What you read now will become one of your favourite topics at dinner tables and social gatherings. Do you know the name of the actor who won an Oscar for Best Actor but actually played the shortest ever role on screen? The answer is Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs- the shortest ever role to win Best Actor. Hopkins spent only 16 (and a bit) minutes on screen for his award-winning performance. There are more interesting numbers from the history of Oscars.

80 - the age of the oldest ever winner of a competitive acting Oscar - Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy.

0 - The number of times an animated film has won the Best Picture Oscar.

0 - The number of times a superhero movie has been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

$1 - how much an Oscar statuette is allegedly worth - since 1950, the Academy has made all winners sign an agreement

that they or their heirs won't sell the trophy without first offering to sell it back to the Academy for a buck.

2 - the number of nominations Barry Fitzgerald received in 1944 for his performance in Going My Way - he was

nominated as both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, the only person ever to have been nominated twice for the

same role. He won Best Supporting Actor, but lost the Best Actor race to castmate Bing Crosby. The Academy

subsequently changed its rules to prevent double nominations.

3 - the number of films who've done a clean sweep of the big five awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and

Screenplay.) The films are It Happened One Night, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence Of The Lambs.

10 - the age of the youngest ever winner of a competitive acting Oscar - Tatum O'Neal, best supporting actress for

Paper Moon.

11 - the most Oscars ever won by a film (achieved three times: by Ben-Hur, Titanic and Lord Of The Rings: Return Of

The King.)

13.5 inches - the height of the Oscar statue.

16 (and a bit) minutes - the amount of time Anthony Hopkins was on screen in his Best Actor winning role as Hannibal

Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs, the shortest ever role to win Best Actor.

20 - The number of times sound mixer Kevin O'Connell has been nominated for an Oscar without winning, making him the

biggest loser in Oscar history. He's unlikely to break that failure streak this year, unless he pulls off a surprise

nomination for his work on Space Chimps.

22 - the number of proper Oscars won by Walt Disney, making him the most successful individual in Oscar history. He

also won an additional four honorary Oscars.

38 - the number of Emmy Awards that the Academy Awards have won

40 minutes - the minimum length of a film to be eligible for the main Oscars.

45 - the number of nominations composer John Williams has had (he won five of them).

150 - The estimated number of Oscar statuettes that have been sold (despite the Academy's $1 buy-back contract).

281 - The number of films eligible for the Academy Awards this year, from Adam Resurrected to Zombie Strippers.

2,701 - the number of Oscar statuettes that have been handed out so far.

6,000 - the rough number of people who are eligible to vote in the Oscar ballots (the Academy don't say exactly how

many members they have).

$1,500,000 - highest price of an Oscar statuette when sold at auction. It was Gone With The Wind's 1939 Best Picture

Oscar, and it was bought by Michael Jackson.

29,160,000 - the average American TV audience for the 2008 ceremony, the lowest number for 39 years.

$935,901,132 - how much more The Dark Knight has made at the box office than Slumdog Millionaire (as of January 19 -

$997,033,655 against $61,132,523).