New Oscar trivia from the Hollywoods big night

by Nathaniel R

A FEW FIRSTS!

• Laura Dern became the first person in her highly acclaimed family to win the Oscar and is now (3/1) in her nomination/win stats. Her mother Diane Ladd (3/0) and father Bruce Dern (2/0), who she name checked as her heroes in her speech have never won. 
• Parasite became the first South Korean film to win ANY Oscars and it won 4 of them. The individual wins from Bong Joon Ho, Kwak Sin-ae, and Han Jin Won are the first times any Asian has won Best Picture or a writing category...

• Karen Rupert Toliver is the first black woman to win the Best Animated Short category (shared with Matthew A Cherry who is the second black man to win this category after Kobe Bryant) .
• Taiki Waititi became the first Maori artist to win any Oscar
• Joaquin Phoenix became the first member of his acting family to win the Oscar (on his 4th nomination). His late older brother River was nominated once in Supporting Actor before his tragic death. His sisters Rain and Summer both act as well.
• Hildur Gudnadottir is the first woman to win Best Original Score by herself or in a year with just one Original Score category (previous winners were co-writers or won while the category was split into two briefly for comic or dramatic scores).
• Parasite is the first foreign-language film to win the most Oscar in its film year (with 4). 

IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE BUT IT'S STILL COOL OR INTERESTING

• Toy Story 4 is the first fourth movie in a series to win an Oscar since (the only other one) Thunderball (1965). It's also only the second time a film series has won the two top awards in its category (following Toy Story 3's win. (The only other instance is The Godfather Part II's Best Picture win) 
• Brad Pitt follows in the footsteps of... Michael Douglas? They both won their first Oscars producing (12 Years a Slave / One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) before eventually winning for their acting (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood / Wall Street). The chief difference is that Michael Douglas won his producing award before he was a movie star (he was a TV star at the time) and Pitt had long since been a headliner at the movies.
• This is the second consecutive year that a Nordic composer has won Original Score (and before that there had been none who ever had) and both one for comic book films. Sweden's Ludwig Goransson won for Black Panther last year and Iceland's Hildur Gudnadottir for Joker this year.
• Parasite ties Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) and Fanny & Alexander (1983) records for most wins from a foreign-language film though neither of those films won Best Picture.

• The Irishman is the second movie by Martin Scorsese to be nominated for 10 Oscars and lose every single category. That also happened with Gangs of New York (2002). In both years it was the only Best Picture nominee to go home Oscarless. 
• Joker is the only comic book character to ever lead to an Oscar win and it's happened twice now, first with Heath Ledger (2008) and now with Joaquin Phoenix.
• Bong Joon Ho is the second Asian man to win Best Director. The first and only other is Ang Lee (who has won it twice). 
• Kazu Hiro had previously won the Makeup Oscar for Darkest Hour. He's now a two timer winner due to Bombshell. He's also the only Asian ever nominated in the category (four nominations now)
• Jane Fonda is the 15th woman to present Best Picture solo. The only previous instances are Ethel Barrymore (1948), Mary Pickford (1952), Audrey Hepburn (1955, 1960, 1966, and 1975), Janet Gaynor (1956), Ingrid Bergman (1958), Olivia de Havilland (1962), Julie Andrews (1967), Elizabeth Taylor (1969 and 1973), Lillian Gish (1980), Loretta Young (1981), Carol Burnett (1982), Cher (1988), Barbra Streisand (1990), and Julia Roberts (2018).

ALSO OF NOTE

• Thomas Newman (1917) is now the most nominated film composer to never have won the Original Score Oscar. He previously was tied for that record with Alex North (Under the Volcano) who had 14 nominations in that category but now Newman holds the record alone with 15.
• The new normal: This decade had 5 splits between Picture and Director and 5 instances of the prizes going to the same film. It's a 50% reality now when Picture/Director splits were uncommon up until the 21st century. 
  
  how often picture and director matched
  1920s 0/2
  1930s 5/10
  1940s 7/10
  1950s 7/10
  1960s 9/10
  1970s 9/10
  1980s 8/10
  1990s 9/10
  2000s 7/10 
  2010s 5/10
  
  
• The new normal part 2: Sweeps are also passe. No Best Picture winner this decade won more than 5 Oscars.
• There is still no Oscar for best stunts but now there is an Oscar winning performance where the role is a stuntman (Brad Pitt). Ryan Gosling was of course not nominated for Drive and Peter O'Toole was not the titular character in The Stuntman (1980) though he was nominated for that film. 

