New Oscar Trivia, courtesy of this season's nominations
Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 2:50PM by Nathaniel R
We just called to say we love you!With each new year's nominations, new trivia or follow-up stat discussions can emerge. Here are some things we noticed straightaway this morning. If you have any suggestions, do tell!
ACTRESSES
• With Glenn Close's seventh nomination for acting at 71, she is now the 8th oldest nominee in that category ever, and THE most-nominated actress who has never won. Meanwhile Amy Adams, with her sixth nomination if she loses, takes Glenn Close's previous spot in a three way tie with 1950s mainstays Thelma Ritter and Deborah Kerr for 'most noms for an actress ever without a competitive win'. Related: OUR CHAT WITH GLENN LAST MONTH
• If Glenn Close wins in February for The Wife (2018), she'll become only the third leading actress over 70 to have won. The other two were 80 year old Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and 74 year old Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond (1981).
• Last year Mary J Blige became the first actor ever nominated for Best Original Song and acting in the same year! The very next year, Lady Gaga has repeated the trick with A Star is Born , so now there are two people who have done it. Note: Barbra Streisand is the only person to win for both songwriting and acting but she did it in two separate years...
Yalitza and Marina in "Roma"
• We believe but we don't yet have the clarification that Marina de Tavira is now the ONLY performer ever in the modern era to receive an Oscar nomination without a single notice from critics awards or precursors of any kind. Not a single one. And remember there are 40+ now. There were far fewer precursor awards in 2000 when Marcia Gay Harden stormed toward the Oscar for Pollock out of the blue significant precursor attention but she did have a smidgeon of precursor support. She was a Spirit nominee and she won one major prize: The NYFCC for Supporting Actress.
• Roma is only the second film in history to receive two acting nominations for foreign language performances. The first was Babel (2006) which received two supporting actress nominations for Rinko Kikuchi (in Japanese sign language) and Adriana Barraza (a mix of English and Spanish).
• Marina de Tavira and Yalitza Aparicio are only the 5th and 6th Mexican-born actresses to ever be nominated. Only one (Lupita Nyong'o) has ever won. Of the 11 Latin-American actresses nominated for acting Oscars to date, nobody has ever received a second nomination. Three Latin-American men, though, have been repeat nominees and winners (Benicio del Toro, Anthony Quinn, and Jose Ferrer)
ACTORS
• This is the first time Viggo Mortensen (Green Book) has been nominated for a performance in which he didn't go full frontal. He had complete nude scenes (rare for male actors) in both of his previous leading actor nomination (Captain Fantastic and Eastern Promises)
• We believe but have not yet verified that Rami Malek is the only the second actor of Egyptian descent to be nominated. The first was Omar Shariff for Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
PICTURE / DIRECTOR / SCREENPLAYS
• Best Director / Best Picture split wins have become almost the norm since the expansion of the Best Picture ballots in 2009. In the last 9 years, there has been a split 4 times. If we split again this year (which we seem likely to with both A Star is Born and Green Book missing the Director field) it will be a 50% statistic moving forward.
• With Roma's Best Picture nomination, producer Gabriela Rodriguez becomes the first Latina woman to have ever been nominated in that category.
• While Alfonso Cuarón did not break the record some were expecting him to in terms of most nominations in a single year (he missed in Film Editing), he does tie Warren Beatty's record with his four nominations for Roma. (We don't understand why Oscar doesn't count the foreign film prize as being an official nomination for the director, but they don't). Warren Beatty accomplished the four nominations for one film twice in his career with both Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981). The most nominations in a single year is still Walt Disney (6 nominations for 1953 albeit for different films)
• Roma has now tied Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon so Ang Lee's wuxia masterpiece has to share the title of "most nominated foreign language film of all time". They each received 10 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. Crouching Tiger shares the record of "most wins for a foreign language film" with Fanny And Alexander (1983). They each won 4 Oscars, so Roma will have to win 5 Oscars in February to best that record. We assume it has three nearly locked up (Director, Foreign, Cinematography) but the others will be harder wins.
• Jordan Peele, who produced BlacKkKlansman, is the first African American to receive two nominations for Best Picture. He was previously nominated in the category just last year for Get Out.
