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).