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« Saoirse moves up the "fastest to..." Oscar ranks | Main | Oscar nominations at a glance. How'd you do on your predictions? »
Monday
Jan132020

New Oscar Trivia courtesy of the fresh Oscar nominations

Here are some fresh statistics to ponder given the new round of Oscar nominations. If you can think of more records broken or equalled let us know in the comments so we can add them. Refresh your screens for updates!

ALL TIME RECORDS...


  • Thelma Schoonmaker, received her 8th nomination for editing The Irishman. That's an all time record but she has to share it since Michael Kahn (who, like Thelma, is three time winner in the category: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan) has also received 8 nominations in his career, most recently with Lincoln (2012) when he broke their previous tie for "most nominated".
  • Little Women (2019) is now the most nominated adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's book ever filmed...

    There have been many iterations of course but it doubled the previous nomination tally for adaptations. Both the 1933 and 1994 versions received three nominations each but the 1933 version is the only previous adaptation to be Best Picture nominated.  It's also the first adaptation to score more than one acting nod.
  • Joker (2019) is now the most-nominated film ever from within the superhero genre. Previously the record was held by The Dark Knight (2008) which scored 8 nominations to Joker's 11. Black Panther holds the record for "most wins" from a superhero picture with 3. Can Joker beat it?
  • Diane Warren keeps beating her own records. She's still the most nominated songwriter to never win. All previous songwriters to score this many nominations (she has 11 now) have won before. 

 

THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING


  • Honeyland is the first film ever to be honored in both Best Documentary and Best International Film categories. While some films have been nominated for Best International Film AND Best Picture, this particular feat has never happened before despite plenty of films that have tried it. 
  • Parasite is the first Korean movie ever nominated for Best Picture AND the first Korean movie ever nominated for Best International Film (formerly called Best Foreign-Language Film)
  • In the Absence is the first Korean film ever nominated for any documentary Oscar. It's in the Documentary Shorts category. So alongside Parasite it's quite a year for Korean cinema at the Oscars!
  • This is the first time FOUR films (Irishman, Once Upon a Time, 1917, Joker) have achieved double-digit nominations in the same year. This means the voters were really lazy "it's the  best... everything!" but it's still a first. The closest we've previously come to that level of same-same-same madness across the board was 1964 and 1977 which both had three films (Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, and Becket) and (The Turning Point, Julia, and Star Wars) in the double digits of nominations.

 

AGAIN.


  • Parasite is the fourth Asian ensemble picture to score a Best Picture nomination but as with the previous  instances, The Last Emperor (1987),  Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) none of its actors were nominated
  • Saoirse Ronan scores her fourth acting nomination by 25 putting her in second place for "fastest to four" of all time behind Jennifer Lawrence who was also 25 but a smidgeong younger when she did it with Joy (2015). (Fastest to five is currently Kate Winslet who did it by age 31)
  • Best Supporting Actor is once again entirely composed of all previous winners as it was in 2012. Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Tom Hanks. (Yes, Brad Pitt is already an Oscar winner. He won for producing 12 Years a Slave)
  • Scarlett Johansson and Cynthia Erivo go from 0 nominations to twice-nominated in one year. This happens fairly regularly with writer/directors but less so with actors. The last time this happened for actors was Mary J Blige (Mudbound, Supporting Actress & Song) and the time before that was Jamie Foxx with his two leading roles, one campaigned fradulently in supporting (Ray and Collateral)
  • Cynthia Erivo is now the third person to receive nominations for acting and songwriting in the same year. The other two are Lady Gaga and Mary J Blige. Interestingly all three are very very recent. The only person to win in both fields was Barbra Streisand... though she didn't do it in the same year)
  • Jimmo Yang, nominated for editing Parasite is only the second Asian to be nominated in that category. The first (and only other) was Kant Pan for The Crying Game (1992). Yang would be the first winner if that blessed (deserved) event came to pass.
  • Hildur Gudnadottir, nominated for composing Joker, is the second Icelandic woman nominated for composing -- the first was Björk for Best Original Song. She's also the second Icelandic person nominated in Score. The only previous Icelandic nomine in score is the late Jóhann Jóhannsson who was nominated twice for The Theory of Everything (2014) and Sicario (2015)
  • The Lion King is now the third all-animated movie to receive a nomination in Best Visual Effects. The first two were Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Kubo and The Two Strings (2016) 

