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4 Actors Who Were Oscar-Nominated (Or Won) With Almost No Screen Time

One of these performances lasted five minutes. It still won Best Supporting Actress.

By The Clapperboard Staff ยท July 10, 2026 ยท 1 min read

4 Actors Who Were Oscar-Nominated (Or Won) With Almost No Screen Time

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1

Beatrice Straight won an Oscar for about 5 minutes of screen time โ€” still the record

Beatrice Straight
Beatrice Straight
Network (1976)
Network (1976)

Straight played the jilted wife of William Holden's character in Network, delivering one blistering monologue in a single scene. It's widely cited as the shortest screen time ever to win a competitive acting Oscar โ€” she took home Best Supporting Actress for 1976.

2

Judi Dench won Best Supporting Actress for just 8 minutes as Queen Elizabeth I

Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Dench appears in Shakespeare in Love for roughly 8 minutes total, playing the aging Queen Elizabeth I. She won the 1999 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress anyway, joking in her acceptance speech that for eight minutes on screen she should only get "a little bit" of the statue.

3

Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor โ€” in the LEAD category โ€” with only 16 minutes on screen

Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter appears in The Silence of the Lambs for a little more than 16 minutes โ€” yet he won Best Actor, not Best Supporting Actor, a category typically reserved for far larger roles. It remains one of the most-cited examples of screen time having almost nothing to do with a performance's impact.

4

Sylvia Miles got an Oscar nomination for roughly 6 minutes in Midnight Cowboy

Sylvia Miles
Sylvia Miles
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Miles played a wealthy New Yorker who has a brief, bruising encounter with Jon Voight's Joe Buck early in Midnight Cowboy. Her screen time totals only a few minutes, but it was enough to earn her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 1970 Oscars.

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