by Nathaniel R
Amy Madigan breaking things onscreen and off!
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS LIST IN THE COMMENTS. These stats will also probably show up on the Oscar charts too but why not collect them here first or simultaneously while still hopped up on Oscar fever...
RECORDS BROKEN OR SET
• Longest Gap Between Acting Nominations for a Woman
Weapons standout Amy Madigan's 40 year gap between Oscar nominations (her first nomination was in 1985's Twice in a Lifetime) is not an all time record but it is the record for a female actor...
The record, either gender, is currently held by Judd Hirsch with 42 years between nominations (Ordinary People to Fablemans), followed by Henry Fonda who had a 41 year gap (between The Grapes of Wrath and On Golden Pond). Before Madigan's unexpected witchy slay in last summer's horror hit, the longest gap for a female actor between nominations was Helen Hayes's 39 years (between The Sin of Madelon Claudet and the disaster epic Airport).
• Most Nominated Movie of All Time
The big story, already covered in the initial reactions is that Sinners broke the all time record for Most Oscar Nominations for a single film with 16. The previous record (14) was held jointly by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). While we knew Sinners had a shot to break it we figured at least the Makeup and Visual Effects branches would look elsewhere (since Sinners doesn't offer what they usually look for). We are wrong. We sincerely hope Sinners keeps the record for ever because no film needs to be nominated in every category. No film is the Best at everything!!!
SINNERS has fun color-coded costumes
• Most Nominated / Winning Black Woman of All Time
Ruth E Carter, nominated for Best Costume Design for the 5th time, breaks the tie she shared with Viola Davis as the most nominated black woman in Oscar history. She's also the most winning in terms with two Oscars to date! Her nominations: Malcolm X, Amistad, Black Panther (win), Black Panther Wakanda Forever (win), and now Sinners.
• First Vampires in Best Picture Lineup
Sinners marks the first time a vampire film has ever cracked the Best Picture list. One wonders if Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) might have done it if there had been 10 nominees back then (though I kind of doubt it as Oscar voters were stuffier back then about genre pieces.)
• Dual Roles ... Doubled!
This is the first time two performances in the same category have come from someone playing dual roles: In Best Actor Wagner Moura plays a father and his son and Michael B Jordan plays twins. Jordan's twin achievement follows Nicolas Cage in Adaptation (2002) and Klaus Maria Brandauer in Out of Africa (1985)... though the latter is only credited for one role (his twin is in the movie only very briefly). No actress has ever been nominated for playing twins though Meryl Streep was nominated for playing a dual role (French Lieutenant's Woman). Strangely multiple roles from the same actor in one film don't impress voters all that often. Consider the cold shoulder Robert Pattinson and Dylan O'Brien got this very year for their inventive performances in Mickey 17 and Twinless. A lot of famous multiple role performances have been snubbed over the years even when they received a lot of acclaim: Sonia Braga in Kiss of the Spider-Woman, Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers, Lupita Nyong'o in Us, Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap, Miranda Richardson in Spider, Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood are some that come immediately to mind for this cinephile.
• First Black Woman Nominated in Best Cinematography
Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the third black DP ever to be nominated, after Remi Adefarasin (Elizabeth) and Bradford Young (Arrival), but she's the first black woman. More on Arkapaw's history-making career here.
• Most Nominated Person Without A Competitive Win
Diane Warren, with her 17th nomination in Best Original Song (ugh) has now broken the tie with once-frequent Sound nominee Greg P. Russell as the most nominated (living) individual without a competitive win.
• First Oscar winning actor to be Nominated in Animated Feature
That'd be Natalie Portman who is up for producing Arco.
