Lovers of Oscar trivia will be rooting for Kevin O'Connell's opponents tomorrow night.

The veteran sound mixer has been nominated for the 20th time, for his work on Transformers, but is still waiting for his first win - the longest losing streak in the history of the Academy Awards.

Peter O'Toole holds the record for most acting nominations - eight - without a win but his tale of thwarted achievement is dwarfed by O'Connell's. Year after year he has gone to the ceremony in Los Angeles only to walk away empty-handed every time.

The announcement of the Oscars for sound and special effects are not the traditional highlights. For most of the viewers they are seen as an ideal opportunity to visit the bathroom.

But last year Michael Minkler, the winner in O'Connell's category, caused a minor scandal when he suggested that his rival was only “an okay mixer” who “should take up another line of work”. His words led to a storm of criticism across entertainment websites and blogs, with avid supporters of O'Connell - whose losing streak has attracted its own fanbase - pointing out that as Minkler was celebrating his award, his rival was rushing to his dying mother.

Hearing she had taken a turn for the worse, O'Connell rushed out of the Kodak Theatre ceremony as soon as his category was announced to be with the woman who, he says, introduced him to the movie business.

Concerned by her son's first profession - a firefighter - his mother, who worked at Twentieth Century Fox at the time, suggested that he change career.

“I came home from three days out on the front line of a brush fire. My arms were burnt and my face was black and I'd lost weight,” O'Connell said. “My mother said ‘You look awful. Why don't you let me see if there are any openings in the sound department at Fox?'. So that's what I did.

“After a few months of working at Fox I said to her ‘I love this job, how can I ever repay you?' And she said ‘Work hard and win yourself an Oscar - and then you can thank me in front of the whole world'.”

O'Connell, first nominated in 1984 for Terms of Endearment and most recently overlooked last year for Apocalypto, is remarkably upbeat about his losses, insisting that the thrill of being nominated is reward enough. His optimistic attitude led to him preparing an acceptance speech for every ceremony until last year, just in case.

This time, though, he has another plan. “If I win this year I plan to say the first thing that comes into my head,” he said.

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