Everyone keeps saying we're "bitter" in the comments this year, even though we're not (listen, final time saying it: 1917 is a good picture, it'll make a non-embarrassing winner but it's just a little disappointing when they had a chance to make history with a real masterpiece staring them right in the face and gently blowing peach scrapings at them while doing next to unthinkable box office numbers in the current moviescape for subtitled features!)
ANYWAY let's lean in to the bitter in a silly numbers way and talk about something potentially icky, the infamous "unlucky number" 13. Is 13 an unlucky number with Oscar or not? Let's find out...
Only actor to receive 13 (or more) Oscar nominations: Meryl Streep
Verdict: Unlucky! It's lonely at the top and Meryl needs company. Either Jack Nicholson (stuck at 12) needs to come out of retirement or Cate or Kate really need to get cracking again or Saoirse Ronan's gotta start showing up every damn year.
Meryl's 13th nomination: Adaptation (2002)
Verdict: Unlucky! She lost for one of her greatest performances AND she was also in the rare position of the dread "sixth spot" in Best Actress for The Hours (2002) missing out on a double nomination that could have jumped her from 12 to 14 nominations without the dread number 13
Year when Saoirse Ronan will nab her 13th Oscar nomination is she keeps up the current pace of one nomination every other year: 2037 (she'll be only 43 years old... and Meryl didn't get there until she was 53)
Verdict: Lucky ....for us if Saoirse keeps slaying her lead roles.
Only director to receive 13 Oscar nominations: NONE. William Wyler is tops with 12
Verdict: Unlucky.
Only writer to receive 13 (or more) Oscar nominations: Woody Allen
Verdict: Unlucky! He's persona non grata at the moment and his 13th writing nomination was for Deconstructing Harry (1997) which is surely one of his all-time sourest movies. Plus that movie was the start of Oscar looking away. They wouldn't come back around for another 8 years... the longest gap ever between his nominations.
Cinematography...13th nominations: Roger Deakins was nominated for Sicario (2015) and he LOST again, finally winning on his 14th two years later for Blade Runner 2049. So now the all-time record holder for Most Cinematography Nominations without a win is George J Folsey with exactly 13.
Verdict: Unlucky.
Costume Design... 13th nominations: For Sandy Powell that was either Mary Poppins Returns (2018) or The Favourite (2018) either of which might have won in a less competitive year. But she lost both of them. Jean Louis's 13th was for Gambit (1966) and he also lost. Irene Sharaff's was for The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and she also lost. Charles LeMaire's was for Teenage Rebel (1956) and he also lost. Edith Head's 13th was either The Proud and the Profane (1956) or The Ten Commandments (1956) but either way she lost. No other costume designrs have been nominated 13 times. Not even Colleen Atwood (currenty at 12).
Verdict: Always unlucky. On the other hand all of these costume designers had already won Oscars so perhaps this is the mildest of first world misfortunes.
Only movie to ever win in a "13" year: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Verdict: Lucky! That Steve McQueen movie is seriously amazing. An artistic confrontation that Oscar didn't shy away from. What's more it looked like it might lose with Gravity gaining steam in the last lap but it didn't.
Only 13 year old ever nominated: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider (2003)
Verdict: Lucky! She somehow overcame a silly attempt at pushing her as "supporting" in a one-lead movie. And became the youngest Best Actress nominee ever... though she only held that rcord for 9 years.
Only ten movies that received exactly 13 nominations: Gone With the Wind (1939), From Here to Eternity (1953), Mary Poppins (1964), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Forrest Gump (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Chicago (2002), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), and The Shape of Water (2017).
Verdict: You make your own luck; over half of them won the big prize but the other losses were big considering those hefty nomination totals.