Oscar Trivia: First Time Lucky

Refresh your screen periodically for updates as this post will evolve

If you missed the Oscar nominations  this morning you can check out the full list at our Official Nomination Index Page. The individual Oscar charts will take some time to update but should go up throughout the day. But while we're all gathered let's have so fun checking off some trivia and stats. This post is dedicated to the first timers in Oscar's club.

Feel free to contribute "firsts" in the comments!

First Time Lucky
Mad Max Fury Road is the first live action sequel ever nominated for Best Picture whose original wasn't nominated. In fact the entire Mad Max franchise had received zero nominations up until this morning. Mad Max is only the second sequel ever nominated for Best Picture whose original wasn't up for the same prize. The only other example is Toy Story 3 (the first Toy Story did receive a special Oscar though, before the creation of the Animated Feature Category) 

First Time Nominees
Acting: Bryan Cranston, Brie Larson, Alicia Vikander, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rachel McAdams, Tom Hardy, and two acting legends, film goddess Charlotte Rampling and stage giant Mark Rylance (whose shelves have all fallen from the weight of various trophies... but he doesn't work in movies much.) 

Directing: Adam McKay, Lenny Abrahamson, Thomas McCarthy... and George Miller, believe it or not. Yes, he is an Oscar winner and previous nominee but in different categories (and two of three previous Oscar trips were for talking animal pictures, LOL, the super classic Babe and the animated winner Happy Feet). As of today he's now been nominated in five separate categories: Best Director (MMFR), Best Picture (MMFR & Babe), Best Original Screenplay (Lorenzo's Oil), Best Adapted Screenplay (Babe), and Best Animated Feature (Happy Feet). 

Pop Star: Lady Gaga follows up her Oscar Sound of Music medley performance with an actual Oscar nomination for songwriting for "Til It Happens To You". Oscar voters seem happy with her which is weird because they've shunned her predecessor Madonna remarkably oftenn in this category with movie songs that becamse big hits like Into the Groove, This Used to Be My Playground, Live to Tell, etcetera. 

Other hit songwriters on their first nods include Sam Smith and James Napier for "Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre. And "Earned It" from 50 Shades of Grey from The Weeknd, whose star went supernova recently. The LA Times on his rise to fame. 

First Time? Not Exactly but It's Still Cool
The Muse reports that Antony Hegarty (of Antony & The Johnsons fame) is the first trans person to receive an Oscar nomination. Antony is nominated for co-writing the "Manta Ray" the Original Song nominee from the documentary Facing Extinction. But this isn't strictly true. First time in modern era when people are quite aware of such things.

Coincidentally, the only previous example of a trans Oscar nominee also comes from the music categories.  Angela Morley (born Wally Stott) was nominated in the music categories twice in the 1970s for The Little Prince (1974) and The Slipper in the Rose (1976). (Lana Wachowski, Hollywood's most famous trans filmmaker, has yet to be Oscar nominated -- the Matrix (1999) which she co-directed with her brother Andy, was nominated for and won four Oscars but none of them went to the Wachowskis.)

First For Your Country
Colombia and Jordan are enjoying their first Foreign Language Film nominations for Embrace of the Serpent and Theeb respectably. Also though I haven't fact-checked I believe Chile is enjoying it's first animated short film nomination with Bear Story. 

FINALLY...

The First Mean Girl Oscar Nominee
Queen Bee Regina George it is. Rachel McAdams is up for Spotlight. Tina Fey has won Globes & Emmys, Lizzy Caplan has been nominated for an Emmy. Will their be a second Mean Girls Oscar nominee at some point? If so who you think it'll be? 

Farewell My Lovely: Team Experience Says (Figurative) Goodbyes to Oscar's Unsung

If you dwell too much on the negatives on Oscar Nomination Morning it can be so deflating that the rest of the season (just one month to go) can feel agonizing. Nevertheless we owe the movies and actors that enrich our lives a proper send off here now that Oscar has closed this particular chapter on them. But never fear. The Academy Awards are a fun time from a anecdotal calendar perspective and important in a history chapter kind of way but they're never ever ever the full book on the movies.

Here are achievements in film from Carol, Creed, Inside Out, and more that we here at TFE have no intention of saying goodbye to in reality, though we'll have to set them aside in a particular kind of way this month... 