RANDOMNESS


  • Joe Pesci returning to a nomination after 29 years away, Al Pacino returning after 27, Hopkins after 22 years, and Hanks after 19 are not records. But we'll have a post about this soon because the list is interesting. Still, there are a lot of "throwback" contenders this year. 
  • Brad Pitt is the youngest Best Supporting Actor nominee and he's 56 years old. Oscar is not 'no country for old men' this year! 
  • Cynthia Erivo is the only person of color nominated for acting. That's not especially notable since lord knows it's happened many times before . Still we love stats so thought we'd share that this is the 12th black nominee for Best Actress. None of them have ever been nominated twice in the category. (Viola Davis would have easily been the first return nominee but opted to pretend she was "supporting" in Fences for the easy win.)  
  • A MILD SHOCK. Best Supporting Actress is all actually supporting actresses this year, no fraud! That's fairly rare nowadays. By contrast Supporting Actor has two leads pretending to be supporting, both within the subgenre of buddy comedy (Those are usually two lead movies, don'cha know).
  • Composer John Williams scored his 52nd nomination this year. He's inching ever closer to the all time leader (Walt Disney had 56 nominations in his very long career)
  • Bradley Cooper scored his 8th nomination for producing Joker. That means that only half of this movie star's Oscar tally is from acting now (the rest from producing or writing). That also puts him just ahead of another "Brad" with producing/acting Oscar love. Brad Pitt is on his 7th nomination with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's his fourth for acting with the other three from producing. 
  • Laika is up for Best Animated Feature again with Missing Link, their fifth feature. They have a perfect track record now of films produced to films nominated (Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo, Missing Link) but they've yet to win. The only other animation studio with a perfect track record of films produced / films nominatd that we're aware of is Cartoon Saloon with 3 films: The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and The Breadwinner)

 

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Reader Comments (91)

I'm a bit uncomfortable with erasing Banderas from the POC conversation. First, I doubt many people know he is from Spain instead of the Latin America countries. Secondly, having had to deal with racist family members, I know they wouldn't consider him white in the slightest. I'm sure he has encountered racism in his career and it feels like that is being erased to bolster the #OscarsSoWhite argument. Which is just as valid with only 2 out of 20 nominees being nonwhite.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPoliVamp

*** This is the first time all of the directors also received multiple nominations producing/writing

Bong Joon Ho 3 (or 4, since he would win the Oscar for best international film himself)
Tarantino 3
Taika Waititi 3
Todd Philips 3
Scorsese 2

With a total of 14 (or 15) nominations among them, a record.

*** First time two producers were nominated for two different films in Best Picture

Emma Tillinger Koskoff and David Heyman

*** Out of the 24 producers in Best Picture, 8 women (Emma Tillinger Koskoff twice) were nominated, also a record. Out of the 9 nominated films, only Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story (surprising) have no women producing.

*** Out of the 5 Best Actresses nominated, 4 of them are playing real people or the character is based on an actual person: Harriet, Judy, Megan Kelly and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Same can be said about the Best Actor category three times: Almodovar, Baumbach, Pope Francis.

Supporting Actress: Nora Fanshaw, Bobi Jewell and an amalgamation of women abused by Aires

Supporting Actor:Mr. Rodgers, Jimmy Hoffa, Pope Benedict, Russel Bufalino.

13/14 out of 20 are based on real people

*** This is Staven Zaillian's 5th nomination. All of his penned movies are over 2 hours long. Two of them are over 3 hours long.

Every one of his movies was nominated for acting Oscars, in a total of 8.

