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Bradley Cooper scored his 9th nomination, this time for producing Nightmare Alley
PICTURE
-With Nightmare Alley Bradley Cooper received his fourth nomination for producing, tying his Oscar nomination stats for acting. You know who else has four nominations for producing and four for acting? Warren Beatty! Of course Warren Beatty also has multiple writing and directing nods and an actual statue so he's still ahead of Cooper in the stats book.
- With his nomination for producing and writing Belfast, Kenneth Branagh now holds an Oscar record...
He's been nominated in seven different categories (Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Live-Action Short, Lead Actor, and Supporting Actor). The previous record was six categories, held in a tie between three men: Walt Disney, Alfonso Cuarón, and George Clooney.
- West Side Story gives Steven Spielberg his 11th Oscar nomination as a Producer. He has the most nominations of any person for Best Picture but he already held this record so he just beat himself. Before he began producing his own pictures two of his films were nominated for the top prize (Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark). One of his previous producing nominations comes from a film he didn't director, Letters from Iwo Jima)
- West Side Story marks the 12th film directed by Steven Spielberg to receive a Best Picture nomination. He is now just one Best Picture nomination away from tying the all time record: William Wyler directed 13 films that were nominated for Hollywood's top prize. (With the expanded field for Best Picture over the past decade, and presumably continuing, today's directors will have a clear window to make big moves on that particular list... though only two living directors are currently in the top ten)
Top Ten - Directors with Most Films Nominated for Best Picture
1. William Wyler (13)
2. Steven Spielberg (12)
3. John Ford (9)
4. Martin Scorsese and Mervyn Leroy (8 each)
6. Frank Capra, George Cukor, Henry King, George Stevens (7 each)
10. David Lean, Fred Zinneman, Michael Curtiz, Sam Wood (6 each)
- This is the first year (we believe) where 40% of the Best Picture list is either remakes or re-adaptations of previously filmed material (CODA, Dune, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story)
DIRECTING
- Jane Campion is the first woman to receive multiple nominations for Best Director (only 7 women have ever been nominated). Her previous nomination came for The Piano (1993) losing to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. Now she's up against Spielberg again. She is now also the oldest woman ever nominated in this category at age 67.
- Steven Speilberg's 8th nomination for Best Director ties him with Billy Wilder as the third most nominated director of all time (William Wyler leads the all time list with 12 followed by Martin Scorsese with 9 nominations)
- Steven Spielberg has now been nominated for Best Director in six consecutive decades (a record!): the 1970s (Close Encounters), 1980s (Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET), 1990s (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan), 2000s (Munich), 2010s (Lincoln), and 2020s (West Side Story).
-Ryusuke Hamaguchi is the third Japanese director to be Oscar nominated, following Hiorshi Teshigahara (1965) and Akira Kurosawa (1985)
ACTING
- With Troy Kotsur's nomination this is only the second time in history that a deaf performer has been Oscar nominated for acting. Marlee Matlin, his onscreen spouse /co-star in CODA, was the first (and she won) with Children of a Lesser God (1986). Other sign-language performances have been nominated but the actors in those roles were hearing.
- For the first time in history two out queer actors are nominated! (Kristen Stewart and Ariana DeBose)
- For the first time in history each acting category has a performance directed by a woman in it (Jane Campion's Power of the Dog and Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daugher, and Sian Heder's CODA each secured acting nominations)
- With Denzel's 9th acting nomination for Tragedy of Macbeth, he joins the top five of all time for male acting nominations, making it a top six.
Most Nominated Male Actors
1 Jack Nicholson (12 noms / 3 wins)
2. Laurence Olivier (10 noms / 1 win / 2 honoraries)
3. Paul Newman (9 noms / 1 win / 2 honoraries)
4. Spencer Tracy and Denzel Washington (9 noms / 2 wins each)
6. Al Pacino (9 noms / 1 win)
- With Judi Dench's 8th acting nomination for Belfast she joins the top five of all time for female acting nominations, making it a top six.
Most Nominated Female Actors
1. Meryl Streep (21 noms / 3 wins)
2. Katharine Hepburn (12 noms / 4 wins)
3. Bette Davis (10 noms / 2 wins)
4. Judi Dench and Geraldine Page (8 noms / 1 win each)
6. Glenn Close (8 noms)
- Two sets of real life couples are nominated this year which is fun: Kiki Dunst and Jesse Plemons for Power of the Dog) and Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem for Parallel Mothers and Becoming the Ricardos, respectively.
MISCELLANIA
- Ari Wegner (Power of the Dog) is only the second woman to ever be nominated in Best Cinematography (following Rachel Morrison for Mudbound)
- Diane Warren (Four Good Days) extends her record of Most Original Song Nominations without a win to 13. She's held the record for a long time and just keeps extending it.
- Though Disney has long dominated wins in Best Animated Feature this is only the second time they've managed 3 of the 5 nominations for Best Animated Feature (Luca, Encanto, Raya)