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Benicio del Toro in Sicario
While Sicario received some recognition in the technical categories, it didn’t end up making the cut for any of the majors, including the acting awards.  That’s a particular shame in the case of Benicio del Toro, who quietly managed to steal the movie from his excellent co-stars but couldn’t quite nab a supporting actor nod from Oscar.  His character starts out as a taciturn, enigmatic presence, content to keep a low profile and deflect questions about why he’s there.  But as the movie unfolds, he starts to assume increasing authority and gradually morphs into an ominous, even terrifying figure of retribution.  It’s arguably somewhat lazy writing that he’s driven by personal revenge, yet del Toro, to his credit, doesn’t use this tried-and-true motivation as an excuse to chew scenery.  Instead, he delivers a remarkably controlled and powerful portrayal of a formerly moral man who’s corrupted by his single-minded pursuit—and knows it. -Lynn Lee

Inside Out
When the Academy decided to open up the Best Picture category, it was thought that more diversity would be represented. While there have been a few interesting choices since the decision, it is usually just more middle of the road prestige pics. That a genre film like Mad Max Fury Road was able to make it in today should be celebrated....

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New Oscar Records. An Evolving List

Refresh your screen for updates as we add to the list. If you suspect you've seen a statistic worth shouting about, put it in the comments.

Records Broken This Year

Jennifer Jones (Duel in the Sun, age 27) vs Jennifer Lawrence (Joy, age 25)• Jennifer Lawrence (who is 25 years old) breaks Jennifer Jones's record of quickest actor to 4 nominations. Jones had held that record -- she accomplished 4 nominations by the age of 27 -- since 1947. But no more. And how is this for a freaky detail about this record. As Joe Reid points out both of these Jennifers had a powerful "David O" in their corner, Russell for Lawrence and Selznick for Jones.

• John Williams, the Meryl Streep of Original Scores, broke his tie with the long dead composer Alfred E Newman (1900-1970)  to score a 44th nominations for Original Score. He's won 5 times (not a record). This is his 50th nomination in total since he's also been nominated for Original Song.

• Sylvester Stallone has broken the obscure record of  longest stretch between acting nods for playing the same character for Rocky (1976) and Creed (2015). The previous record holder was Paul Newman between The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986). Other actors who've done this double whammy character trick are Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth, Bing Crosby for Father O'Malley, Al Pacino for Michael Corleone and Peter O'Toole for Henry II.

• This is reportedly the only time in history that all 5 Original Song nominees have been their films only nomination. It's also reportedly the most nominations ever amassed by Australians though I don't have confirmation on what the number is.or what the previous record that was broken is. 

• Carol becomes the Most Nominated Film in the modern expanded Best Picture field era to not receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The previous record was a three way tie between The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Skyfall (2012) and Foxcatcher (2014) which each received 5 nominations but were not included in Best Picture.

[Aside: The all time record holder, from back when there were only 5 Best Picture nominees and more room for this sort of "achievement" in not-quite-making-it, is They Shoot Horses Don't They (1969) -- which is the most amazing movie you MUST see it --  which received 9 nominations but no Best Picture bid. Of these four other pictures, all but Foxcatcher won at least one Oscar. So we'll see on Carol.]

2015 Specific Records

• Tom Hardy and Domnhall Gleeson are the most ubiquitous faces from the Best Picture lineup. Each actor appears in two nominees; Hardy headlines Mad Max: Fury Road and is nominated as supporting actor in The Revenant; Gleeson has supporting roles in Brooklyn and The Revenant. TFE crush Billy Magnussen also appears in two Best Picture nominees (Bridge of Spies and The Big Short) albeit in small roles.

• Sandy Powell (Costume Design for Carol & Cinderella) and Andy Nelson (Sound Mixing for The Force Awakens and Bridge of Spies) are the only double nominees in a single category this year. Powell and Nelson already have 3 and 2 Oscars respectively.

• Four of the five Best Director nominees are enjoying an additional nomination:  George Miller and Alejandro G Inarittu  are both nominated for producing (Best Picture). Tom McCarthy and Adam McKay are also nominated in Screenplay.

• Most Nominated Person in the running again this year: John Williams on his 50th nomination (he's won five time)

• Most Nominated Person this year who has never won: Thomas Newman (Score) and Roger Deakins (Cinematography). They're both on their unlucky 13th nomination. Newman comes from a big family of musicians and composers. His father Alfred Newman was nominated 45 times (second only to John Williams for composing) and won 9 Oscars. His brother David was nominated once. His cousin Randy Newman was nominated 20 times winning twice (both times in "Original Song" for Pixar movies) His uncle Emil was nominated once and there are more of them still out there... 

Climbing The Ranks

Neither Russell or Inarritu are there yet but they're both quickly climbing the ranks for 'Directors who've had the most Best Picture nominees' and 'Directors who've directed the most nominated performances.' They both have exactly 3 Best Picture nominated films on their resumes now. One more for either of them and they're up there with the likes of Clint Eastwood and Elia Kazan and Alfred Hitchcock (who are all --- with many other men -- tied for 19th place of most Best Picture nominees). It'll be easier for them to climb that chart than it was for others due to the expansion of the Best Picture field. 

