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50 free Martin Scorsese trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Martin Scorsese trivia quiz starts with an asthmatic boy in Little Italy whose parents took him to the movies, the failed seminarian who found NYU instead, the professor he called 'the most precious gift', and the Roger Corman quickie that taught him to work fast. Then the films: Mean Streets and the arrival of De Niro, the Palme d'Or for Taxi Driver and the Hinckley shooting, the cocaine crash before Raging Bull and how De Niro saved his life, After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Kundun and Disney, Gangs of New York at Cinecitta, the Best Director Oscar for The Departed, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, The Irishman on Netflix and Killers of the Flower Moon. The rest is Scorsese the man and the advocate: five marriages, the cameos, the Michael Jackson video, The Last Waltz and the Dylan and Stones films, the Emmys for Boardwalk Empire and George Harrison, The Film Foundation's 850 restorations, the World Cinema Project, the Jefferson Lecture, and the Star Wars voice role. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Robert De Niro and Al Pacino quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which New York neighbourhood did Scorsese grow up?
Little Italy
He was born in Flushing, Queens; both parents worked in the Garment District and all four grandparents came from Sicily.
Q 02What was the family's original surname, changed by a transcription error?
Scozzese
It means 'Scot' or 'Scottish' in Italian.
Q 03Which childhood condition kept Scorsese from sports and sent him to the movies instead?
Asthma
His parents and older brother took him to the cinema, where he fell for Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes.
Q 04Which future director shared the Bronx's only rental copy of The Tales of Hoffmann with the teenage Scorsese?
George A. Romero
The Powell and Pressburger film was a lifelong obsession; Scorsese later narrated a documentary about the pair.
Q 05What career did Scorsese initially want before failing his first year at a preparatory seminary?
Priest
Catholic guilt and redemption became recurring themes from Mean Streets to Silence.
Q 06Which NYU professor did Scorsese dedicate Raging Bull to?
Haig P. Manoogian
The Armenian-American teacher was honoured 'with love and resolution' at the end of the film.
Q 07Scorsese's short The Big Shave (1967) was an indictment of America's involvement in what?
The Vietnam War
Its alternative title was Viet '67.
Q 08Scorsese's first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door, introduced which two lifelong collaborators?
Harvey Keitel and Thelma Schoonmaker
Roger Ebert reviewed it at the 1967 Chicago festival, Scorsese's first published review.
Q 09Which fellow 'movie brat' introduced Scorsese to the actor who became his most frequent leading man?
Brian De Palma
Scorsese also worked as assistant director and an editor on the 1970 documentary Woodstock.
Q 10Roger Corman hired Scorsese to make Boxcar Bertha (1972) as a sequel to which film?
Bloody Mama
Corman taught him films could be made with little money or time; Cassavetes then told him to make his own films.
Q 11Where was the majority of Mean Streets, the archetypal gritty New York film, actually shot?
Los Angeles
Pauline Kael called it 'a true original of our time... a new Bunuel steeped in Verdi, perhaps'.
Q 12Which actress chose Scorsese for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and won Best Actress for it?
Ellen Burstyn
The 1974 film remains an anomaly among his macho, violent 1970s work.
Q 13Which prize did Taxi Driver win at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival?
The Palme d'Or
John Hinckley Jr. later blamed his attempt on Reagan's life on an obsession with Jodie Foster's character.
Q 21Which Michael Jackson video did Scorsese direct in a Brooklyn subway station in 1986?
Bad
Wesley Snipes made his film debut in it; the choreography leaned on West Side Story.
Q 22In the aborted 1983 version of The Last Temptation of Christ, which musician was cast as Pontius Pilate?
Sting
Paramount pulled the plug under religious pressure; in 1988 David Bowie played Pilate and Willem Dafoe Jesus.
Q 23Which first-time director beat Scorsese to the Best Director Oscar for Goodfellas?
Kevin Costner
Dances with Wolves won; Ebert nonetheless called Goodfellas 'the best mob movie ever'.
Q 14Which screenwriter began his Scorsese collaboration on Taxi Driver, drawing on Arthur Bremer's diary?
Paul Schrader
They reunited for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead.
Q 15The Last Waltz documented the final concert of which group?
The Band
Held at San Francisco's Winterland on Thanksgiving 1976, with Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison among the guests.
Q 16Which Broadway musical starring Liza Minnelli did Scorsese direct in 1977?
The Act
The same year his film musical New York, New York flopped and drove him into depression and cocaine.
Q 17Who reportedly saved Scorsese's life by persuading him in hospital to kick cocaine and make Raging Bull?
Robert De Niro
He called it 'a kamikaze method of film-making', convinced he would never make another movie.
Q 18Which British magazine voted Raging Bull the greatest film of the 1980s?
Sight & Sound
The AFI later ranked it the fourth greatest American film of all time.
Q 19For which 1985 black comedy, shot cheaply at night in SoHo, did Scorsese win Best Director at Cannes?
After Hours
Griffin Dunne's word processor endures a nightmare night; Cheech & Chong and Teri Garr cameo.
Q 20The Color of Money (1986) was a sequel to which film, and finally won its star an Oscar?
The Hustler, winning Paul Newman
Tom Cruise co-starred; the hit gave Scorsese the clout for The Last Temptation of Christ.
Q 24Whom did Scorsese play in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)?
Vincent van Gogh
His Quiz Show cameo is remembered for the line 'They just wanted to watch the money.'
Q 25Which Edith Wharton novel did Scorsese adapt in 1993, to critical praise and a box-office loss?
The Age of Innocence
He cited Visconti's The Leopard and Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons as influences on the period piece.
Q 26Kundun (1997) told the early life of which figure, angering China and embarrassing Disney?
The 14th Dalai Lama
Buena Vista was planning Chinese expansion at the time and quietly distanced itself from the film.
Q 27Which blacklist-era director's Honorary Oscar did Scorsese and De Niro controversially present in 1999?
Elia Kazan
Nick Nolte and Ed Harris refused to applaud; Warren Beatty and Meryl Streep stood.
Q 28Gangs of New York (2002) was filmed entirely at which studio?
Cinecitta in Rome
It was his first film with Leonardo DiCaprio and cost over $100 million.
Q 29Which eccentric aviation and film mogul was the subject of The Aviator (2004)?
Howard Hughes
It led the 77th Oscars with 11 nominations, including a fifth Best Director nod for Scorsese.
Q 30On accepting his first Best Director Oscar for The Departed, what did Scorsese joke?
'Could you double-check the envelope?'
Coppola, Lucas and Spielberg presented it; the film also won Best Picture.