Live Poll: Oscar Doesn't Always Speak English

Do you know if he spoke Italian or Sicilian, or perhaps both? So far, I haven't found a reliable source that specifies. 

I love "when in doubt, De Niro," and I could use that as a mantra, practically, lol. 

This is one of the rare instances when the German Wikipedia article is more exhaustive than the English one. I translate: "The predominant part of Robert De Niro's lines were Sicilian, a language he did not understand". This trivia item references an American book.

The English article on De Niro mentions, "De Niro became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign language. In this case, several Sicilian dialects [...]".

FYI, the Wikipedia article NON-ENGLISH OSCAR ACTING NOMINATIONS has limited language citations, as many of these performances were multi-lingual. Wikipedia predominately cites them as given in a single foreign language. Therefore, it maybe a bit misleading or inaccurate to consider the source comprehensive.

Also, IMDb TRIVIA corroborates albstein as "Robert De Niro spent four months learning to speak the Sicilian dialect in order to play Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather: Part II'. Nearly all of the dialogue that his character speaks in the film was in Sicilian. I can recall a few words that were spoken in English by the character in the film.

These other characters also had a handful of lines or even less in other languages.

1) depending which side of the border and nationality of who he is interacting with
Benicio Del Toro (as Javier Rodriguez), speaking Spanish and English, in 'Traffic'

2 )limited conversations with Dottor Lessing @ hotel and concentration camp in German and English and in German with NAZI prison guards
Roberto Benigni (as Guido), speaking Italian, German and English, in 'Life Is Beautiful'

3) a few English words
Marion Cotillard (as Edith Piaf), speaking French and a few words in English, in 'La Vie en Rose'
Marlee Matlin (as Sarah), speaking American Sign Language and a few words in English, in 'Children of a Lesser God'
Robert De Niro (as Vito Corleone), speaking Sicilian and a few words in English, in 'The Godfather: Part II'

Thank you. And yeah, I know what you mean: I'm having a tough time between Waltz, De Niro, and Cotillard. I have an outside reason that's leaning me toward, De Niro, though: A band from the UK, Bananarama, has an old song called "Robert De Niro's Waiting" and it's partly about him "talking Italian," lol. I made a poll about it a few years ago, actually. : )

Yeah, they're certainly similar, but Urb included non-verbal performances, as well, where no language is spoken. Jess also just reminded me that DiCaprio's performance included non-English languages. 

Thanks, Jess! 'Added. 

You should update "Of these seven winning performances" to "eight".

And your number of 35 nominees should probably be updated to at least 37:

The Academy has this list with 35 nominees, but it doesn't include Waltz or DiCaprio:
http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/Help...