*** This is the first Brazilian documentary nominated. (Waste Land was an American production directed by an American).

*** First time ever: Best Documentary category
Every single movie has a woman director.(7 women out of 15 nominated directors)

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

Also about Steven Zaillian, every time he is nominated, the movie is nominated.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

PolyVamp,
If Banderas is non-white, what about Pacino?
(Real question)

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterdomgogo

Correct me if I'm wrong but I could bet Antonio Banderas becomes the first spanish actor to be nominated for a spanish fillm.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterCésar Gaytán

Per the question above about the different number of movies represented among the acting nominees, 2007 does indeed take the cake -- a record I bet stands for a long time. 18 different movies got a nomination, with only "Michael Clayton" having multiple acting nominees from the same film. 1981 was the worst, with just 9 films spread across the 20 acting slots. This year was in the middle of the pack, with 13 films:

18 - 2007
17 - 1992
16 - 1999
16 - 1990
16 - 1989
16 - 1988
16 - 1945
16 - 1938
15 - 2015
15 - 2005
15 - 1998
15 - 1995
15 - 1984
15 - 1964
15 - 1960
15 - 1955
15 - 1946
15 - 1937
15 - 1936
14 - 2017
14 - 2011
14 - 2009
14 - 2008
14 - 2006
14 - 2003
14 - 2000
14 - 1997
14 - 1996
14 - 1993
14 - 1987
14 - 1975
14 - 1973
14 - 1971
14 - 1952
14 - 1947
14 - 1941
13 - 2019
13 - 2014
13 - 2010
13 - 2004
13 - 1994
13 - 1986
13 - 1985
13 - 1983
13 - 1979
13 - 1972
13 - 1970
13 - 1969
13 - 1968
13 - 1965
13 - 1940
12 - 2012
12 - 2002
12 - 2001
12 - 1991
12 - 1980
12 - 1978
12 - 1974
12 - 1966
12 - 1963
12 - 1961
12 - 1956
12 - 1954
12 - 1953
12 - 1948
12 - 1942
12 - 1939
11 - 2018
11 - 1982
11 - 1967
11 - 1962
11 - 1959
11 - 1958
11 - 1957
11 - 1950
11 - 1949
11 - 1944
10 - 2013
10 - 1977
10 - 1976
10 - 1951
10 - 1943
9 - 1981

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterParanoid Android

Polivamp - He's white. Spaniards are white, most of them. Penelope Cruz is white. Javier Bardem is white. You don't have to look like a Scandinavian to be white. This is not erasure.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

I bet the only racism Banderas has ever faced in his career was here in Hollywood, America.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterCarmencita

@ PoliVamp

"Whiteness" is claimed by diverse nationalities -- Anglo-American white people may be xenophobic toward foreigners, including white ones. That is not racism.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterWorking stiff

PoliVamp: Yes, I too would say that Banderas is white. (Is it a European thing? I'm European. Do Americans c0unt 'white' differently?)

Working stiff: But I would say that whites can be racist to other whites.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterEdward L.

*** Saorsie Ronan is the first person to be nominated twice directed by a woman.

*** Greta Gerwig is the first woman to be nominated twice for writing her own movie and both times her movie was nominated for Best Picture

*** Charlize Theron has the biggest range in titles from first to last nomination, from Monster to Bombshell

*** Jonathan Price went on from the husband of Evita to the husband of the wife and finally got a nom for playing a single man.

*** Johansson is the first actress double nominated by two movies that ware also nominated for best picture since Emma Thompson in 94. Theresa Wright was the first in 42.

*** This is the first time Tarantino is triple-nominated

*** Joe Pesci is the only actor to receive three best supporting nods directed by the same person

***

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

Bates, Pesci, Hopkins, Pacino, and Hanks won their (6!) Oscars in the same year or consecutively between 1990-1994. Theron and Zellweger won together in 2003.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterMatty

Jamie Foxx wasn't the one to accomplish two acting nods in the same year. Blanchett was in 2007.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterZooey

@domgogo: Short answer: No. Long answer is a long history lesson about racism in the US (both Irish and Italians used to be considered nonwhite, but that has changed) and how different groups are viewed. Also, I live in a conservative area and have witnessed racists in action firsthand, and I know who they would consider white vs not, and Banderas would fall into the latter category, which is why I am not comfortable excluding him since he has likely run into that during his career.

And to address Cal Roth's comment: Again, racists would not consider either Penelope Cruz or Javier Bardem white. It's stupid, and those people suck, but the fact they are from Spain instead of Mexico, Guatamala, etc. doesn't change that fact.

