Movies with the most Oscar wins as of 2021

As of September 2021, three films tied for most Academy Award wins of all time. "Ben-Hur" (1959), "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003), and "Titanic" (1997) each received 11 Oscars. The musical with the most Oscar wins was "West Side Story" (1961), with ten trophies.

The studios will go on – or will they?

None of the seven production companies behind the top three Oscar-winning movies in history were among the Academy Award-winning studios in 2021. Wins for the most influential prize in Hollywood reflected two major trends in the industry. On the one hand, the hegemony of Disney. On the other, the rise of streaming platforms such as Amazon and Netflix. Throughout five years, Netflix’s Oscar nominations increased more than 17-fold, consolidating its prestige in the realm of film.

The best of two worlds

The recipe for a so-called Oscar bait – that is, a movie seemingly produced for the sake of snatching the coveted trophy – may include the Academy’s sweethearts. But that does not necessarily translate into a two-digit number of wins. None of the only six actors with at least three Oscar wins participated in the only four films with at least ten Oscar wins. These two elite groups tend to follow different tropes. The most rewarded actors usually received trophies for their work in character-based movies. Meanwhile, the most rewarded films typically received prizes for their epic, larger-than-life narratives and sets.