Three films share the record for the most Oscar wins, and each of them took home 11 Academy Awards. Ben-Hur set the mark in 1959, Titanic matched it in 1997, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King equaled it in 2003.
No film has come close since, and the reasons say a lot about how the Academy actually votes. Below are the 15 films that have won eight or more Oscars, ranked, along with the records that sit behind the raw totals.
Films With the Most Oscar Wins at a Glance
| Rank | Film | Year | Oscar Wins | Won Best Picture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben-Hur | 1959 | 11 | Yes |
| 1 | Titanic | 1997 | 11 | Yes |
| 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | 11 | Yes |
| 4 | West Side Story | 1961 | 10 | Yes |
| 5 | Gigi | 1958 | 9 | Yes |
| 5 | The Last Emperor | 1987 | 9 | Yes |
| 5 | The English Patient | 1996 | 9 | Yes |
| 8 | Gone with the Wind | 1939 | 8 | Yes |
| 8 | From Here to Eternity | 1953 | 8 | Yes |
| 8 | On the Waterfront | 1954 | 8 | Yes |
| 8 | My Fair Lady | 1964 | 8 | Yes |
| 8 | Cabaret | 1972 | 8 | No |
| 8 | Gandhi | 1982 | 8 | Yes |
| 8 | Amadeus | 1984 | 8 | Yes |
| 8 | Slumdog Millionaire | 2008 | 8 | Yes |
The Most Decorated Films Ever Made
1. Ben-Hur: 11 Oscars (1959)
Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards from 12 nominations, a record that stood alone for 38 years. William Wyler’s biblical epic took Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Charlton Heston, and Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith.
Its technical haul covered cinematography, art direction, sound, score, film editing, special effects, and costume design. The chariot race remains one of the most expensive and most imitated sequences ever staged.
1. Titanic: 11 Oscars (1997)
Titanic matched Ben-Hur with 11 wins, though it did so from 14 nominations, a total matched only by All About Eve and La La Land. James Cameron’s film took Best Picture and Best Director alongside a sweep of the technical categories.
Notably it won nothing in the acting categories despite two nominations, which is a pattern worth noticing. Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were both nominated for playing Rose at different ages, the first time two performers were nominated in the same year for one character.
Its wins came instead in cinematography, art direction, costume, visual effects, sound, sound effects editing, editing, original score, and original song. Leonardo DiCaprio was famously not nominated at all. It also ranks among the highest-grossing movies of all time, having held the box office record for 12 years.
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: 11 Oscars (2003)
The Return of the King is the most efficient winner in Academy history, converting all 11 of its nominations into wins at the 76th Academy Awards. No other film has gone 11 for 11.
Peter Jackson’s finale took Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, plus eight technical awards. The win is widely read as the Academy rewarding the entire trilogy at once, since neither of the first two films had taken Best Picture.
4. West Side Story: 10 Oscars (1961)
West Side Story holds the record for the most Oscars won by a musical, taking 10 including Best Picture. Both Rita Moreno and George Chakiris won supporting acting awards, an unusual double for a single film.
It also produced a rare shared Best Director win for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake won a single Oscar, for Ariana DeBose in the same role that won Moreno hers.
The soundtrack was arguably the bigger commercial phenomenon, spending 54 weeks at number one and still holding the longest run atop the Billboard album chart, though the bulk of that run came on the separate stereo-albums chart of the era. Few of the best-selling music artists have matched that stretch at the top.
5. Gigi: 9 Oscars (1958)
Gigi won all nine awards it was nominated for, the first film to sweep its entire slate. Vincente Minnelli’s musical took Best Picture, Best Director, and seven craft awards.
Its sweep was helped by an absence that turns out to matter: the film received no acting nominations at all. That pattern repeats across every perfect sweep in Oscar history.
5. The Last Emperor: 9 Oscars (1987)
Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic matched Gigi exactly, winning all nine of its nominations. It was the first feature film permitted to shoot inside Beijing’s Forbidden City, made with the cooperation of the Chinese government.
