, dementia, deafness and even the sort of chemical dependency comparable to Mankiewicz’s alcoholism.

Take the quiz below, and read on for more details and context, in both questions and answers.

1. Which nominee will prevail?

Time tends to alter tastes and attitudes, so a look at past decades can be instructive. Based on nominations — not wins — the most honored Hollywood-themed movie is neither of the two Best Picture winners, “The Artist” or “Argo,” which won the top statuettes in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

So it’s time to choose. Which one of these five nominees received more nominations across all moviemaking categories than any other film about Hollywood moviemaking?

A. “L.A. Confidential” (1998)

B. “La La Land” (2016)

C. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2020)

D. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1953)

E. “A Star is Born” (1938)

2. A losing trial?

Can “The Trial of the Chicago 7” win the Best Picture Oscar? Only two films with significant trial scenes have managed the top win in the past: “A Man for All Seasons” with six wins out of eight nominations at the 1967 ceremony and “Kramer vs. Kramer” with nine nominations and five wins in 1980.

Which of these five acclaimed trial movies received no nominations?

A. “Anatomy of a Murder” (1960)

B. “Inherit the Wind” (1961)

C. “Paths of Glory” (1958)

D. “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1963)

E. “12 Angry Men” (1958)

3. Winning through adversity

If history is any judge, this may be a victorious year for acting nominees who play people with disabilities, such as Anthony Hopkins, whose character in “The Father” suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Or Gary Oldman, who plays an alcoholic screenwriter in “Mank.” Or Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci, whose characters each cope with deafness in “The Sound of Metal.” 

Portraying disabled characters has proved to be a major Oscar advantage for generations. Ray Milland and Nicholas Cage won for playing alcoholics, albeit 50 years apart, in “Lost Weekend” (the 1946 ceremony for Milland) and “Leaving Las Vegas (1996 for Cage). Jamie Foxx took home an Oscar for portraying Ray Charles, the blind singer, in “Ray” (2005). And Tom Hanks won twice — first for portraying an AIDS-stricken lawyer in “Philadelphia” (1994) and then the dimwitted title character in “Forrest Gump” (1995).

But disability doesn’t always mean victory. Which one of these actors failed to win despite this seeming advantage?

A. Alan Arkin

B. Daniel Day-Lewis

C. Dustin Hoffman

D. Al Pacino

E. Jon Voigt

4. Singing to win, or not…

Oscar voters tend to favor singers, too, which could offer an advantage this year to actors Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holliday”) and Leslie Odom (“One Night in Miami”).

But which of these singers managed to win an Oscar in a non-singing role?

A. Cher

B. Burl Ives

C. Jared Leto

D. Frank Sinatra

E. All of the above

5. The grandma strategy

Hollywood tends to favor youth, so portraying a grandmother might not be the easiest way to win an Oscar. But feisty performances by Glenn Close in “Hillbilly Elegy” and Yuh-jung Youn in “Minari” could account for an exception this year.

Which of these actresses may have taken early steps toward breaking this ageist pattern when she was nominated in a supporting role for playing grandma in a film that won the Best Picture Oscar?

A. Sara Allgood

B. Shirley MacLaine

C. Gloria Stuart

D. Jessica Tandy

E. A and C

6. A farewell triumph?

If Chadwick Boseman’s performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is honored with an Academy Award this year, it will mark the sixth time an Oscar has been awarded to an actor following the recipient’s death, including honorary awards.

Who was the first performer to be honored with a posthumous statuette?   

A. James Dean

B. Jeanne Eagles

C. Peter Finch

D. Douglas Fairbanks

E. Spencer Tracy

7. Winning with words

If Gary Oldman wins a second Oscar for playing screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz in “Mank,” it would mark the latest in a long list of wins for actors portraying writers or editors in either leading or supporting roles.

Which of these actors received two Oscars for his portrayals?

A. Clark Gable

B. Philip Seymour Hoffman

C. Paul Muni

D. Jack Nicholson

E. Jason Robards Jr.

8. Mastery, trickery or both?

Riz Ahmed, who plays a drummer in “The Sound of Metal,” and the late Chadwick Boseman, a trumpeter in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” aren’t the first actors to gain Oscar nominations for portraying musicians on film — a feat that generally requires dubbed music.

Which of these former nominees actually performed all the music on the instruments that each of them was shown playing onscreen?

