How to win an acting Oscar

To win an acting Oscar, Academy members need to notice you and nominate you. How do you achieve this? Easy, get a lead or preferably a supporting role in a film by Woody Allen or David O Russell!

The two combined are awards nomination-generating machines. At the Oscars, performers in Woody Allen films have been nominated 17 times, and won seven times over the past 35 years. Of late, David O Russell's triple whammy of The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle have generated 11 acting noms.

Here's the Woody Allen nominations list with wins in bold:

• Annie Hall: Actor (Allen himself), Actress (Diane Keaton)
• Interiors: Actress (Geraldine Page), Supporting Actres (Maureen Stapleton)
• Manhattan: Supporting Actress (Mariel Hemingway)
• Hannah & Her Sisters: Supporting Actor (Michael Caine), Supporting Actress (Dianne Wiest)
• Crimes & Misdemeanours: Supporting Actor (Martin Landau)
• Husbands & Wives: Supporting Actress (Judy Davis)
• Bullets Over Broadway: Supporting Actor (Chazz Palminteri), Supporting Actress (Dianne Wiest)
• Mighty Aphrodite: Supporting Actress (Mira Sorvino)
• Sweet & Lowdown: Actor (Sean Penn), Supporting Actress (Samantha Morton)
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Supporting Actress (Penelope Cruz)
• Blue Jasmine: Actress (Cate Blanchett), Supporting Actress (Sally Hawkins)

And here's the David O Russell list, again with wins in bold:

• The Fighter: Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo), Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
• Silver Linings Playbook: Actor (Bradley Cooper), Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Supporting Actor (Robert de Niro), Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver)
• American Hustle: Actor (Christian Bale), Actress (Amy Adams), Supporting Actor (Bradley Cooper), Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)

Or of course you could clone Daniel Day Lewis (three wins from just five nominations), Meryl Streep (three wins from 19 nominations), or Cate Blanchett (three wins from six nominations, with a seventh nom surely to come for Carol).

Or simply make sure that you're in a film produced by Harvey Weinstein and/or The Weinstein Company!