• With their respective nominations for the screenplays to BlacKkKlansman and If Beale Street Could Talk, Spike Lee and Barry Jenkins are now the most nominated black screenwriters ever. They've each been nominated twice.
FOREIGN FILM
• With Never Look Away, Germany receives its 20th nomination, surpassing Spain to become the third most honored country ever in the foreign language category. Germany has won 3 times. Numbers #1 and #2 of all time in the Foreign Film race are Italy (28 nominations / 11 wins / 3 honoraries) and France (37 nominations / 9 wins / 3 honoraries)
CRAFT CATEGORIES
• With her nomination for Black Panther, costume designer Ruth E Carter ties Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer to be the most nominated black woman of all time at the Oscars. They've each been up three times for the prize. Both Viola and Octavia have won before but Ruth has yet to win.
Ruth E Carter and Sandy Powell, celebrated costume designers
• With her double nominations for Mary Poppins Returns and The Favourite, Sandy Powell now holds the record of most double-nominations in any one category for a woman. This is her THIRD time being double-nominated in Costume Design. With her 14th nomination, Sandy Powell is now the fourth most-nominated Costume Designer of all Time and the only one of the top four not to have the benefit of TWO costume design categories to get them there (they used to have one for black and white films and one for color films). A few men have multiple years of double or even triple nods (like Walt Disney and composer Alan Menken)
• This is only the second time in Oscar history that the Cinematography category has been dominated by foreign language films with Cold War, Roma, and Never Look Away all nominated. The only other time that three have made it into the category was 2004 (The Passion of the Christ, A Very Long Engagement, and House of Flying Daggers... curiously none of those three in the earlier record were Best Foreign Language Film nominees!).
• Diane Warren was already the most nominated songwriter never to have won but she received her 10th nomination today, upping her record. Her nearest rival in most nominated songs without a win is a guy named Mac David (1912-1993) who was nominated in the category 8 times without winning. Some of his most famous songs to be nominated were "Bibbiddi-Bobbidi-Boo" from Cinderella, and the title songs for Cat Ballou and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. Related Post: MIDDLEBURG'S DIANE WARREN TRIBUTE.
• Franchise Fatigue? This is the first time since 2007 that a Potterverse movie has been shut out of any Oscar recognition. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald failed to secure the usual Potter nomination (Best Production Design) and Colleen Atwood failed to follow up her Costume Design win for the previous film in the franchise with another nomination. Usually once Oscar gets bored with a series, they don't show up again unless there's a long break. Take the case of Spider-Man, the first two films (2002 and 2004) were honored with nomination but the third missed any nominations and they've skipped all of the reboots and sequels since. The spin-off Into the Spider-Verse is the first time they've shown interest in the webslinger again. Or take the case of Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers. Both of those series were regulars in the craft categories until suddenly they weren't.
• With his 6th surprise nomination for Cinematography for Never Look Away Caleb Deschanel becomes the most-nominated living cinematographer to have never won. The record for most noms without a win ever in that category is George J Folsey's 13 nominations. Folsey used to share that record with Roger Deakins but Deakins finally won last year on his 14th nomination (Blade Runner 2049). And, yes, Caleb Deschanel is the father of the actresses Zooey and Emily Deschanel. Related: MORE ON THE FOLSEY & DEAKINS PREVIOUS RECORD.
• Hannah Beachler (Black Panther) is the first black person ever, man or woman, to be nominated in Best Production Design.
SHORT FILMS
• With nominations for both Bao, One Small Step, and Weekends in Animated Short Film, this is the first time THREE films by Asian filmmakers have been nominated in the category (Domi Shee, Bobby Pontillas, and Trevor Jimenez respectively). In fact, there had never been a time with two Asian filmmakers competing in this category together let alone three. Here's an awesome Instagram post from Bobby Pontillas reacting to his nomination.
Can you think of any others? We'll add them.