• First All-Woman team and First Spanish film ever nominated in Sound
That'd be for the incredible soundscape of Sirāt
• Longest Consecutive Streak of Nominated Foreign Language Performances Ever
We've now had a solid five years in a row of at least partially subtitled performances in the Best Actress category (2021 Parallel Mother, 2022 Everything Everywhere All At Once, 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon and Anatomy of a Fall, 2024 Emilia Perez and I'm Still Here, and 2025's Sentimental Value). The previous longest streak was three years and that happened once in Best Actress (2016 - Elle, 2017 - Shape of Water, and 2018 - Roma) and once in Best Supporting Actor (2020 - Sound of Metal, 2021 - Coda, and 2022 -Everything Everywhere All At Once). If you include all categories we're also experiencing this record extending itself repeatedly. The last time we had an Oscar race without a subtitled performance of some kind was all the way back in 2005 ! So it's been 20 years of multilinguistics in a row. The previous longest stretch lasted only 5 years (1974 through 1979).
On this same note (whew) this is the second consecutive year in which all four acting categories had an at least partially non-English performance nominated. 2024 was the first time (via nominees from The Brutalist, Anora, Emila Perez, and I'm Still Here) and it's now happened again in 2025 albeit from fewer films (via nominees from Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent).
Number of subtitled performances by category over Oscar's 98 years
01 Best Actress - 35 performances
02 Best Actor - 21 performances
03 tie Best Supporting Actor & Best Supporting Actress - 12 performances in each
• Most Best Picture Nominations Ever
Steven Spielberg extends his own incredible record in Producing with Hamnet. He's now received 14 nominations in the Best Picture category. His nearest rivals, Scott Rudin and DeDe Gardner (the woman with the most Best Picture nominations of all time) are tied for second with 9 nominations each. Like Spielberg, Gardner is up again this year (F1 The Movie).
• First Woman To Be Nominated For Best Director AFTER Winning
With her Best Director nomination for Hamnet, Chloe Zhao becomes the first woman to score a Best Director nod after having already won the prize. She's only the second woman to secure a second nomination in the category but in the other case (Jane Campion) the auteur had to wait for the second race to win.
• First film to score 4 Acting nominations after a shut-out from SAG
That'd be Sentimental Value but SAG voters weren't interested in the international films this season for whatever reason.
• First Norwegian Actor Ever Nominated Outside of Best Actress
Inga Ibsdottir Lilleas is the first Norwegian to compete in any of the acting categories beyond Best Actress (where Liv Ullmann was an intermittent presence in the 1970s). And speaking of...
• Most Scandinavian Talent Ever Nominated in a Single Year!
With nominations for Norwegians and Danes and Swedes I am pretty sure we have the most Scandinavian talent (13 people) ever nominated in a single year: Renate Reinsve, Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Olivier Bougge Coute, Inga Lilleeas, Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentson Ottmar, and Stellan Skarsgård (all from Sentimental Value), Dan Laustsen (Frankenstein), Thomas Foldberg, Anne Catherine Sauerberg (Ugly Stepsister), Lars Knudsen (Bugonia), and Ludwig Goransson (Sinners). Wow.
Skål! Surely lots of celebrations happening in those countries this weekend.
• The Long Streep Drought Continues
The longest gap between Meryl Streep nominations since her film debut in 1977 was previously 4 cycles (from 1990's Postcards from the Edge to 1995's The Bridges of Madison County). Now though she's been out of the contender pool since 2017's The Post so the record has doubled. We've now gone through 8 Oscar seasons without her. She hasn't even made a feature since Don't Look Up (2021). She's finally working again though: The Devil Wears Prada 2 arrives this year and she's got a thriller with Sigourney Weaver in pre-production.
THERE'S PROBABLY SOME COOL STATS HERE BUT I'M TOO TIRED TO CONTEMPLATE HOW TO RESEARCH IT...
• Fastest Collection of Best Picture Nominees on the Filmography?
Timothée Chalamet has already appeared in 8 Best Picture nominees (Marty Supreme being the latest) which is not a record (Leonardo DiCaprio is currently in second place of all time with 12) but the speed at which it has happened might be. It's only taken him 9 years to do that which means he's basically averaging 1 Best Picture appearance a year since he became famous! Next up: Dune Part Three
• "All of them Witches!"
Oscar voters don't usually go for genre films but Madigan isn't the first witch nominated -- but is there more than just Ruth Gordon's satan-loving "Minnie Castevet" in Rosemary's Baby before her? I cannot recall and I've been staring at the computer screen all day and my eyes are soooooo tired. Tannis, anyone?
