New Oscar Records!
Monday, March 15, 2021 at 10:04AM Refresh your screen for updates as this post is in progress. It's always fun to look at new records or trivia after nominations. So let's go!
ACTING
• Anthony Hopkins is now the Oldest Best Actor nominee ever at 83 years of age and the first octogenarian ever nominated in leading actor. Previously the oldest nominee record in the category was held by Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story (1999) who was 78.
• Chadwick Boseman becomes the first black actor to be nominated posthumously.
• Maria Bakalova is the first Bulgarian actor ever nominated.
• Riz Ahmed is the first actor of Pakistani descent to ever be nominated as well as the first Muslim actor nominated in the lead category...
• With the nominations for Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun this is the first time two Asian actors have ever competed against each other in a lead acting category. It happened once previously, also with men, in supporting actor (Pat Morita and Dr Haing S Ngor in 1984)
• This is only the second time three actors of Asian descent have been nominated in the same year (Youn Yuh-Jung, Riz Ahmed, Steven Yeun) have been nominated for an Oscar in the same year. The previous record was two in 2003 (with Ken Watanabe, Shohreh Agdashloo, Ben Kingsley)
• There are twenty slots for acting each year and this year 6 of those went to black actors, the most ever honored in a single year. The previous record was 5 of the 20 nominations which happened in both 2004 and 2006. (In each of those previous record-holding years, there were four men nominated and one woman. This year it's four men and two women.)
• With her fourth nomination, Viola Davis is now the most Oscar-nominated black woman of all time all by herself. She previously shared that distinction, at 3 nominations, with both Octavia Spencer and the costume designer Ruth E Carter.
• This is the first time three black actors have been nominated simultaneously in Best Supporting Actor. The previous record was two. (Two black actors had been nominated in the category thrice before: 1987, 2004, and 2006.)
• This is only the second time two black actress (Viola Davis and Andra Day) have been nominated simultaneously in Best Actress. It happened once before in 1972 when Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross were both nominated. In both cases one of the two women was playing Billie Holiday!
PICTURE / DIRECTING
• This is the first time an Asian woman (Chloe Zhao) has been nominated for Best Director.
• Chloe Zhao also makes history becoming the first woman to nab 4 nominations in a single year (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Editing) which has only been done by men previously.
• This is the first time a US born Asian-American (Lee Isaac Chung) has been nominated for Best Director. The previous Asian best director nomines have been Japanese, Taiwanese, South Korean or Chinese nationals. (M Night Shyamalan was the first Asian-American nominated but he was born in india.)
• This is the first time two women (Emerald Fennel and Chloe Zhao) have been nominated simultaneously in Best Director
• This is the first time a female director has been nominated for her directorial debut (Emerald Fennel)
• Judas and the Black Messiah is the first Best Picture nominee with an all black producing team.
• HAVEN'T VERIFIED THIS YET... but we believe this is the biggest tie ever for "second most nominated" movie. While Mank has ten nominations. There's a six way tie for second place with six nominations each.
OTHER
• This is the first time Pixar has scored two simultaneous nominations in Best Animated Feature
• Pete Docter now holds the solo record for most nominations in the Best Animated Feature category with 4 (via Soul). He was previously tied with three (with a whole slew of people).
Reader Comments (97)
The Best Actress stat is so strange in that it has happened when Billie Holliday was a character in the race.
Seyfried is now the second of the Plastics to get an Oscar nomination — your move, Lacey Chabert!
I believe Lee Isaac Chung is the first Asian *American* director be nominated, though obvs not the first of Asian descent.
I love all these firsts!
Zhao is first woman with 4 nominations in a single year.
Isn't Viola Davis also the first Black actress to get 2 Best (Lead) actress nominations? I believe no Black actress has gotten two lead nominations before.
First time in the expanded category era that all Best Picture nominees got at least one acting nomination
Also, not sure how to verify this but this has to be a record: only 4 white American actors nominated (McDormand, Close, Seyfried, Raci)
6 black nominees (Davis, Odom, Stanfield, Day, Boseman, plus Kaluuya who is British)
3 asian nominees as noted (Yeun is American, Ahmed is British, Youn is Korean)
7 white Europeans (Hopkins, Oldman, Mulligan, Kirby, Cohen, Colman - all British - and Bakalova who is Bulgarian)
Love the diversity! Wild how many Brits there are.
First time that the two sole leads of a film were both nominated in supporting!
• With the nominations for Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun this is the first time two Asian actors have ever competed against each other in acting category.
That's not true. Supporting Actor 1984.
Will America consider Anya Taylor-Joy black when she gets nominated?
More Billie Holiday Oscar trivia: Diana Ross and Andra Day not only got nominations playing her, but both got nominated for their first film role ever!
Also Anthony Hopkins is now the oldest nominee in best actor ever.
First time best actress has two singers
me -- that has happened before.
porteno -- i don't get it.
/3rtful - corrected.
Tom G -- awesome trivia. thanks
Charlea -- lol. it's so dumb.
Glenn Close is the first actor to be nominated for a razzie and an Oscar for the same performance in 40 years!
Glenn Close ties with Peter O'Toole as the most nominated actor without a win: 8 times.
I wonder what the record is for the most British actors getting one of the twenty slots in a single year in the 4 acting categories. 8 must be up there as one of the highest totals ever.
1991 Best Supporting Actress
Juliette Lewis - Cape Fear
Diane Ladd - Rambling Rose
Mercedes Ruehl - The Fisher King
Susan Sarandon - Thelma & Louise
Geena Davis - Thelma & Louise
Sean C. - yes! I was thinking the same!
Nathaniel, I think porteno is referring to Taylor-Joy being a white Hispanic (apologies if I messed up the terminology there) since she is part Argentinian, which people on Twitter used to deflect criticism of the all-white lineup at the Globes for several of the women's categories.