Like Gigi, it received no acting nominations despite a large cast, and like Gigi it lost nothing. The wins covered picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, art direction, costume, editing, sound, and score.
5. The English Patient: 9 Oscars (1996)
The English Patient won nine Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Anthony Minghella. Juliette Binoche took Best Supporting Actress in an upset over Lauren Bacall.
It is the most recent film to reach nine wins, meaning nearly three decades have passed without another. That gap is the clearest evidence that the era of the sweeping epic winner has ended.
The Eight-Win Tier
Eight films are tied at eight Oscars each, spanning nearly 70 years. Gone with the Wind (1939) was the first, and its haul included the first Academy Award won by a Black performer, Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress.
From Here to Eternity (1953) and On the Waterfront (1954) won in consecutive years, the latter carried by Marlon Brando’s Best Actor performance. My Fair Lady (1964) continued the musical run that West Side Story had started, and Cabaret (1972) followed with the most unusual result of the group.
Gandhi (1982) and Amadeus (1984) brought the prestige biopic back to the top of the tally, with Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abraham both winning Best Actor. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) is the most recent film on this entire list, and no film in the 18 years since has matched even eight wins.
Only Three Films Have Swept Every Nomination
Gigi went 9 for 9, The Last Emperor went 9 for 9, and The Return of the King went 11 for 11. Those are the only perfect sweeps in Academy Awards history.
All three share one trait that explains the feat: none received a single acting nomination. Acting categories are where a film is most likely to lose, since four separate performances compete against the strongest work of the year and a film can rarely win more than one. A film nominated only in picture, directing, writing, and craft categories has a far cleaner path to running the table, which is why the perfect sweep belongs to spectacle rather than to actors’ showcases.
Cabaret Holds the Strangest Record of All
Cabaret won eight Oscars in 1972 and lost Best Picture to The Godfather. It still holds the record for the most Academy Awards won by a film that did not take the top prize.
The two films arrived at the 45th Academy Awards with 10 nominations each. Cabaret won eight to The Godfather’s three, beating it head to head in directing, supporting actor, editing, and sound, while losing only picture and adapted screenplay. Bob Fosse taking Best Director over Francis Ford Coppola remains one of the most debated splits the Academy has produced.
Why No Film Has Won 11 Since 2003
Recent Best Picture winners top out far lower. Oppenheimer and Everything Everywhere All at Once each won seven, strong hauls by modern standards but well short of the record.
Part of the reason is structural. Voters now spread awards across more films than they once did, and the sweeping historical epic that could plausibly win costume, art direction, score, and sound in one night is no longer the dominant form. Craft categories increasingly go to films that were never in the Best Picture conversation, which caps how many any single winner can collect. Reaching 11 today would require a film to dominate categories that the Academy now deliberately distributes.
How We Counted Oscar Wins
Films are ranked by total competitive Academy Award wins, using the film’s release year rather than the ceremony year. Honorary and special awards are excluded, as are technical achievement awards presented outside the main ceremony.
Ties are ranked by shared position, so the three films at 11 wins all rank first and the next film ranks fourth. The cutoff is eight wins, which captures every film that has ever reached that total.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which movie has won the most Oscars?
Three films are tied with 11 wins each: Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). No film has won more.
Has any film won every Oscar it was nominated for?
Three have. Gigi and The Last Emperor each went 9 for 9, and The Return of the King went 11 for 11, the largest perfect sweep ever. None of the three received an acting nomination.
Which film has the most Oscar nominations?
Titanic, with 14 nominations, from which it won 11. It received acting nominations but won none of them.
What film won the most Oscars without winning Best Picture?
Cabaret, which won eight in 1972 while The Godfather took Best Picture. It beat The Godfather in four head-to-head categories including Best Director.
Which musical has won the most Oscars?
West Side Story, with 10 wins in 1961, including Best Picture and both supporting acting awards for Rita Moreno and George Chakiris.