@Edward L - I think it depends on which part of the US. I'm in one of the more conservative parts of Texas, so I may just be seeing the worst of it. But while most of Europe is considered white, people from Spain, Portugal, and Turkey would not be considered white by the racists I have had the misfortune of interacting with.

And I don't want to derail the comments further, so I will just end it there.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPoliVamp

*** Two women who are nominated (Dern and Johansson) star in two nominated movies each: Marriage Story for both, then Little Women and Jojo Rabbit.

*** Every time Laura Dern is nominated her co-star is also nominated (Ladd, Witherspoon and Johansson). Pesci is 3 for 3 too. Same goes for Margot Robbie, but only at two nominations.

*** Amy Pascal is producing the next collaboration by Baumbach e Gerwig, starring Margot Robbie

*** Almodovar is the first to direct two Spanish-speaking performances that are nominated - Cruz in Volver and Antonio in Pain and Glory. Banderas is only the third actor in Spanish-speaking role after Bardem and Bichir to be nominated.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

Almodovar isn’t the first to direct 2 Spanish speaking performances. That would be Cuaron last year.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterMafer

*** Mr. Rodgers against 4 psychopaths:
Hannibal Lector, Tommy DeVito, Big Boy Caprice and Tyler Durden.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

The record for first nomination to eventual win is not Paul Newman at 28 years (or Laura Dern). Not even close. That would be Alan Arkin at 40 years. Jeff Bridges almost tied him at 38.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterMafer

@Working Stiff, @ Michael Cusumano, thank you for adding to the list. I had forgotten about Hitchcock, but that's a great one and I actually had thought of Legends of the Fall, but forgot to put it in. I'll be adding more to the list in the weeks to come (this is fun)...

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRichter Scale

Not only is supporting actor composed of all previous winners, it has 3 winners in the leading role category. I feel this is also a first (i.e. 3 leading role winners competing in the supporting category), but I don't have the time or energy to fact check that.

There's also an abundance of movies more or less centered on two men in the best picture category: Once Upon a Time..., Ford v Ferrari, Irishman (?) and (I would argue) Parasite.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterkin

@ Edward L.
By definition, no, so I'm not really sure what you mean. There are all kinds of oppression based in class, gender, nationality, sexual orientation etc. but racism is pretty self-explanatory.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterWorking stiff

Is curious for me the "White-No white" issue in the comments. I think that is simple as the color skin that someone have according to the "official" pantones and not based in the place you were born.

For example: Ana de la Reguera is mexican but her color skin is light and Alicia Vikander is swedish but her tone is more brown.

I think that the confusion is because many of the most known spanish language actors (like Banderas) are actually light-brown color skin (not considered 'black') when the predominant color skin of the average people in Latinamerica is dark-brown and sadly that ethnicity is poorly or stereotypical represented in the media as you can know watching these video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cWUtzeXsKw

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterCésar Gaytán

1992 has 3 supporting nominees that also won Best Actor. The problem is that one of them won his only Best Actor Oscar later that same night. So it’s your choice if it counts or not. Hackman, Pacino and Nicholson.

Not gonna look further than that since it was rare for this to happen, especially as you look further into the older decades.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterMafer

Here's the list updated with the ones suggested here and a few I looked up (I decided not to put any films nominated this year)...

Evita: Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce
The Mask of Zorro: Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins
Interview with the Vampire: Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas
Philadelphia: Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas
Her: Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson
The Wolf of Wall Street: Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie
Black Widow: Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh
Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Adam Driver and Laura Dern
Glengarry Glen Ross: Al Pacino and Jonathan Pryce
Titanic/Revolutionary Road: Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates
Ocean’s Thirteen: Brad Pitt and Al Pacino
Mary, Queen of Scots: Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie
The Devil’s Advocate: Al Pacino and Charlize Theron
That Thing You Do: Tom Hanks and Charlize Theron
Catch Me If You Can: Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks
Legends of the Fall/Meet Joe Black: Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins
Hitchcock: Anthony Hopkins and Scarlett Johansson
J. Edgar: Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Driver
The Big Short: Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie
Dick Tracy: Al Pacino and Kathy Bates
North: Kathy Bates and Scarlett Johansson
Bee Movie: Renée Zellweger and Kathy Bates
The Master: Joaquin Phoenix and Laura Dern
You Don’t Know Jack: Al Pacino and Adam Driver

