Film Quiz — 50 Questions with Answers

Which 1996 film follows Renton and his Edinburgh friends?

Answer Trainspotting

Made for a small budget and shot largely in Glasgow standing in for Edinburgh. Its soundtrack sold in numbers the film itself could not have paid for, which is part of why it defined a decade of British cinema abroad.

The Full Monty (1997) is set in which city?

Answer Sheffield

Sheffield, and the setting is the point rather than the backdrop — the story only works because the steel industry that employed the characters had gone. It cost very little and became one of the highest-earning British films ever made.

Which film about the 1924 Olympics won Best Picture?

Answer Chariots of Fire

Chariots of Fire, and its screenwriter's acceptance speech gave British cinema one of its most quoted lines about coming for the industry. The theme has outlived the film in public memory, which happens more often than filmmakers would like.

Colin Firth won an Oscar for playing which king?

Answer George VI

George VI, whose speech impediment the film centres on. The therapist in it was a real Australian with no formal medical qualification, which the film keeps rather than smoothing over.

Who played Professor Marcus in the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers (1955)?

Answer Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness, in one of the run of comedies from a small studio that shaped how British film comedy sounded for a generation. He is also the same actor a later generation knew only as a wizard in a space film, a role he disliked.

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) starred which actor?

Answer Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant, in a film written in a few weeks and made cheaply. Its success set a template that British cinema then repeated for a decade, which is not entirely a compliment to what followed.

Which 1962 desert epic about a British officer won seven Oscars?

Answer Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia, and it contains almost no women and no romance, which was unusual for an epic of that scale even then. It was shot on location in the desert over more than a year.

In Billy Elliot, Billy dreams of becoming what?

Answer A ballet dancer

A ballet dancer, set against the miners' strike of the mid-1980s. The two halves are doing the same work: the film is about what a community will and will not permit, and dance is only the test case.

Which British studio became famous for horror films like Dracula (1958)?

Answer Hammer

Hammer, whose films were made fast and cheap and in colour when the American originals had been in black and white. Blood in colour is most of what made them notorious at the time.

Which 2017 film dramatised the Dunkirk evacuation?

Answer Dunkirk

Dunkirk, told across three timelines that run at different speeds — a week on land, a day at sea, an hour in the air. They converge at the end, which is why the film feels longer than its running time.

Who was the first actor to play James Bond on the big screen?

Answer Sean Connery

Sean Connery, who was not the author's idea of the character at all — the writer had someone more polished in mind and said so publicly before the film changed his view.

What is James Bond's code number?

Answer 007

007. The double zero is the part that means something in the fiction: it marks an agent licensed to kill, and the seven is simply the number that followed.

Harry Potter attends which school of witchcraft and wizardry?

Answer Hogwarts

Hogwarts. The series is a rare case of the same young actors growing up across eight films, so watching them in order records their actual adolescence alongside the story's.

Wallace and Gromit are made by which animation studio?

Answer Aardman

Aardman, working in clay a frame at a time. A few seconds of finished film can take an animator a day, which is why the studio's output is small relative to its reputation.

Paddington Bear arrives in London from which country?

Answer Peru

Peru, and the detail is not decoration — the character was written just after the war by an author who had seen newsreels of evacuated children with labels round their necks. The label on the coat is where that comes from.

What was Daniel Craig's first Bond film?

Answer Casino Royale

Casino Royale, which returned to the first novel and started the character again from the beginning. It is the only entry in the series to do that after decades of continuity.

Who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films?

Answer Emma Watson

Emma Watson, cast at nine years old. Casting a child for a decade-long series is a gamble no other franchise has taken at that scale, and the fact that it worked three times over is unusual.

Which intelligence service employs James Bond?

Answer MI6

MI6, the foreign intelligence service. The organisation did not officially acknowledge its own existence until 1994, decades after the films had made it famous.

Mr. Bean is played by which actor?

Answer Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson, in a character who barely speaks — which is exactly why the series sold in almost every country. Removing dialogue removed the need to translate anything.

Which singer won an Oscar for the Bond theme 'Skyfall'?

Answer Adele

Adele. It was the first Bond theme to win the award, despite the series having produced some of the best-known film songs of the previous fifty years.

Parasite, the first non-English-language Best Picture winner, came from which country?

Answer South Korea

South Korea, ninety-two years after the award began. Its director's remark about subtitles being a one-inch barrier became the most repeated line of the ceremony.

Who directed Jaws, E.T. and Schindler's List?

Answer Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg, and the three named films are a fair summary of the problem critics had with him for years — he was placed as an entertainer until a film about the Holocaust made the argument harder to sustain.

Titanic equalled the all-time record by winning how many Oscars?

Answer 11

Eleven, matching Ben-Hur, and later matched again by the third Lord of the Rings film. That third one is the only one of the three to win every award it was nominated for.

Which actress holds the record for most Oscar nominations?

Answer Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep, by a wide margin over anyone else. The gap is large enough that the record is unlikely to be approached, let alone broken.

The Godfather was directed by whom?

Answer Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola, who was not the studio's choice and was nearly replaced during filming. The casting of the lead was also fought over, which is a common feature of films later called inevitable.

