7 Secrets To Making An Oscar-Winning Movie

Over half the Best Picture winners have been dramas, so sticking to that genre will increase your odds. Your worst bet: musicals, which have won only 9% of the time.

They are the living actors with most Best Actor or Actress nominations — she has 12, he has 8. They both each have two wins, also the most of any living actor. Others with two: Jodie Foster, Hillary Swank, Sally Field, Sean Penn, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Hire them all and make it an ensemble!

Contrary to what you might think, extra-long epics don't do especially well in the Oscar race — just 12% have been over three hours long. Sixty-five percent have been 150 minutes or shorter.

Forty-five percent of Best Picture winners have been rated R — just 20% got PG-13. So throw in a few extra swear words or some naked people (but not too many, since an NC-17 movie has never won a major Oscar).

These words appear more frequently than any others (except articles and prepositions) in the titles of Best Picture winners. The average title of a Best Picture winner is three words long — the longest was The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Twenty winners have had one-word titles.

An R-rated drama starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep should net you an Oscar for sure. All you need is $41 million, an entire crew, and all the skills needed to produce and direct a film. Easy!