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRichter Scale

I am so happy for Scarlett's double noms. She must win Best Actress now.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterFadhil

France now passes Japan with most foreign-language best animated feature nominations:
The Triplets of Belleville
Ernest & Celestine
Persepolis
The Illusionist
A Cat in Paris
My Life as a Zucchini
I Lost My Body (being the 7th)

vs Japan's 6:
Spirited Away
Howl's Moving Castle
The Wind Rises
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
When Marnie Was There
Mirai

Spain gets it's second this year with Klaus and becomes only third country with multiple nominations.
Chico and Rita was it's lone previous nomination.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGil

Leonardo DiCaprio continues his streak of having a male costar nominated in supporting whenever he is nominated in lead.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterpar

Here’s a cool coincidence: in Supporting Actor we have previous winners from 1990 (Pesci), 1991 (Hopkins), 1992 (Pacino), 1993, 1994 (Hanks) and had Oscar followed the Globes we could’ve had 1995 (Pitt) as well.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkash

It's the first year ever that all the Best Costume Design nominees come from Best Picture nominees. Ditto for Best Production Design.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJonathan

*** Saoirse Ronan is the first person to be nominated twice directed by a woman.

@Gio: What about Tom Hanks? He shares that honor this year.

Big (Penny Marshall)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller)

All of Ronan's nominations were in films nominated for Best Picture (Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird, Little Women -- they're in chronological and alphabetical order!) which ties her with Meryl Streep (nominated for The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Out of Africa, The Post -- setting aside the word "The", those four are also chronological and alphabetical).

Bette Davis has five: Jezebel, Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, All About Eve

Katharine Hepburn also has five: Alice Adams, The Philadelphia Story, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, On Golden Pond.

In other news, I'm looking forward to seeing you all resolve this battle to the death as to whether the number of acting nominations that went to white people was 18 or 19.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBrevity

*** Greta Gerwig ties with Barbra Straisand with 4 nominated performances under her helm, two for Lady Bird and two for Little Women. She is the only one to direct 4 actresses to noms, though.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

*** Scarlet Johansson is double-nominated for playing 2 mothers for the first time in her career.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

*** Every acting category has a Tony winner: Erivo, Johansson, Price, Pacino

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

Damn Polivamp, hitting them with the practical of who’s considered a POC in a Country like America. The technical won’t stop the oppression and othering y’all trifling hoes.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterShaquanda

Polivamp; Thank you.

Shaquanda knows.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterMe

The post mentions that the Supporting Actor category is quite old. It's actually historically old. The average age is roughly 71, easily outdistancing the average of 65 for the Supporting Actor category in 2017 as the oldest acting category of all time (the 4 oldest acting categories of all time are now Best Supporting Actor categories in the 2010s.). The average age of all those nominated in the acting categories this year is roughly 50.5, making it the second oldest year ever (behind 2017's 52.5).

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeff S.

*** In each acting category there is one and only one British performer: Erivo, Price, Pugh and Hopkins

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

*** In each acting category there is one and only one British performer: Erivo, Price, Pugh and Hopkins

And none of them is playing a British character

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

*** The character of Jo March ties with Elizabeth I and the star in A Star is Born as the most nominated female character in history, with 3 nominations in total.

January 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterGio

Gio: Only two actors have been nominated as Jo March (Winona Ryder and Saoirse Ronan).

January 15, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterEdward L.

1917 is the only Best Picture nominee in the history of the awards where the title is purely a number.

THE IRISHMAN is the fifth longest BP nominee in history, and the longest in the past 50 years. :Longest of all time, in order of length: CLEOPATRA, GONE WITH THE WIND, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (those last two can swap positions if overture, intermission etc music is removed), BEN-HUR. THE IRISHMAN knocks THE GODFATHER PART II out of the top five.)

Happy to be fact-checked on any of these.

January 15, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterTravis C
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