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Related Articles:
• 12 things we learned from the noms
• Adams vs Weisz, Round Two
• Best Picture Silliness
• Mourning the Snubs
• How to Stage the Original Song Performances
• Nomination Index (individual charts still being updated)
Reader Comments (115)
Here's a fun one: with Rachel Weisz getting this nomination, now 2005 is the most recent year in which all four acting winners have been nominated at least once since winning their Oscars (before that, the most recent year had been 2000). Also speaking of Rachel Weisz, The Favourite is the first Best Picture nominee she's ever been in (as hard as that may be to believe).
I'd have to research this one, but I'm curious if there had ever been an acting lineup with the two most recent winners before this year (Mahershala Ali and Sam Rockwell in Supporting Actor).
I believe Richard E. Grant is the first person from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) to be nominated in any category.
Rob
Demian Bichir had been nominated for Sag and Spirit, his nomination had some support.
Bruno -- awards circuit didn't exist in 1992 so i'm not sure why they have added retrospective survey type winners to IMDb.
Since the expansion of the Best Picture category to 10 (or less) nominees, Pawel Pawlikowski is only the second director, after Bennett Miller for "Foxcatcher", to receive a Best Director nomination without a corresponding Best Picture nomination
@Nathaniel: Didn't have time to research what that was. There was another one called "20/20" which awarded her more recently, not sure why they list 1992 as the year for the Awards Circuit one.
First time in a decade Oscar and Spirits awards share no best picture nominees
With Alfonso, Pawel and Yorgos, I think this is the first time where we had 3 directors who are currently or were previously nominee/winner for directing a foreign languaje film.
Brian-that's an awesome piece of trivia. I can't think of anyone who would break it, even in old Hollywood. Walter Pidgeon/Greer Garson was the first I thought of, but they only did it twice (Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie), with Pidgeon missing the other two times Garson was nominated alongside of him.
I'm still verifying this (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), but, with 13, I believe this is the year with the most acting nominations for playing real people (if we're counting Flip Zimmerman, who is based on a real, though unnamed, person).
no need to black bar Viggo, Nathaniel.
Has any lead performance ever before been nominated for lipsynching? Just dreadful...
BTW I can only think of Peggy Wood in supporting...
I'm rooting for Close she should have won an Oscar by now
@Bede NZ: yes, for sure. Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones lypsinched, and Marion Cotillard even got an Oscar for La vie en rose, though her singing voice was obviously Piaf's one;and pretty sure there are more..
Brian, John T, and Nathaniel -
This has captured my interest before as well. I did some research on this the year of American Hustle. Here's what I found for nominated performances in the same film:
Pairing: Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
Nominations for: Madam Curie and Mrs. Miniver
Pairing: Karl Malden and Marlon Brando
Nominations for: Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront
Pairing: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence
Nominations for: Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle
Pairing: Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman
Nominations for: Doubt and The Master
Pairing: Amy Adams and Christian Bale
Nominations for: The Fighter, American Hustle, and Vice
Trivia within the trivia rabbit hole:
Amy Adams is the only actor to have achieved this feat with more than one screen partner
Curiously, David O. Russel is arguably the director responsible for most of these stats (The Fighter, Silver Linings, American Hustle)
Cooper and Lawrence are really the only current near-term possibility for a pair to break the record now held by Bale and Adams
Not a stat itself, but returning nominees:
Sam Rockwell, Willem Dafoe, Desplat, Diane Warren, Blum and Peele, Crowley. and a few sounds and VFX as well.
Of the 20 acting nominees, 5 are previous winners. Bale being the sole winner in lead actor, none on the lead actress, 2 apiece in the supporting categories.
There are 9 first-timers in acting.
The 20 acting nominees represent 11 films, 5 of them are the sole acting nominee of their films
Bale has now a total 7 co-stars nominated along him(3 are for Amy).
Bradley has 8, Amy has 11.
@Travis: If only Cooper & Lawrence had been nominated for Serena. LOL.
Emma Stone's 3 nominations have all been for the most nominated film of their particular years (Birdman, La La Land & now The Favourite), which were all nominated for picture, directing and writing and below-the-line.
Black Panther is the 3rd film since the Best Picture expansion to be nominated without a directing, writing or acting nod.
The other 2: Selma and War Horse.
