19 things you didn't know about the Oscars

2019 marks the 91st year of the Academy Awards. We're sure you've watched all the movies and have your Oscar brackets ready ahead of this year's ceremony — which airs on Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. on ABC — but do you know these 19 fun facts about the award ceremony? Keep reading to learn them all!

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It's real gold!

An Oscar is 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds. Made from solid bronze and plated in 24-carat gold, the 2018 statue's value was estimated at around $700. But if an Oscar winner — such as 2017 best supporting actress winner Viola Davis, seen here — ever decides to get rid of his or her statue, they can't sell it for any amount they wish…

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It doesn't sell for much

Technically, Oscar winners can't really cash in if they're willing to part with their hardware because selling any post-1950 Academy Award is illegal. Oscar winners (like the late Grace Kelly, seen here with her prize in 1954) and their heirs must first offer to sell the statue back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for just $1.

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Three films are tied for most Oscar wins

2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," 1997's "Titanic" and 1959's "Ben Hur" each received 11 Academy Awards, tying for the title of the most successful film in Oscar history. But "The Return of the King" is the only movie to win every Oscar for which it was nominated.

Only five women have ever been best director nominees

Only five women have ever received best director nominations. 2018's "Lady Bird" filmmaker Greta Gerwig is the latest. She follows Kathryn Bigelow for 2010's "The Hurt Locker" (the only woman to actually win the prize), Sofia Coppola for 2004's "Lost in Translation," Jane Campion for 1994's "The Piano" and Lina Wertmüller for 1977's "Seven Beauties."

Only three films have won the Academy's top five prizes

There are only three films that have won Academy Awards in all the top five categories: best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best adapted screenplay. The first film to accomplish this feat was 1934's "It Happened One Night." The five-time win happened again in 1975 when "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" took home all the major-category Oscars. Then in 1991, "The Silence of the Lambs" pulled it off with wins for Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme, screenwriter Ted Tally and its producers.

One host emceed 19 times

The 2019 ceremony marks the first Oscars ceremony in 30 years that hasn't had a host. Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars for the second year in a row in 2018. Billy Crystal hosted nine times. Whoopi Goldberg hosted four times. Steve Martin did it three times. And Ellen DeGeneres, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel have all hosted twice. But comedy legend Bob Hope beats them all: He hosted the Academy Awards a record 19 times between 1939 and 1977.

Youngest winner ever

The youngest winner in Oscar history is Tatum O'Neal, who was 10 when she took home the best supporting actress prize for her work in "Paper Moon" in 1974.

Oscar winners receive statues with blank nameplates

In order to prevent Oscar winners' names from leaking prior to the ceremony, statues are presented with blank baseplates. Up until 2010, winners were asked to return their Oscars after the ceremony to have them engraved, but since then, the Academy has hired an engraver who sets up shop at the Governors Ball (the official Academy Awards afterparty) where winners have the option to have their names added to their hardware immediately after the telecast.

A screen legend holds the record for most acting wins

Katharine Hepburn holds the record for the most Oscars won by a single person for acting: four wins from 12 nominations. She took home best actress Academy Awards for her work in 1933's "Morning Glory," 1967's "Guess Who's Coming the Dinner," 1968's "The Lion in Winter" and 1982's "On Golden Pond."

A modern-day star holds the record for the most nominations

With 21 nominations, Meryl Streep holds the record for the actor with the most Oscar nods — plus she's won three times!

The red carpet isn't cheap

The 16,500 square feet of red carpet that's laid outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood ahead of the Oscar ceremony each year costs about $30,000.

Only one star has won three best actor Oscars

Daniel Day-Lewis is the only actor to ever win the Academy Award for best actor three times over. The British-Irish star won his first Oscar in 1990 for his work in " My Left Foot." He followed that up with a win in 2008 for "There Will Be Blood." In 2013, he won for his performance in "Lincoln."

One star has been nominated more than any other male actor

That's right, Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male performer in Academy history with 12 nods. He was most recently nominated in 2003 for his work in "About Schmidt." (He's won three times: He has two lead actor Oscars and one supporting actor award.)

The Academy has new safeguards in place for announcing winners

After 2017's epic best picture blunder — in which "La La Land" was mistakenly given the best picture Oscar instead of "Moonlight" — the Academy and longtime accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (whose employee handed presenters the wrong envelope after he was reportedly tweeting backstage) overhauled Oscar-night envelope procedures to ensure it never happens again. Among the changes? Along with the two balloting partners who are stationed on either side of the stage, a third person who has a complete set of winners' envelopes — and has memorized all the results — will now sit with producers in the show's control room. And from now on, both the celebrity presenter and a stage manager will confirm they've been given the correct category envelope before anyone walks on stage to present. But perhaps most practical of all is that the accounting firm's partners will be banned from using social media and cell phones while working during the telecast.

A cheap ticket

The first Oscars ceremony on May 16, 1929, lasted only 15 minutes, making it the shortest ceremony ever. And back then, tickets for the ceremony, which was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel — which is just a few blocks away from the current home of the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre — cost just $5. Here, Douglas Fairbanks is seen presenting Janet Gaynor with the very first best actress Academy Award, which she won for her work in "7th Heaven," "Street Angel" and "Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans."

The oldest-ever Oscar winner almost broke his own record

The oldest winner to ever receive an Academy Award is Christopher Plummer, who was 82 when he won a best supporting actor Oscar in 2012 for his work in "Beginners." Amazingly, he had the chance to break his own record at the 2018 ceremony when he was 88: Christopher was up for best supporting actor for his performance in "All the Money in the World."

Walt Disney made Oscar history

With 59 nominations and 22 wins, Walt Disney holds the record for the most Oscar nods and prizes of any individual in history.

The Academy Awards weren't always televised

The Academy Awards were around for nearly 25 years before they were ever televised. The 1953 ceremony, held at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, was the first Oscars show to be broadcast nationwide.

"Oscar" was originally an unofficial nickname

We might refer to the Academy Awards as "The Oscars" today, but that wasn't always the case. Hollywood legend holds that Academy librarian Margaret Herrick came up with nickname after noticing the award statue looked just like her Uncle Oscar. The moniker was officially adopted by the Academy in 1939 after several years of informal use.