Godfather and The Godfather Part II) Other Best Picture awards for a film series Rocky series: Rocky (1976) The Middle-earth series: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Film series with multiple Best Picture nominations The Godfather series with 3 nominations (for The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and The Godfather Part III) The Middle-earth series with 3 nominations (for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) Avatar series with 2 nominations (for Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water) Most nominations for a film seriesStar Wars with 38 nominations Most awards for a film series The Middle-earth series with 17 competitive wins out of 37 nominations (for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) Most nominations for Best Original Screenplay Woody Allen with 16 nominations and 3 wins Longest time between the release of a film and winning an Oscar Limelight (1952) is the only film to have won an award twenty years after its official release. Since it was not released in Los Angeles County until 1972, it was not eligible for any Academy Awards until that time Most posthumous award wins William A. Horning won in 1958 for Best Art Direction for Gigi, and for Best Art Direction for Ben-Hur in 1959 Most posthumous award nominations Howard Ashman with fourHighest-grossing film to win Best PictureTitanic with $2,187,535,296Highest-grossing film to be nominated for Best PictureAvatar with $2,847,397,339Films to gross over $2 billion to be nominated for Best PictureAvatar Avatar: The Way of Water TitanicFilms to gross over $1 billion to be nominated for Best PictureAvatar Avatar: The Way of Water Black Panther Joker The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Titanic Top Gun: Maverick Toy Story 3Highest-grossing R-rated film to win Best PictureGladiator with $457,552,323Highest-grossing R-rated film to be nominated for Best PictureJoker with $1,074,251,311Lowest-grossing film to win Best PictureCODA with $1,052,792 Longest film to win Best Picture Gone with the Wind, 224 minutes (238 with overture, entr'acte, and exit music) Longest film to win an award O.J.: Made in America (2016), 467 minutes (Best Documentary Feature) The longest fictional film to win an award was War and Peace (1968), 431 minutes (Best Foreign Language Film) Shortest film to win Best Picture Marty, 90 minutes Shortest film to