It's dumb in that no one thinks of her as being a minority actress, and painting her as such was an attempt to avoid that conversation.
That header just makes me think that Riz Ahmed also broke the record for hottest under-50 Best Actor nominee since at least Hugh Jackman if not Robert Redford in his heyday. Obviously, Antonio wins the over-50 race.
Seriously, these stats are a lot of fun. Not a big one, but Glenn Close is also now one of the top 5 most nominated actresses - a record she probably won't hold long unless she keeps getting nominations. She is, however, the slowest actress to make it to 8 at 38 years from the time of her first nomination.
Shohreh Aghdashloo's name is missing from the 2 Asian 2003 nominees.
This is the fourth year in a row in which somebody receives Oscar nominations for both acting and songwriting for the same film.
Paranoid Android: Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon were nominated in Lead for Thelma & Louise (both lost to Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs. The other two nominees for Supporting were Kate Nelligan in The Prince of Tides and Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes.
Nathaniel - Porteno is trying to be funny. Anya’s mother was born in Zambia. So no Anya Taylor Joy is not Black. If I was born in Jamaica I d consider myself Jamaican not Black, just my two cents
Supporting Actor is so absurd, but I am GLAD that Blseman was left and not Raci for that Category Fraud-Nonsense! Will this ever stop? You need a new rule for that, Academy!
And as Claudio predicted back in december, Reznor and Ross made history with a double-double nomination in Score:
http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2020/12/28/can-reznor-and-ross-make-oscar-history.html
Richter Scale: I know that! Was making a joke about Steinfeld/Kaluuya and how ridiculous it would look for another two-lead film.
@ Joe G, who could overtake Close soon? I can only see McDormand and Winslet.
@Gilbert, Cate Blanchett. She may be at 6 now, but she keeps getting stellar roles and always has buzz. Hard to see that stopping.
Glenn Close is now the second most nominated living actress after Meryl, of course.
@Joe G she’s at seven already! Next year, she could be back with Nightmare Alley!
@Golden, yes, nominated 6 years, 7 times. Hard to see her not besting Bette and maybe even Jack/Katherine.
So, this year I'm struggling to find connections among the 20 nominated actors (not counting the roles they're nominated for, of course). Here's what I have so far:
Black Panther: Chadwick Boseman and Daniel Kaluuya
Marshall: Chadwick Boseman and Andra Day
Get Out: Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield
Les Misérables: Sacha Baron Cohen and Amanda Seyfried
Nine Lives: Glenn Close and Amanda Seyfried
Sorry to Bother You: LaKeith Stanfield and Steven Yeun
Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins
Get on Up: Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis
and, I know they were never on at the same time, but they were both in the show, so:
The Crown: Vanessa Kirby and Olivia Colman
If anyone can think of any others, let me know.
@Richter Scale Paradise Road: Glenn Close & Frances McDormand
Is Ann Roth The oldest Nominee ever?
Not a record exactly, but interesting/disappointing that a minority of the acting performances are set in the past thirty years.
Any plans for a podcast covering the noms?
At nine, does Borat 2 hold the record for most people nominated for a writing award?
@Luis: Wow, never heard of that one. Thank you!!!
Black Panther: Chadwick Boseman and Daniel Kaluuya
Marshall: Chadwick Boseman and Andra Day
Get Out: Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield
Les Misérables: Sacha Baron Cohen and Amanda Seyfried
Nine Lives: Glenn Close and Amanda Seyfried
Sorry to Bother You: LaKeith Stanfield and Steven Yeun
Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins
Get on Up: Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis
Paradise Road: Glenn Close and Frances McDormand
and, I know they were never on at the same time, but they were both in the show, so:
The Crown: Vanessa Kirby and Olivia Colman
I saw it on Twitter - 3 actresses from The Crown got nominated this year: Colman, Kirby, Fennel. Isn't that crazy?
Odom Jr is now the third person (and first man) to get 2 noms on the same day for acting and song. The 3 instances so far have happened only in the last 3 years and they were all POC (after Mary J Blige and Cynthia Erivo).
Willam: I can answer this RE: the Brits.
There was a three streak period in the 1960s when there were 10 British nominees:
1964 (Richard Burton, Rex Harrison*, Peter O’Toole, Peter Sellers, Julie Andrews*, John Gielgud, Stanley Holloway, Peter Ustinov*, Edith Evans, Gladys Cooper).
1965 (Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie*, Samantha Eggar, Ian Bannen, Tom Courtenay, Frank Finlay, Joyce Redman, Maggie Smith).
1966 (Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Paul Scofield*, Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Elizabeth Taylor*, James Mason, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Vivien Merchant).
In the '70s and '80s a lot less Brits were nominated, but since the '90s they have mostly been a mainstay but have never reached the heights of their popularity in the '60s.
@Richter Scale Thanks for that post. I cannot think of any more but am having fun trying.
*Sorry that was replying to Matthew.
Minor trivia re: dual Black Best Actress nominees ‘72/‘21–in addition to two singers being nominated for playing Billie Holiday, the other two are in films set in the late ‘20s/early ‘30s. And Tyson and Davis played mother and daughter on How to Get Away with Murder.
@Carlos Don't forget Lady Gaga! This is now four years in a row of crossover between acting and songwriting nominees.
As a Belgian, I must add another proud first to the list: Bert Hamelinck, one of the producers of Best Film nominee Sound of Metal, is the first ever Belgian nominated in the top category!
Carlos - Odom is the 4th - you left out Lady Gaga, who is the only one (so far) to win
Frances McDormand became the first woman to be nominated for producing a Best Picture nominee she was also nominated for acting in.
Borat 2 now holds the record for longest film title for any Oscar nominated film