Do Oscar winners thank Steven Spielberg more than they thank God?

The Academy Awards are a night of glitz, glamour, and gratitude, as winners take to the stage to thank those who helped them reach cinematic glory.

Ahead of the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday we turn to our very own Stephen Follows, who has crunched the numbers on more than 2,000 Oscar acceptance speeches to answer the big questions about Oscars history – who was the most grateful? Who talks too much? Who was thanked more than God?

Back in the early days of the Oscars, acceptance speeches were simple and short. They dropped from an average of 100 words during the 1940s to an all-time low of less than 50 words in the terse, concise 1950s. (For reference that means the average speech was shorter than this paragraph).

Since then, however, we've seen a steady rise in verbosity which reached an all-time high in the 2010s with an average word count of almost 300. In an effort to bring proceedings under control, the Academy introduced a hard 45-second limit on speeches, but a few notable winners have still managed to resist the pressure to get off stage.

Wordiest category

Not all Oscar winners clutch the microphone with equal fervour, however. Focusing on data from the last 25 years, we've found that behind-the-scenes recipients such as costume designers, score composers and visual effects supervisors usually keep things short – either because they're less comfortable with the limelight or because these lower-down-the-bill winners tend to to get hurried off the stage faster.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the wordiest winners are the wordsmiths themselves. The average 21st century recipient of the Best Adapted Screenplay award goes on for more than 350 words (that's about the length of this article from the start to around this point). This eclipses even the top-of-the-bill categories such as Best Actor/Actress and Best Director and Best Picture.

Most thankful winner

But what's in those speeches? Well, the most common themes are autobiographical anecdotes or some form of commentary on the film industry. This stuff aside, the average winner typically finds time to thank between eight and 10 individuals, with the most commonly mentioned people being spouses. Parents and children are thanked less often, with mothers getting more credit than fathers, and a small but notable number thank their siblings.

The most thankful category is Best Actress, whose winners name-check 13.8 people on average. However, it is not an actress that holds the overall gratitude record.

That title goes to Hollywood producer John Landau. At the 70th Academy Awards, held on 23 March 1998, Landau rattled through a staggering 54 names in 66 seconds when accepting his Best Picture award for Titanic. By contrast, his co-producer, James Cameron, thanked absolutely no one, though he did request a moment of silence for the victims of the real Titanic disaster.

Most thanked overall  

There is a long-standing claim that disgraced producer and former Hollywood power-broker Harvey Weinstein was thanked more often than God at the Oscars. Mercifully, this has turned out not to be true, though his shadow does loom large in speeches from the 1990s and 2000s. 

What you have to remember is that people have been giving thanks to the almighty since the very first Academy Awards ceremony, and it's that sort of staying power that earns records. A total of 4.3% of all speeches specifically thank God for the winner's success, far exceeding the tally for any mortal.

Among living human beings, it is director/producer Steven Spielberg who claims the title of most thanked person. Indeed, during his famous run of critical and box office hits in the 1980s and 1990s, he actually did get thanked more often than God. In the 1980s he was thanked in 6.7% of speeches (compared to God's 3.6%) and in the 1990s this rose to almost 9%.

To quote legendary documentary producer Sheila Nevins (more on her in a moment), when asked about Spielberg's ubiquity at the awards, "God cannot give them their next job – Steven Spielberg can". The only other Hollywood figure to have outdone the Lord is Peter Jackson, who was mentioned in 9% of acceptance speeches in the 2000s thanks to the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Most thanked woman

While many of the most thanked figures in Oscar history are powerhouse directors and producers, one name stands out: Sheila Nevins. As the long-time head of HBO Documentary Films, she has produced over 1,000 documentaries and had a hand in more than 26 Oscar-winning projects along the way. Her impact on the industry has earned her more thanks than any other woman in Oscars history.

Reflecting on her legacy, she remarked: "It is lovely to be thanked, and it really hurts when you are not thanked. I have been thanked for things I did not deserve, and I have been not thanked for things I bled over."

...one last thing

Despite Hollywood's reputation with some, we were not able to find a single instance of someone giving thanks to the devil at the Oscars. The closest anyone seems to have come is Maureen O'Hara's 2014 Honorary Award speech. She affectionately referred to legendary director John Ford as "that old devil himself." Given Ford's reputation as a difficult yet brilliant filmmaker – "the man who made John Wayne cry" – perhaps this was more fitting than she intended.

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