FILM 1662: I AM HEATH LEDGER 

TRIVIA: Seventh of Derik Murray's I Am Series

FILM 1372: CASTING BY

TRIVIA: Director Tom Donahue interviewed over 240 people for the film, but only 57 interviews made it into the movie. Sending emails to those who did not make the cut was a heartbreaking experience.

FILM 1292: BIRDMAN

TRIVIA: The movie was largely shot inside Broadway's St. James Theatre - Michael Keaton and the rest of the cast had to adapt to Alejandro González Iñárritu's rigorous shooting style, which required them to perform up to 15 pages of dialogue at a time while hitting precisely choreographed marks.

There are only sixteen visible cuts in the entire film.

During the press conference in Riggan's dressing room, he says that he hasn't played Birdman since 1992. That's the same year Batman Returns (1992), the last Batman movie starring Michael Keaton, was released.

Martin Scorsese can be seen in the audience when Michael Keaton is walking to the stage in his underwear after he walks through Times Square.

According to Alejandro González Iñárritu, he had dinner with director Mike Nichols in New York two weeks before he began shooting the movie. Iñarritu told Nichols of his plan for how he was going to shoot the movie as one long take. Nichols predicted it would be a disaster because not having the ability to use cuts in editing would inhibit the opportunities for comedy. Inarritu said the meeting didn't deter him, but was instead helpful in raising his awareness level of the difficulty of what he was about to do.

The carpet visible within a number of back stage corridor scenes is the same iconic, hexagonal carpet used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980).

FILM 1196: DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

TRIVIA: The budget was also so low for this film that only two-hundred and fifty dollars ($250) was allotted to the Makeup department. Amazingly, the film's artists were able to work within that figure, and the film's Makeup and Hairstyling won an Oscar.

Matthew McConaughey lost 47 pounds in assuming his role as an AIDS patient. Newspapers reported his new looks as "terribly gaunt" and "wasting away to skin and bones".

Jared Leto lost 30 pounds for his role.

Leto's and Garner's characters didn't exist in real life.

The movie went through various stages before finally being financed with the help of Matthew McConaughey. The first director/actor duo who tried to get the movie made were Brad Pitt and Marc Forster and also Ryan Gosling and Craig Gillespie. Woody Harrelson was also involved with the project at one point.

This is the fifth movie to win best actor & best supporting actor Oscars (for Matthew McConaughey & Jared Leto), Going My Way (1944),The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Ben-Hur (1959) & Mystic River (2003) being the others.