Most of us picture an Oscar performance as something big, a character who carries a film from the opening scene to the credits. Sometimes the Academy has looked at something much smaller and decided it was just as memorable.
The eight performances below, seven winners and one nominee, each run under fifteen minutes by the commonly cited screen time counts. Those figures come from film trivia trackers and entertainment outlets, and they can shift by a few seconds depending on how the counting is done.
Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is remembered for earning Judi Dench an Academy Award for her role as Queen Elizabeth I. Her screen time is usually put at about eight minutes, a figure she herself acknowledged when she accepted the prize.
It’s a tidy example of how a role can feel larger than its running time. Her queen arrives, sizes up the room, and settles the plot in a handful of scenes.
Beatrice Straight in Network
With only five minutes and two seconds of screen time, Beatrice Straight set a record for the shortest performance ever to win an acting Oscar. She played Louise Schumacher, the wife of a television executive.
Her key scene is a confrontation after she learns of her husband’s affair. She broke the record for the least amount of screen time for an Oscar winning role, across all four major acting categories.
Gloria Grahame in The Bad and the Beautiful
Gloria Grahame had only nine minutes and thirty two seconds of screen time in the 1952 film The Bad and the Beautiful. She won Best Supporting Actress for it.
At the time, it was the shortest winning performance ever, and the record stood for more than two decades until Network in 1977.
Ben Johnson in The Last Picture Show
Ben Johnson played Sam the Lion, the quiet owner of a small Texas town’s pool hall and cinema. He won the Oscar even though he appears in the film for only nine minutes and fifty four seconds.
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Johnson had spent years in Westerns, often in modest roles. This performance, grounded and unhurried, gave him his only Academy Award.
Jason Robards in Julia
Julia earned nominations for all three of its principal actors. Fonda went home empty handed, but Redgrave and Robards both won, even though Robards is on screen for only ten minutes and forty nine seconds.
Robards played the writer Dashiell Hammett. His Hammett is a calming presence in a life increasingly spinning out of control.
Jack Palance in City Slickers
Palance played Curly, the weathered trail boss in the 1991 comedy City Slickers. He’s on screen for just twelve minutes and twenty four seconds, yet he won Best Supporting Actor.
He was a veteran who had been nominated before, and the role gave him a late career high. Many viewers still remember the ceremony for his one armed push ups on stage.
Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine
In fourteen minutes of screen time, Arkin got his first and only Oscar, having been nominated two times before and once after his win. He played Edwin Hoover, the foul mouthed grandfather of a road tripping family.
The film’s ensemble leaves little room for any one actor. Arkin made his scenes count, mixing grumpiness with a surprising tenderness.
Ned Beatty in Network
Not every brief role wins. Network’s other Oscar nominated performances included William Holden and Ned Beatty, and Beatty had only six minutes of screen time.
Ned Beatty holds an Oscars record for the shortest performance to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. His single long speech as a corporate chairman is the part of the film many people quote from memory.
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