Which 1939 epic held box-office records for decades?

Answer Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind. Adjusted for inflation it is still the highest-earning film ever released, and it is also where the first Oscar won by a Black performer came from — at a ceremony where she was seated apart from her colleagues.

The Hollywood sign originally spelled out what?

Answer Hollywoodland

Hollywoodland. It was an advertisement for a housing development and was meant to be temporary. The last four letters were removed in the 1940s when the sign was repaired rather than demolished.

Who played Forrest Gump?

Answer Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks, in the second of two consecutive Best Actor wins — something only one other performer has done. The running scenes were filmed with his younger brother standing in for the long shots.

In which film does a DeLorean travel through time?

Answer Back to the Future

Back to the Future. In the earliest script the time machine was a fridge, changed because the writers worried children would climb into one. A safety decision produced the film's most famous image.

Oppenheimer won Best Picture — who directed it?

Answer Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan, after two decades of large films without the award. He shoots on film rather than digitally and builds effects in front of the camera where he can, which is now unusual at that budget.

Which British-born director was known as the Master of Suspense?

Answer Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock, who never won the directing award despite five nominations. He is also the only director of his stature whose own face became as recognisable as his films, largely through television.

Dame Judi Dench played which character in the Bond films?

Answer M

M. She played the role across seven films, and the character was written as a woman for the first time when she was cast, following a real appointment at the service the films depict.

Sir Ian McKellen played which wizard on screen?

Answer Gandalf

Gandalf, filmed in New Zealand across two trilogies more than a decade apart. He has said he took the part having barely read the books, which is not what the audience assumes.

Which director of Kes and I, Daniel Blake is known for social realism?

Answer Ken Loach

Ken Loach, who casts non-professionals in many roles and often gives actors the script one scene at a time so their reactions are not rehearsed. He has won the top prize at Cannes twice.

Anthony Hopkins won his first Oscar for playing whom?

Answer Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter, in a performance that is on screen for around sixteen minutes. It remains one of the shortest ever to win a leading award, which raises a question about the category that has never been resolved.

Charlie Chaplin's famous screen persona is known as what?

Answer The Tramp

The Tramp, a character built from costume before it had any personality — the hat, cane and shoes were assembled in an afternoon from whatever was in the wardrobe department.

Danny Boyle directed which Mumbai-set Best Picture winner?

Answer Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire, shot partly with hand-held digital cameras in streets too crowded for conventional equipment. Its child actors were not professionals, and what happened to them afterwards became a story of its own.

Kate Winslet won her Oscar for which film?

Answer The Reader

The Reader, after five previous nominations without a win. She had joked about the situation publicly beforehand, which made the eventual result unusually well received.

Which director shot 1917 to look like one continuous take?

Answer Sam Mendes

Sam Mendes, and the film is not one take — it is a series of long takes joined at moments designed to hide the cut. Knowing that changes what you watch for, which is why the trick is usually explained after rather than before.

Olivia Colman won an Oscar for playing which queen?

Answer Anne

Anne, the last Stuart monarch, in a film that treats a real court as a comedy of manipulation. Her acceptance speech is among the few that are remembered for being funny rather than for being long.

Who directed Seven Samurai?

Answer Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa, whose film was remade as a western and then borrowed from so widely that the structure now signals its own plot. He was more admired abroad than at home for much of his career.

Which festival awards the Golden Bear?

Answer Berlin

Berlin, which along with Cannes and Venice makes the three that are usually grouped together. Its festival is held in February, which is why its winners so rarely feature in the same year's award season.

Cinema Paradiso comes from which country?

Answer Italy

Italy. The version that travelled the world is much shorter than the one released at home, and which of the two counts as the real film is still argued about.

Which Danish director co-founded the Dogme 95 movement?

Answer Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier. The movement's manifesto banned artificial lighting, props brought to location, and crediting the director — rules its own founders broke almost immediately, which they later admitted.

City of God is set in the favelas of which city?

Answer Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro. Most of the cast were young people from the neighbourhoods the film depicts rather than trained actors, and workshops ran for months before shooting began.

Which Spanish director made Volver with Penelope Cruz?

Answer Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodóvar, who has worked with the same performers repeatedly across decades. The colour in his films is deliberate to the point of being a signature — red in particular does specific work.

The Lives of Others portrays surveillance in which state?

Answer East Germany

East Germany, and the film's subject is the surveillance service whose files were opened to the public after reunification. Citizens could read what had been recorded about them, which is unusual and is what makes the film's premise verifiable.

Which French New Wave director made Breathless (1960)?

Answer Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard, whose film used jump cuts so freely that they read as mistakes at the time. The technique was partly a practical solution — the film was too long and he cut inside shots rather than losing scenes.

Amelie is set mainly in which Paris district?

Answer Montmartre

Montmartre, and the production digitally removed graffiti and litter to make the district look the way the film wanted. That choice was criticised at home for presenting a version of Paris that does not exist.

Which Iranian director won Oscars for A Separation and The Salesman?

Answer Asghar Farhadi

Asghar Farhadi. He did not attend the second ceremony, in protest at a travel ban then affecting citizens of his country, and had a statement read out in his place.