The Only Movies to Win the "Big 5" Oscars
Screenwriter Bo Goldman with producer Michael Douglas on the set of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," one of only three films to win the "Big Five" Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.
What Are the "Big 5" Oscars?
In the long history of the Academy Awards, many films have received multiple nominations, and many have won multiple Oscars. It has been very rare, however, for a movie to sweep the so-called "Big Five" awards:
- Best Picture
- Best Director
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Screenplay (either Original or Adapted)
As we head into the 95th Academy Awards in 2023, 43 films have been nominated for the Big Five, including three films from 1967 (Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Graduate) and three films from 1981 (Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, and Reds).
La La Land Was Most Recent Candidate
The most recent Big Five candidate was 2016's La La Land, which was nominated for 14 Oscars total. In what was probably the most notorious flub in the history of Academy Award presentations, La La Land was initially announced as the winner for Best Picture due to an envelope mixup. As it turned out, the real winner was Moonlight.
La La Land came away with six Oscars, but only two of the Big Five. Though it famously didn't win Best Picture, Damien Chazelle won Best Director (at age 32, the youngest winner ever), but he also came up short in the screenplay category. Meanwhile, Emma Stone won for Best Actress, but Ryan Gosling lost for Best Actor.
The point being, it's hard to accomplish this feat. In fact, of those aforementioned 43 films nominated for the Big Five, only three have succeeded in winning all five Oscars.
1. It Happened One Night (1934)
- Best Director: Frank Capra
- Best Actor: Clark Gable
- Best Actress: Claudette Colbert
- Best Screenplay (Adapted): Robert Riskin
It Happened One Night, a romantic comedy, was the first film to win the Big Five Oscars, taking home the top prizes at the 7th Academy Awards in 1935. The film was produced by Frank Capra and Harry Cohn for Columbia Pictures.
The Story
Wealthy socialite Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) has married King Westley (Jameson Thomas), a fortune-hunting aviator, against the wishes of her father (Walter Connolly). Ellie's father takes her to his yacht in Miami to separate her from her husband before the marriage is consummated, but Ellie dives overboard and manages to elude her father and get on a bus to New York to reunite with Westley. Her father offers a reward for her return.
On the bus, she meets reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable). Peter realizes who Ellie is when a thief steals her purse and she doesn't report it to the police. Peter offers to help her get to New York in exchange for her exclusive story, threatening to contact her father for the reward money if she doesn't agree. Ellie agrees to have him help her, and they continue together to New York.
Iconic Hitchhiking Scene
The couple shares numerous adventures and comic misadventures in their travels, including a famous hitchhiking scene in which Ellie shows Peter how easily she can get a car to stop for them, after he has failed, by raising her skirt to show her leg. As they travel, they share hotel rooms pretending to be husband and wife.
Peter sets up a rope and blanket between their beds that he nicknames "the walls of Jericho." Those familiar with the Biblical story know that the walls of Jericho ultimately come tumbling down, so viewers may anticipate an eventual change in Ellie and Peter's relationship.
It Happened One Night is lots of fun, with some classic screwball plot turns and clever comic banter between Ellie and Peter. The first Big Five winner is still a winner.
Recommended
Best Director: Frank Capra
Frank Capra, a native of Sicily whose family immigrated to the United States when he was a child, directed 54 films and was also a producer and writer. He received six Academy Award nominations for Best Director, winning three.
His win for It Happened One Night was his first; it was followed by Oscars for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take It With You (1938). Generally considered one of the all-time best directors, Capra received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1982.
Best Actor: Clark Gable
Clark Gable's Oscar nomination for It Happened One Night was his first of three, but it was his only win. He was also nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 and for his best-known role as Rhett Butler in 1939's Gone With the Wind—where he had a role in desegregating the set.
Gable was one of the most popular movie stars throughout the 1930s and '40s, even being voted "The King of Hollywood" in a 1938 poll. He remained a box office draw throughout his career. His last film, The Misfits (1961), was completed shortly before his death, and was also the last film of co-star Marilyn Monroe.
Best Actress: Claudette Colbert
French native Claudette Colbert moved to the United States with her family at the age of three. Her acting career began on Broadway in 1923. In 1927, she appeared in Frank Capra's silent film, The Love of Mike, and she left Broadway for the movies shortly thereafter.
Like Gable, Colbert received her first Oscar nomination—and only win—for It Happened One Night. She was nominated again for 1935's Private Worlds and 1944's Since You Went Away, but lost both times.
Colbert continued acting into her 80s, winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1987 TV movie The Two Mrs. Grenvilles.
Best Screenplay (Adapted): Robert Riskin
Robert Riskin began his career as a playwright in New York. When Columbia Pictures bought the rights to several of his plays, he moved to Hollywood. Riskin received five Oscar nominations for Best Writing—all for films directed by Frank Capra.
His screenplay for It Happened One Night, his only Oscar winner, was an adaptation of a short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Riskin had a falling out with Capra in the early 1940s and did not work with him again.
Ironically, his final screenplay—for Here Comes the Groom (1951)—was written before he suffered a career-ending stroke. The film was assigned to Capra and was nominated for an Academy Award.
It Happened One Night Trivia
- Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were not the first choices for the lead roles. Several actors turned down the film, including Robert Montgomery, who did not like the script. MGM essentially forced Gable into the role since he had a contract that guaranteed him $2,000 a week and he had no upcoming projects.
- Colbert initially did not want to film the scene where she pulls up her skirt to get a ride. A body double was used to film the scene, but Colbert did not think the leg looked like hers. So, she filmed the iconic scene herself.
- Colbert did not attend the Academy Awards when she was nominated since she felt she had no chance of winning. Instead, she planned to take a railroad trip across the country. When she won, the studio managed to pull her off the train, which had not yet departed, and brought her to the awards.
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
- Best Director: Miloš Forman
- Best Actor: Jack Nicholson
- Best Actress: Louise Fletcher
- Best Screenplay (Adapted): Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was the second film to win the Big Five Academy Awards. It was produced by Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz for Fantasy Films and distributed by United Artists.
The film was nominated for four additional Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif), Best Cinematography (Haskel Wexler and Bill Butler), Best Film Editing (Richard Chew, Lynzee Klingman, and Sheldon Kahn), and Best Original Score (Jack Nitzsche). It's considered to be one of the best films of the New Hollywood era.
The Story
R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), in prison for statutory rape, is transferred for observation to a mental institution where he assumes he will serve his time in relative comfort.
The ward to which he is assigned is overseen by the rigid, autocratic Nurse Ratched (Louis Fletcher), who bullies the patients through humiliation, punishments, and routine. The patients live in fear of her and have completely submitted to her control.
McMurphy vs. Nurse Ratched
The anti-authoritarian McMurphy engages Nurse Ratched in a battle of wills on behalf of the other patients. In fact, he forms a friendship with two patients, in particular: young, suicidal stutterer Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif) and schizophrenic, mute Native American "Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson).
While McMurphy and Chief are awaiting shock therapy, McMurphy discovers that Chief can speak, so he lets him in on an escape plan. One night McMurphy gets his girlfriend to sneak into the ward to bring alcohol and to initiate a getaway. Unfortunately, the patients drink too much and pass out. The resulting mess brings more cruelty from Nurse Ratched that leads to tragedy.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a drama that asks serious questions about mental illness, freedom, and authority. Although the underlying subject matter is grim, the film is leavened with humor and enlivened by great performances.