It’s awards show season and the biggest one is almost upon us.

We’ve had the Baftas and the Golden Globes, and now it’s Oscars time.

The Oscars, or rather the Academy Awards, will take place on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre. The leading films this year are Roma and The Favourite with 10 nominations apiece.

Lady Gaga is nominated again for A Star is Born, and Black Panther is the first Marvel film ever to score six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Music Score.

Wakanda forever.

To get you ready for the show, the BBC did a little digging into the past year to uncover some of the weirdest and most interesting facts about the show, and those in the running for a shiny gold statue.

Here are 10 of the best:

1. Lady Gaga took her stage name from the Queen song Radio Gaga, as she said she “adored” the band. Now a decade later her film is going up against Bohemian Rhapsody in the Best Picture category.

2. Glenn Close currently holds the dubious title of the actress with the most Oscar nominations to her name without a win. That might change this year, as she’s among the favourites to win Best Actress for her role in The Wife.

3. In both the Best Actor and Supporting Actor categories this year, four of the five nominees portray real people in their roles. Real-life figures include Freddie Mercury, Vincent Van Gogh, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.

4. Roma‘s star Yalitza Aparicio had never acted before when she was cast for the leading role.

5.  All four of the acting prizes this year could be for portrayals of lesbian, gay or bisexual characters. Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz played lovers in The Favourite, Mahershala Ali’s portrayal of Don Shirley references his homosexuality, and Rami Malek played icon, Freddie Mercury.

6. In 2008, The Dark Knight helped prompt an Oscars rule change, which expanded the Best Picture category from five nominees to as many as 10. The hope here was that more superhero films would be considered. Black Panther is the first in a decade to be nominated.

7. Incredibles 2 is nominated for Best Animated Feature this year. It probably won’t win.

8. Mary Poppins Returns isn’t going to have quite as big a night as the original. It has four nominations this year, while the original 1964 film won five of the staggering 13 Oscars it was nominated for.

9. Christian Bale shares a birthday with Dick Cheney, who he portrays in Vice. Bale also has strong ties to South Africa.

10. While accepting his Golden Globe award last month, Bale said: “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.” Shady.

And remember, even if you don’t win, it’s still “an honour to be nominated”.

[source:bbc]