Thanks to David in the comments for adding to this list given my fatigue: Streep in Into the Wood, Erivo in Wicked, Grande in Wicked (how did I forget Wicked so quickly!). That's five. Are there any more?
NOT A RECORD BUT INTERESTING
A great year at the Oscars for Nordic talent
• Following in Liv Ullman & Max Von Sydow's Footsteps
Renate Reinsve breaks the long drought following Liv Ullman's stellar career to become the second Norwegian woman to score an Oscar Best Actress nomination. Similarly Stellan Skarsgárd becomes only the second Swedish man to compete for Best Supporting Actor (the first and only other was Max Von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close). So in a way the most iconic Nordic auteur of all time, Ingmar Bergman, has blessed this year's Oscar race from the great beyond.
• Judy & Liza Have Company
For over 50 years Judy Garland (A Star is Born) & Liza Minnelli (Cabaret) were the only Mom & Daughter to both receive Best Actress nominations during their career (other mom & daughter nominees exist but not in Best Actress for both of them). Now in two consecutive years they suddenly have company! Last year the record was matched by way of Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station) & Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) and this year a third pair join that quartet via Goldie Hawn (Private Benjamin) & Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue).
• Most Nominated Individual This Time Around
That'd be Writer/Director/Producer/Editor Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme. (Sean Baker won those exact categories last year for Anora... the first person to win four Oscars for the same film)
• Second Film to Score Three Acting Nominations for Black Actors / Third Film to Feature Black Nominees in Both Supporting Categories
Sinners isn't the first film to accomplish either of these things but it's not common. For landing in both supporting categories the first was Dreamgirls (2008) followed by Moonlight (2016)... in both cases one of the pair won the Oscar which is either very good or very misleading news for Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku. For three acting nominations for Black talent, Sinners is the first since Color Purple (1985).
Brad Pitt 4evah 🖤
• Brad Pitt, Multihyphenate
With his nomination for producing F1, Brad Pitt's Producing career track has now equalled his acting track in Oscar eyes: He now has 4 nominations and 1 win (12 Years A Slave) as a Producer and 4 nominations and 1 win (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood) as an Actor.
• Shakespeare Always Comes with Costumes
Hamnet is the third film with William Shakespeare as a character to score Oscar nominations after Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Anonymous (2011). The only uniting factor is that they were all nominated for Best Costume Design.
• Second Favourite Frankenstein Riff
Frankenstein will have to win 5 Oscars to take the title of "Oscar's Fav' Frankenstein Riff" away from Poor Things which won 4 trophies two Oscar cycles ago. But we think it's unlikely since Frankenstein has two fewer nominations and isn't half as good.
• CCA Predictions Gone Awry
Though no awards group should consider predicting the Oscars their goal, CCA does often brag about it (ugh) so we have to note that this is the first time since 1999 (Man on the Moon and Three Kings) that two of their Best Picture nominees (Wicked For Good and Jay Kelly) received zero Oscar nominations ... but at least in 1999 those were very good films!
• Whoever Wins, It Won't Be A Repeat
While we don't have a category of all newbies (well, i haven't researched the shorts yet so hold that thought) there are a couple of categories with no previous winners in them so someone is about to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY. Are there any others... I'm not done looking.
THEY'LL SET A RECORD IF THEY WIN
• If Ryan Coogler wins Best Director he'll be the first black director to win (Sinners)
• Dan Laustsen could become the first Dane to win Best Cinematography (Frankenstein)
• Autumn Arkapaw could become the first woman to win Best Cinematography (Sinners)
THEY WON'T SET A RECORD IF THEY WIN BUT IT'LL STILL BE INTERESTING
• If Brazil wins a second consecutive Oscar with The Secret Agent (following I'm Still Here's triumph) it will be the first time in almost 40 years that a country has won back-to-back Oscars (that'd be Denmark who won back to back with Babette's Feast (1987) and Pelle the Conqueror (1988). Back-to-back wins happened a lot in the first thirty years of the categories when less countries submitted to the Academy but then it got (and stayed) real competitive.