Of course, not all Best Picture winners scale the scale. Some are of perfectly decent length. As mentioned, "Marty" is the shortest Best Picture winner, but 1977's "Annie Hall" is only 93 minutes long. "Sunrise: A Song for Two People" by F.W.

Also cheerful is "Driving Miss Daisy," which closes after 99 minutes. The 1929 revue "Broadway Melody" is a fast 100, tied with 2011's surprise Best Picture winner, "The Artist." All under about 110 minutes are In the Heat of the Night, On the Shore, Nomadland, Casablanca, It Happened One Night, The Lost Weekend and Kramer vs. Kramer. As can be seen, these measures of length are mere intellectual measures. Length is rarely a sign of quality.

However, when we include the Best Picture nominees, there are some equally fierce films in the mix. The Mae West vehicle She Got It Wrong was nominated for Best Picture in 1934 and clocks in at 65 minutes. 1945's excellent anti-Western "Incident of the Ox" clocks in at 77 minutes, and the whimsical musical comedy "An Hour With You," starring Maurice Chevalier, clocks in at just 78.

Most of the shortest Best Picture nominees come from the 1930s when films were generally shorter. One Hundred Men and a Girl (1938) is 81 minutes, 1930's Divorce (starring film star Norma Shearer's My Fake Girlfriend) is only 82, tied for length with 1932's Shanghai Express .

Of course, it remains the shortest film ever nominated for an Oscar the 2012 PES animated film Fresh Guacamole. That movie is 104 seconds. Meanwhile, the longest film ever nominated for an Oscar is the documentary "OJ: Made in America", which lasts 467 minutes.