Notable Firsts and Records

[Mister Tee]

Over the past ten years, best film and best director have coincided only 4 times. This is fewer than the 5 during the 1947-56 period -- a stretch we've always looked on as wildly anomalous for its non-correlation. The only period where it happened more often is in the initial 1928-37 decade...but, there, for the first 5 years or so, it was a small committee choosing the winners rather than a voting body, a system which lent itself to more scattered results.

And only two films over this recent stretch have managed best film/director/screenplay (which used to happen roughly half the time). One of which (Parasite) was a film that didn't win the Directors' Guild Award.

Point being, we're still in a very scattered time, however closely Sunday night's results hewed to most predictions.

[Reza]

Chastain's win raises the number of acting winners who appeared in The Help to an impressive 7 -- all female (Chastain, Stone, Davis, Spencer, Janney, Spacek, Steenburgen). I feel like there must be some disaster movie with more, but I don't know offhand.

The Swarm (1978) also has 7 winners - Michael Caine, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, and Henry Fonda.

Avengers: End Game (2019) also has 7 winners - Brie Larson, Michael Douglas, Robert Redford, Tilda Swinton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natalie Portman, and Marisa Tomei.

[Mister Tee]

Chastain's win raises the number of acting winners who appeared in The Help to an impressive 7 -- all female (Chastain, Stone, Davis, Spencer, Janney, Spacek, Steenburgen). I feel like there must be some disaster movie with more, but I don't know offhand.

And Smith's win ups the total number of acting nominees from 2001 to an extraordinary 17! Going into that night, 8 nominees had already won; 3 were added that night (Washington being a repeater); and 6 won subsequently (Kidman, Penn, Zellweger, Mirren, Winslet, now Smith). The 3 failures-to-date -- Wilkinson, Hawke and McKellen -- all have multiple nominations; Hawke is the only one nominated in the past decade, though they're all still quite active.

[Mister Tee]

I feel like the fact that CODA showed on Apple TV, one of the least popular streaming sites, actually worked to its advantage. It meant basically no one except Academy & SAG nominators had seen it, prior to late on in awards season. By then, it was clear that Power of the Dog was anathema to a certain number of voters, and they were casting about for an alternative. Belfast had seemed it might be that one, but the film was in front-runner position long enough to have its reputation battered by a lot of folks. CODA, newly caught on the Academy or SAG portal, filled in the slot instead, and there wasn't enough time for a backlash to kick in. Six months from now, I think some people will awake as from a long bender, and wonder what the hell made them do that. (Apologies to people who genuinely love the movie. I just don't see what you're seeing.)

The real problem, of course, is that Power of the Dog just didn't have mainstream appeal, even to the extent adventuresome films like Parasite, Moonlight, Birdman or No Country for Old Men did. Hollywood used to turn out movies that threaded the needle of entertainment and art better than some recent front-runners-gone-bust (like Boyhood or Roma, and now Dog) have.

[Big Magilla]

CODA is now the lowest grossing film of all time to win the Best Picture prize with a recorded gross of $1 million globally.

it would be one thing if the Academy shunned financially successful movies in order to recognize some artistically significant films that have been unfairly ignored by Joe Mainstream. By it looks like they have found a way to reward milquetoast niche dramas that appeal to nobody, except seemingly the old farts that mainly comprise the Academy's membership.

It's not the old farts who know better. It's the mostly middle-aged Hallmark and Lifetime movie fans who don't want anything challenging.

[taki15]

CODA is now the lowest grossing film of all time to win the Best Picture prize with a recorded gross of $1 million globally.

it would be one thing if the Academy shunned financially successful movies in order to recognize some artistically significant films that have been unfairly ignored by Joe Mainstream. By it looks like they have found a way to reward milquetoast niche dramas that appeal to nobody, except seemingly the old farts that mainly comprise the Academy's membership.

[Big Magilla]

CODA is now the lowest grossing film of all time to win the Best Picture prize with a recorded gross of $1 million globally.

[HarryGoldfarb]

At 67 years, 331 days, Jane Campion is now the third-oldest person to win Best Director, having surpassed George Cukor, and behind only Eastwood and Polanski.

[mlrg]

And while I'm here - is Troy Kotsur the first actor to fart his/her way to an Oscar?

Forrest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland also had a giant fart scene.

Thank you for clarifying this momentous issue. Aren't we both extremely refined Oscar scholars?

So does Will Smith in King Richard

[Uri]

And while I'm here - is Troy Kotsur the first actor to fart his/her way to an Oscar?

Forrest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland also had a giant fart scene.

Thank you for clarifying this momentous issue. Aren't we both extremely refined Oscar scholars?

[anonymous1980]

And while I'm here - is Troy Kotsur the first actor to fart his/her way to an Oscar?

Forrest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland also had a giant fart scene.

[Uri]

Twins Julius and Philip Epstein (along with Howard Koch) won for writing Casablanca.

And while I'm here - is Troy Kotsur the first actor to fart his/her way to an Oscar?

[jack]

Something to figure out: regarding Eilish and Finneas, how many couples of brother/sister have won in the same category for the same film? Don’t think this is a first, but I guess it is not that common.

The Coen brothers are the only others I can think of.

And the Sherman brothers (I had to look that one up).

[HarryGoldfarb]

So… in the end…

- The Power of the Dog is the first film with 12 nominations to receive just one award. Having won just one, it actually ties with the two all-time losers by having lost 11 nods.
- Now we have three characters that have granted Academy Awards to two different performers: Vito Corleone, the Joker and Anita.
- Campion is the first female director to have won on her second nomination.

Something to figure out: regarding Eilish and Finneas, how many couples of brother/sister have won in the same category for the same film? Don’t think this is a first, but I guess it is not that common.

[Heksagon]

EDIT: So I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on this and counted how many times the Academy has nominated more than one non-English language screenplays in the Screenplay categories and I found out that this was a fairly common occurrence in the 1960's and 1970's. Between 1960 and 1980, the Academy has nominated 2 even 3 non-English language screenplays 11 times. But since 1980 to the present, it has only happened five times including this year and also if you count Letters from Iwo Jima.

A major factor with the screenwriting categories is that in the past, an overwhelming majority of American films were based on adapted material. The level of competition in the original screenplay category was substantially weaker which allowed more space for European films to compete. If you look at the quantity and quality of English and non-English language nominees from this time, it may feel weird than non-English language films didn't actually end up winning more often.

60s and 70s were the peak critical era for European films (especially French and Italian ones) and this reflects in the Oscar nominations also.

Here's how I counted the number of non-English language films nominated in writing and directing (Minari and other American films that are predominantly not in English are included also).

adapted original story director
40s 1 4 1 0
50s 1 5 6 0
60s 2 17 - 7
70s 6 9 - 8
80s 2 5 - 4
90s 2 2 - 3
00s 4 6 - 5
10s 0 4 - 4
20s 1 2 - 3