In 1955, Joe Mantell competed for the Supporting Actor Oscasr with Jack Lemmon, who won for “Mr. Roberts,” Arthur Kennedy in “Trial,” Sal Mineo in “Rebel Without a Cause,” and Arthur O'Connell in “Picnic.”

December 26, 2007–Nomination ballots for the 2007 Academy Awards were mailed today (Wednesday) to the 5,829 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences. Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers no later than 5 p.m. on January 12, 2008.

For close to a decade, there were only two acting categories: Best Actor and Best Actress. In 1936, the Academy decided to create two more divisions: Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress, which required new rules to distinguish between lead and supporting performances.

Unlike the Acting Branch, which stipulates that actors may receive only one nomination per category, the Directors Branch allows for the same filmmaker to be nominated multiple times for different films. This has happened only twice. In 1938, Michael Curtiz was nominated for two directing achievements, Angels With Dirty Faces and Four Daughters. Curtiz lost both; the winner was Frank Capra for You Can Take It With You, which also grabbed the Best Picture.

The fact that the Academy's Acting Branch amounts to one-fourth of all members may explain why many films about showbiz or entertainment have been nominated for Best Picture: The Great Ziegfeld, Stage Door, A Star Is Born, All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, The Country Girl, Funny Girl, Hello, Dolly!, Cabaret, Lenny, Nashville, The Turning Point, All That Jazz, Coal Miner's Daughter, Tootsie, Amadeus, Shine, Shakespeare in Love, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, The Aviator, Ray, and Capote.