A. Adrian Brody in “The Pianist” (2004)

B. Jamie Foxx in “Ray” (2005)

C. Dexter Gordon in “Round Midnight” (1987)

D. Geoffrey Rush in “Shine” (1998)

E. B, C and D

9. The real deal, Korean style

As a South Korean native, Steven Yeun is a Hollywood rarity: one of the few Best Leading Actor nominees of Asian descent to star in a film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. In this case, it’s “Minari,” which chronicles the hardships that a Korean family must endure to build a life on harsh Arkansas farmland.

Two other actors with Asian backgrounds have taken home Best Leading Actor Oscars, including Ben Kingsley, a British native of Indian descent, who portrayed the title role in “Gandhi” — the Best Picture winner in 1983.

Of the five Academy Award-winning actors listed below, all — like Yeun — have portrayed Asians or Eurasians in films nominated for Best Picture Oscars. Which of them are actually Asian?

A. Yul Brynner in “The King and I” (1957)

B. Jennifer Jones in “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” (1956)

C. Luise Reiner in “The Good Earth” (1938)

D. Myoshi Umeki in “Sayonara” (1958)

E. A and D.

10. Adopting a new name

If you were an aspiring actress-comedian with a dull-sounding name like Caryn Johnson, wouldn’t you consider changing it to something that sounded like a laugh-producing whoopee cushion? Or if you were a standup comic with a religious-sounding name like Eric Bishop, wouldn’t you seek bigger laughs on open-mike nights by taking the stage when audiences were expecting a female comic with a girly-sounding name like Jamie?

Now that you know the original names for Oscar winners Whoopi Goldberg and Jamie Foxx, here’s the birth name of another Academy Award prospect: Cynthia Ann Smith is one of the five nominees vying for a gold statuette in the Best Leading Actress category.

What is Cynthia's name now?

A. Viola Davis

B. Andra Day

C. Vanessa Kirby

D. Frances McDormand

E. Carey Mulligan

John Cichowski is the former Road Warrior columnist for The Record and NorthJersey.com's former Road Warrior columnist, and a big fan of the Oscars. Reach him at jwcichowski@optonline.net.

Oscar Quiz Answers

1. B. With 14 Oscar nominations including six awards, “La La Land” is the Hollywood-themed movie most loved by Academy Award voters.

2. C. “Paths of Glory” received no nominations.

3. A. Alan Arkin’s portrayal of a deaf mute in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” lost the Best Leading Actor Oscar, but the “disability advantage” nevertheless prevailed because Cliff Robertson’s portrayal of a mentally impaired man in “Charly” won the gold trophy.

4. E. Oscar-winning performances didn’t require singing in “Moonstruck” (Cher), “The Big Country” (Ives) and “The Dallas Buyers Club” (Leto). Except for a few seconds of playful scat singing in a Pearl Harbor Army barracks, Sinatra’s portrayal of a soldier in “From Here to Eternity” does not include any singing.

5. E — A and C. Allgood was given a Supporting Actress nomination for playing a grandmother in “How Green Was My Valley” in 1942, and 56 years later, Stuart was nominated in the same category for a similar role in “Titanic.” Unlike these supporting-actress nominees, MacLaine won the Best Leading Actress Oscar for “Terms of Endearment” in 1984, and six years later, Tandy was given the same award for “Driving Miss Daisy.”

6. D. In 1939, Fairbanks, a silent film star, was the first of three actors to be accorded an honorary Oscar shortly after his death. Similar posthumous honors were conferred on Edward G. Robinson in 1973 and Audrey Hepburn in 1993. Competitive Oscars were awarded posthumously for Peter Finch and Heath Ledger.  Although statuettes were not given for their performances, Tracy was nominated for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” which he finished shortly before his death, Dean was nominated twice after his death, for  and Eagles was nominated posthumously.

7. E. Robards won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for playing Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee in “All the President’s Men” in 1977 and crime novelist Dashiell Hammett in “Julia” the next year.

8. E — B, C and D. The piano music heard in “Ray” and “Shine” was the work of the actors, although the singing came from Ray Charles’ recordings. Gordon, a legendary tenor saxophonist, played his own instrument in “Round Midnight.” According to published accounts, Brody trained laboriously to play the piano well enough in “The Pianist” for it to be heard in only part of the movie.

9. E — A and D. Brynner was born in Vladivostok, once a Chinese city located near the Sea of Japan in the East Asian portion of Russia. Umeki was a native of Japan.

10. D. At about 18 months old, McDormand’s name was changed when she and her two siblings were adopted and raised by a childless Illinois couple, Vernon and Noreen McDormand.