@ken s. & brookesboy, Laura Linney and Tommy Lee Jones had gotten a smattering of regional critics circle and other nominations for The Savages and In the Valley of Elah, respectively. Even Jackie Weaver received a few for Silver Linings Playbook, though she didn't seem to be on really most pundits collective radar.
Yalitza Aparicio has been nominated for several awards actually, but Marina de Tavira has NONE. It's amazing, but she is arguably Roma's best performance.
The 20 acting nominations came from a combined 11 films, which is on the low end of the scale historically. The lowest ever was in 1981, when the 20 nominations came from just 9 films. The highest was in 2007, when the acting nominations came from 18 different films. Only "Michael Clayton" that year had multiple acting nominations (3).
Bede, also Deborah Kerr in The King and I.
If Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman or Green Book win best picture, they will be the first movie with a color in its title to win since How Green Was My Valley.
You guys are so good! I'm loving it
Longest Oscar absence before returning to multiple nominations?
Alan Arkin: 1969 to 2007 (with another nomination in 2012): 38 years
Julie Christie: 1971 to 1997 (with another nomination in 2007): 26 years
Glenn Close: 1989 to 2012 (with another nomination in 2018): 23 years
Ingrid Bergman: 1956 to 1974 (with another nomination in 1979): 18 years
I'm sure I'm missing some? There are plenty of one-off swan song nominations (Fonda, Stallone, Dern, O'Toole) but it's rare that an actor bounces back and bounces back again after decades.
Has anyone mentioned Maggie Gyllenhaal and her "Crazy Heart" out-of-the-blue nomination? She was always kind of on the periphery, but she hadn't gotten much more than a runner-up mention from the Dallas critics group.
I have yet to see Vice, but I've been hearing talks about how Rockwell might be one of for the record books in terms of screentime in the category. Can anybody vouch for that?
At least, one animated, documental and foreign film have another nomination outside of their feature category.
Isle of Dog in Score, RBG in Song and Roma/Cold War/Never Look Away in 9 categories.
Oops, to clarify my previous comment a few up. I've heard many say he has 4-5 minutes of screentime tops, if that. Making him one of the shortest performances to be nominated.
- There are THREE Asians in the Animated Short category: Trevor Jimenez is Filipino-Canadian.
- Also Peter Ramsey is the first African-American to be nominated in the Animated Feature category.
- "Mirai" is the first non-Studio Ghibli anime to get a Best Animated Feature nomination.
Hayden: Good point. I can't think of any others for now.
(By the way, a gentle observation: some of your dates are a year out. You've got a mixture of year of eligibility and year of ceremony. If you're going by year of eligibility [which I do], Arkin in 1968 to 2006, Close is 1988 to 2011, and Bergman's final nomination was 1978. Internet sources frustratingly use a combination, so I sympathise!)
Of the four leading actor nominees playing real-life figures, two are actors in their sixties playing men in their thirties and one is an actor in his forties playing a VP of around sixty. Not that I mind - it just struck me as a bit odd and potentially interesting trivia!
I checked further and Black Panther is only the 5th film since 1990 to land a picture nod with no writing, directing or acting nods:
Beauty and the Beast
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
War Horse
Selma
BLACK PANTHER
I'd be interested to see a full list. If I have the time...
you guys these comments have been so fun to read. thank you so much for jumping in.
Oh and Jessica Lange in Sweet Dreams, a movie I really dig.
Olivia Colman is only the 13th actress nominated for playing a real queen. The others:
01) Norma Shearer - Marie Antoinette - 1938
02) Katharine Hepburn - Eleanor of Aquitaine -
The Lion in Winter - 1968 - Won
03) Genevieve Bujold - Anne Boleyn -
Anne of The Thousand Days - 1969
04) Vanessa Redgrave - Mary Stuart -
Mary, Queen of Scots, 1971
05) Janet Suzman - Tsarina Alexandra -
Nicholas and Alexandra, 1971
06) Helen Mirren - Queen Charlotte -
The Madness of King George, 1994 *Supporting
07) Judi Dench - Queen Victoria -
Mrs Brown, 1996
08) Judi Dench - Elizabeth I -
Shakespeare in Love, 1998 - Won *Supporting
09) Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth I -
Elizabeth, 1998
10) Helen Mirren - Elizabeth II -
The Queen, 2006 - Won
11) Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth I -
Elizabeth: The Golden Age, 2007
12) Helena Bonham Carter - Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother -
The King's Speech, 2010 *Supporting
Edward—good catch. I think all my span calculations are right but the years are misaligned.
