Formula for Oscar winning movie revealed

Researchers have developed a recipe for Oscar success — cast a 45-year-old actor and a 38-year-old actress in a 140-minute film.

The figures, collated from the last half-century of winners, could be bad news for the 33-year-old Eddie Redmayne, who is currently favourite to be named best actor.

Crunching the numbers back to 1965 reveals the average age of the best actor winner was 45, which could spell success for American Sniper star Bradley Cooper who, at 40, is the closest in age.