Kevin O'Connell: Oscar's biggest loser

Forget all the normal Hollywood hoopla over the Oscars: there is actually a human interest story in Academy Awards this year. And the human in question is sound mixer Kevin O'Connell. He's nominated for his sound mixing work on Transformers.

Nothing hugely remarkable in that you might think - apart from the fact the poor chap is on his 20th nomination WITHOUT EVER HAVING WON!

He was first nominated in 1983 for Terms Of Endearment, then Dune, Silverado and Top gun over the following three years. In 87 and 88 he failed to secure a nomination, but then hit back in 89 with Black Rain, followed by Days of Thunder the next year. In 1992 he was nominated for A Few Good Men and Crimson Tide in 95. In 1996 he was nominated twice for Twister and The Rock. The following year he made the list for Con Air, before being nominated twice in 98 for The Mask Of Zorro and Armageddon.

1999 he missed out, but thereafter hit his stride again throughout the noughties: The Patriot (2000); Pearl Harbour (2001); Spider-Man (2002); Spider-Man 2 (2004); Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005); and Apocalypto (2006).

His Transformers sound-mixing cohort Greg P Russell is in a similar situation: he's secured his 12th nom - without ever having taken the win.

They, and their colleague Peter J Devlin (only nominated once before), are up against teams that mixed the sound for The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country For Old Men, Ratatouille and 3.10 To Yuma. According to an article The Times, O'Connell has prepared a speech every time he's been nominated previously, but this time he will "say the first thing that comes into my head". Good luck!