It's an interesting metric to differentiate "career resurgence" from "momentary return to form." I expect Bruce and Laura Dern to both join the club.
She went 23 years between her first two nominations and probably isn't finished.
He went 35 years between his first two nominations and still works a ton.
Unlike the other people I listed, neither of them had multiple nominations on the "early" side of their gaps.
Doesn't the Foreign Language Film count as a nomination for Cuarón?
Also, Beatty also got 4 for Heaven Can Wait.
I'm assuming The Passion of the Christ coild not be submitted by the US for lol?
Rockwell is in Vice for Almost 10 minutes. Only have two real scenens thou...
One thing to add...In the Best Actor category, 4 out of the 5 nominees portrayed real-life figures.
Me -- technically no, though his name will be on the statue if it wins. It's stupid. Those should totally count as nominations for the Directors themselves (we count it that way here but the Oscars do not for some reason.)
Tobias -- yeah, it's a standard supporting role. Not in the ranks of briefest screen time to be nominated really (it's certainly no Beatrice Straight!) People have become very distorted in their thinking about supporting actor. Now you have to be a lead in some people's eyes to qualify. Yes he only has two big scenes but they're both substantial scenes.
Welp, somebody supposedly timed Rockwell as close as they could when they saw Vice and is insisting he’s got 6-6.5 minutes tops. Sam Elliott also has 7 or so. Meaning two of the supporting actor nominees are the shortest screentimes in the category since 1977.
Ned Beatty – Network (6:00)
John Marley – Love Story (6:03)
Basil Rathbone – Romeo and Juliet (6:16)
Maximilian Schell – Julia (6:49)
Charles Durning – The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (7:26)
John Gielgud – Becket (8:07)
William Hurt – A History of Violence (8:22)
Rockwell also cracks the 20 or so shortest performances ever nominated in any category. 🤔
Well I remember him drunk at a ball, talking in the Oval Office, being directed in the control room, and then at his house talking to Cheney.
The two big scenes, alone, should be more than that. Not a cameo, just a relevant character in the film.
re: Screentime. I got a kick out of this rundown of short performances. Was Anthony Hopkins actually an example of category fraud in the other direction at only 16 minutes?
http://mentalfloss.com/article/73865/12-actors-who-earned-oscar-nods-less-20-minutes-screen-time
Unless Adam McKay wins best director, the Oscar has only gone to one white American male in the last ten years. Before Damien Chazelle, you would have to go back to the Coen Bros in 2007. Mexico, of course, is the best represented.
Glenn Close is the 11th woman to earn 7 or more acting nominations.
@ Me
Wasn't in any shape or form arguing he was a cameo, just a minimal screen presence.
I haven't seen the film, but I've heard most say close to what you have in terms of his scenes, and scene time =/= screentime.
For example, many think Ledger was in The Dark Knight enough to qualify as a co-lead, but his screentime was a measly 33 minutes of the movie's 152. He's talked about (or in a room in some scenes with another actor/actress) that ultimately factors him into that screentime.
@ Bruno
The 16 minutes for Hopkins is sort of a myth. It's a smaller role than most leading roles (the second shortest to win Lead Actor, behind David Niven). Hopkins has 25 minutes; Niven had 23.5 minutes in his film. Still impressive and interesting little piece of trivia.
Alfonso Cuaron is >cough!< white. Alejandro G. Iñárritu is >cough! cough!< white too! And Guillermo del Toro is >cough! cough!< whiter >cough!< than Nicole Kidman and has blue eyes! >cough! cough! cough!<
@Reginald-But are they American?
Raul - No, not americans. But the idea that they are not white because they are mexicans, foreigners, sounds racist. Like if only in America and Europe could exist white people. They are visibly white.