Steven Spielberg is currently #2 of all time for 'Directors who've had the most Best Picture nominees' Bridge of Spies gives him his 11th Best Picture nominee. Two more and Spielberg will tie the all time leader William Wyler who directed 13 Best Picture nominees in his career. Spielberg isn't a strong factor in the 'Directors who've guided the most Oscar nominated performances' with 11 such examples in his long career but Russell and Inarritu are skyrocketing up that same chart. This year's nominations give Russell his 11th (tied with Spielberg now despite a much shorter career) and Inarritu his 10th. The only two living directors who are in the top ten in that regard are Martin Scorsese (22 performances, 3rd place of all time after William Wyler and Elia Kazan), Woody Allen (18 performances, 6th place of all time after those three plus George Cukor and Fred Zinneman). 

Oops

• This one comes from Tim. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the first film post Gone with the Wind (1939) to hold record for highest grossing film in the history of the U.S. box office that has not received a Best Picture nomination to go along with its cash haul. The others to hold that status at given points were (though box office statistics pre modern era are always somewhat debatable were) The Ten Commandments, The Sound of Music, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Titanic, and Avatar. It's worth noting that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the first sequel in that list which could account for it being the first to not win the nomination.

Team Experience: Personal Favorite Oscar Nods

While I update the charts I asked the team to share their single favorite Oscar nomination of the day. And I hope you'll pick a single nomination to praise in the comments to. What most delighted you?

And now the favorite things hoopla begins... 

Mad Max: Fury Road - Best Picture
Back in May, critics and cinephiles, myself included, fell in love with Mad Max: Fury Road. It wasn’t just lust or infatuation. It was the kind of love that breeds doubt that others could see in the movie what we saw. Perhaps for that reason, a chorus of moans immediately went up about how not only is the Academy so often forgetful of Spring films, but that Mad Max was probably too fun, too action-y, too daring, hell, too feminist, for the academy to acknowledge it come Oscar season. Then, over the course of the summer, it didn’t even become the blockbuster many expected it would. Domestically speaking, it barely recouped its $150 million budget. (That may sound like a lot, but in the summer of “gigantosauri,” as Mark Harris called it, it was runtish.) How wonderful then today, to see a movie as exciting as it is smart get its due. - Kyle Stevens

Lenny Abrahamson, Room - Best Director
Every moment is so carefully considered. His touch is so gentle that he earns every tear he's coaxed out of us by patiently setting up character and context. He makes Room feel so big and the real world so oppressively small. You can feel that the film was constructed by someone with a deep well of compassion and a profound understanding of what presentation the story demands to impact us. I had hoped that he could make it in, but so rarely does the director's branch award solid quiet observation. - Chris Feil  

more after the jump... 

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Prediction Stats & Well Wishing

Focus, Nathaniel, focus. So many posts are in embryonic stages of writing so be patient. This day is so demanding but we love it. It's our Christmas (Oscar Night being our New Year's Eve). True, The Academy always delivers a few ungodly lumps of coal (like ignoring Carol in Best Picture) but you take the bad with the good or you go insane. 

First we should begin by saying "Congratulations!" to all the nominees. In the next 48 hours we'll talk about our favorite choices the Academy made, wonder about the headscratchers, say a symbolic farewell to our beloved but snubbed, and cover trivia and such.  If you missed recent interviews with some of the nominees now would be a great time to catch up with them and comment away: Jack Fisk (Production Design, The Revenant), Jacqueline West (Costume Design, The Revenant), Phyllis Nagy (Screenplay, Carol), László Nemes (Foreign Film, Son of Saul), Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Foreign Film, Mustang). More Oscar Nominee interviews are coming soon including Alicia Vikander, Sandy Powell, Chivo, and a little Star Wars: The Force Awakens. 

As for how I did on my predictions? I scored 79% accuracy in the big eight categories but a 74% overall. Not shabby but not great either in one of the more difficult years I've experienced as a pundit. You can see the breakdown on the nomination index page (nailed Actor and Sound Editing, biffed big time on Song & Production Design) or on this blow by blow account. 

Did the morning turn out as you'd predicted?
One things for sure: If you were betting against The Revenant you were viciously mauled by The Academy. They went for it in nearly every category they could save Best Supporting Actress where they passed on Judy the bear.  I'll confess: though I admire much of the craftwork, it's  already my great borennoyance of the season, just grunting and bleeding and sufferring and suffocatingly obssessed with its own masculinity.