As we move through the month of April, we have something to look forward to when it comes to its inevitably speedy close. This year, the 93rd Academy Awards will celebrate the films of the year 2020 and those of early 2021. The awards take place April 25 at 7 p.m. on ABC two months later than originally scheduled. 

The last Academy Awards ceremony in 2020 was cancelled due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout the nation. This year’s COVID-safe ceremony will be celebrating such nominated films as “Judas and the Black Messiah”, “Mank”, and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”.

The gallery below will show all of the nominees for this year’s Oscars, including my own predictions for its winners in blue (with no explanations, of course). 

Oscars Nominees by Paige Bostic

In celebration of this upcoming ceremony, here are some fun facts to hold us over until the awards!

• The youngest Oscar winner in history is Tatum O’Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress in the 1973 film “Paper Moon” at 10 years old.
• The person who has won the most Academy Awards is Katherine Hepburn, who has won four of them, all for Best Actress!
• The reason the awards are called “Oscars” is that Academy executive secretary Margaret Herrick claimed the figures reminded her of her Uncle Oscar in 1939. 
• The actual award is made of solid bronze and coated with gold, making it quite heavy.
• Walt Disney holds the record for most Academy Award nominations, with a cool and breezy 59. 
• Three films hold a record of most Oscars won: “Titanic” (1997), “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” (2003), and “Ben-Hur” (1959). They each have 11!
• Both installments of the “Godfather” films have won Oscars — the only film sequence to do so. 
• Christopher Plummer is the oldest individual to have won at Oscar. He did so at 82. 
• The Academy Awards is an expensive affair, costing $44 million on average!
• The record for the shortest award-winning speech is held by Patty Duke, who gave a short and sweet “thank you”.