Notable Firsts and Records

[FilmFan720]

Steven Spielberg extends his record for most producer nominations for Best Picture to 11 (thanks to the early years where producers weren't cited)

Spielberg also continued his record of most nominations for their films. His films now have 137 nominations. I have a lot of confidence that is a record that will never be broken, at least in my lifetime!

[Mister Tee]

A record I'd never have thought to look for till I saw it noted somewhere else: this year's best supporting actress slate is, among all slates of acting nominees over these 94 years, the one whose alphabetical listing ends earliest, with Aunjanue Ellis. The previous record was best supporting actor 1965, which ended with Frank Finlay (close second/now third: best actor 1983, where Albert Finney anchored).

The record in the other direction: 2002 supporting actress, for obvious reasons.

[OscarGuy]

Steven Spielberg extends his record for most producer nominations for Best Picture to 11 (thanks to the early years where producers weren't cited)

Dianne Warren, with her 13th nomination, now ranks 6th on the list of most nominated women in Oscar history. She just has to pick up 3 more nominations to surpass Marilyn Bergman to take the record for most nominations by a woman in the original song category's history. Here are the 5 above her (Edith Head 35, Meryl Streep 21, Sandy Powell 16, Irene Sharaff 15 & Marilyn Bergman 15)

[Okri]

Dune displaces Cleopatra as the film with the second most nominations without a directing nomination. First is The Colour Purple.

[dws1982]

- Steven Spielberg becomes the first person to receive Oscar nominations in six decades. He moves up to third on the all-time Best Director nomination list, with eight nominations, and West Side Story is the twelfth Best Picture nominee that he has directed. One more and he will tie the Billy Wilder record.

I'm thinking you meant William Wyler, here.

I did. Wilder is the one who he ties at number three on the all-time Best Director nomination list.

[Mister Tee]

- Steven Spielberg becomes the first person to receive Oscar nominations in six decades. He moves up to third on the all-time Best Director nomination list, with eight nominations, and West Side Story is the twelfth Best Picture nominee that he has directed. One more and he will tie the Billy Wilder record.

I'm thinking you meant William Wyler, here.

The 32 years since Kenneth Branagh's last directing nomination is not quite a record -- John Huston went 33 years between Moulin Rouge and Prizzi's Honor. But for gap between 1st and 2nd nomination, I believe it's the winner (4 years longer than Jane Campion's).

For those wondering how rare is the Licorice Pizza film/director/screenplay/nothing else combo, it's apparently happened three times previous: Bad Girl (1931-32), Little Women ('32-33), and, the most recent, Twelve Angry Men ('57). (Which means it could happen in a five-nominee era.)

Being the Ricardos' 3 acting nominations/nothing else to show also seems rare -- it last happened with The Master (2012) and Iris (2001); can't attest if there were cases prior.

[rolotomasi99]

While quite a few deaf and mute characters have been represented at the Oscars, only two deaf actors have been nominated, with Troy Kotsur being the first male.

[anonymous1980]

- Ari Wegner is only the second woman nominated for Cinematography.

- Paul Tazewell, the costume designer for West Side Story is the first black man to get nominated for Costume Design.

- Drive My Car is the most nominated Japanese film tied with Ran.

[dws1982]

- Jane Campion is the first woman to receive two Best Director nominations. She is the first to direct a movie that has more than ten nominations, and the second to direct a nominations-leader, although unlike Bigelow in 2009, her film is the sole nomination leader and not the co-leader.

- Kenneth Branagh becomes the first person to be nominated in seven categories.

- Steven Spielberg becomes the first person to receive Oscar nominations in six decades. He moves up to third on the all-time Best Director nomination list, with eight nominations, and West Side Story is the twelfth Best Picture nominee that he has directed. One more and he will tie the Billy Wilder record.

- This is the first time that each acting category has a female-directed performance nominated. The Power of the Dog accounts for a lot of this with its four acting nominations, but The Lost Daughter and CODA all helped as well. Best Supporting Actor is probably the first time the majority of the performances in a category are female-directed.

- Four of the ten best picture nominees are "remakes"--i.e., one straight remake (CODA) and three re-adaptations (Dune, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story)

- The Picture/Acting disparity has been pointed out. The Best Picture nominees got a total of 10 acting nominations, for an average of 1 acting nomination per Best Picture nominee. (Of course five of the films received no acting nominations.) For comparison, here's the average number of acting nominations for the Best Picture nominees the five previous years: 93rd: 1.5, 92nd: 1.22, 91st: 1.875, 90th: 1.44, 89th: 1.67

- It seems impossible but apparently this is the first time since 1976 that two foreign films were nominated in the Screenplay categories.