Can you think of any other cool new trivia?

more 92nd Academy Awards coverage
top five presenters or duos
embroidered fashion statements (literally)
the winner and immediate afterthoughts 

Comments

[thefoxgoestothemovies]

@bette streep - I am pretty sure The Artist had English subtitles, especially as it was about the Golden Age of Hollywood. So Parasite is the first and only FLF to win Best Picture

[Gio]

Out of the 18 main categories, this year saw 11 different movies awarded, more than any year in history.

[Ishmael]

Best I've ever done on guessing the winners with 20 out of 24, so a little trivial trivia that interests me and my dog.

http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2020/2/3/bafta-winners.html

It irks me that I got wrong the seemingly most obvious winners. Fucking Toy Story 4!

[Gio]

This is the first time ever that all 4 acting winners had been nominated for supporting turns AND lead turns previously.

[Gio]

Toy Story and The Godfather are the only two movie franchises to receive the top prize in their respective categories twice (not counting the special award for the original Toy Story, before the animation category was invented)

Toy Story 4 is the first "part 4" of a movie to win an Academy Award.

[Kathleen]

True brookesboy. Shame Judy Davis didn’t use her pull and connections to get a limited release. Heck, from rehearsals and table reads with her and Blanchard that should have been the producers immediate thought to pivot. It’s like the weak 2009 when Grey Garden would have got two acting noms with a limited release. Barrymore could have usurped Bullocks Rom com girl come good narrative, or at least chipped away at it.

[Lisa]

That’s so cool that the three winners of Best Actress in their 50’s all deserved it. Nice fun fact.

[The T]

Just a reminder of that interesting comment worth acknowledging in the “Final Oscar Predictions!” Thread. Would love to hear if you’ll consider and maybe include it in your inevitable debrief on Zellweger’s win.

[UA]

Working stiff - John Huston, son of 4 time nominee/1 time winner Walter, was nominated as a supporting actor for The Cardinal back in 1963. The Hustons are the only family to have 3 generations nominated as actors (maybe at all, not sure).

[José Maria Neto]

With Joaquin Phoenix's victory, there are now 21 academy award winner actors and actresses born in the 1970s:

Joaquin Phoenix (1974)
Olivia Colman (1974)
Mahershala Ali (1974)
Regina King (1971)
Casey Affleck (1975)
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974)
Jared Leto (1971)
Jean Dujardin (1972)
Octavia Spencer (1972)
Christian Bale (1974)
Kate Winslet (1975)
Heath Ledger (1979) 1
Penélope Cruz (1974)
Marion Cotillard (1975)
Reese Witherspoon (1976)
Rachel Weisz (1970)
Hilary Swank (1974)
Jennifer Connelly (1970)
Adrien Brody (1973)
Charlize Theron (1975)
Gwyneth Paltrow (1972)

12 of them are women, 9 are men.

Until now, 1974's been the best year by far:

1970 2
1971 2
1972 3
1973 1
1974 7
1975 4
1976 1
1977
1978
1979 1

[Pete]

Jose - I think you omitted Angelina Jolie, born 1975.

I'm always fascinated by the gap from 1977 to 1980 where only the late Heath Ledger has an Oscar so far. Lots of talented actors born in this range, including frequent nominees/contenders Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rachel McAdams, Tom Hardy, James Franco, both Gyllenhaals... only a matter of time I suppose

Then there are 7 winners from 1981-1983 (Paquin, Hudson, Portman, Hathaway, Nyong'o, Redmayne, Malek), a four year gap from 1984-1987, then the 4 youngest winners so far are all from 1988-90 (JLaw, Brie Larson, Alicia Vikander, and Emma Stone). Really interesting pattern.

[Mafer]

The last 4 film Jokers are Oscar winners. You can even that the “serious” or “real” movie Jokers are winners since many would remember the Adam West movies as jokes or not that serious.

[Matty]

3 of the 4 acting winners have a family member or spouse (ex) as a nominee/winner. I know, trivia is getting lame!