ArticlesAwards Season
By Daniel Howat
The 97th Academy Award nominees have been unveiled, bringing loads of new trivia, interesting stats, and plenty of records. Many of the new records were broken and set by the impressive performance of “Emilia Pérez,” while Diane Warren extended her nomination streak. With these nominations and more, there’s no shortage of fascinating awards trivia through which to sift.
Look at our comprehensive list of as much trivia as we could gather!
OVERALL STATS & TRIVIA
- “Emilia Pérez” received 13 nominations, the most for any non-English-language film in Academy Awards history. It surpassed previous record holders “Roma” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which each received 10 nominations.
- “Emilia Pérez” is the 12th film to receive 13 nominations. Last year, “Oppenheimer” also received 13 nominations, making this the second time that films have received 13 nominations at back-to-back Academy Awards. This first occurred in 2001 and 2002, with “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” followed by “Chicago.”
- Three films received ten or more nominations: “Emilia Pérez” (13), “The Brutalist” (10), and “Wicked” (10). This is the fifth time this has occurred, after 2023, 2019, 1977, and 1964.
- Both Sean Baker and Jacques Audiard received four individual nominations this year. Two people (who are not a directing team) have never achieved this in the same year. They are tied for the third-most nominations by a single person in a single year. Seven others have received four in a single year: Elliot J. Clawson (1930), Warren Beatty (1978, 1981), Alan Menken (1991), Joel & Ethan Coen (2007), Alfonso Cuaron (2018), and Chloe Zhao (2020). Walt Disney holds the record with six nominations in 1954, and Francis Ford Coppola received five in 1974.
- Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez“) is the first-ever person to receive nominations for producing, directing, writing, and songwriting for a single film. Previously, Spike Jonze was the only person to receive nominations in all four of these categories, but not for one single film.
- For the second time in Academy Awards history, all five Best Director nominees are also nominated for writing their films. This previously occurred in 2022. Unlike that year, this year’s nominations are spread between both Original and Adapted Screenplay.
- “Wicked” is the first film to receive ten nominations without a nomination for either directing or writing.
BEST PICTURE STATS & TRIVIA
- This is the first year since 1995 that multiple films rated PG have been nominated for Best Picture (“Conclave” and “Wicked“). Since the introduction of the PG-13 rating in 1984, this is only the fourth time multiple PG-rated films have been nominated for Best Picture (1984, 1989, 1995, & 2024).
- This is the eighth year in a row, excluding the Covid-hampered 2020, in which at least one Best Picture nominee was released outside of the fall-winter season. “Dune: Part Two” was released on March 1st, 2024.
- Though this won’t be confirmed until the included nominees are finalized for Best Picture, there appear to be a record number of women nominated in the category. The final number seems to be between nine and 11 female producers nominated. Nine would tie the record set in 2016, and any more would set a new record.
- With “The Brutalist” nominated for Best Picture, this is the 11th year in a row with at least one film from an actor-turned-director, Brady Corbet, among the lineup. The previous record was from 1977 through 1982.
- At 215 minutes long, “The Brutalist” is the fifth-longest Best Picture nominee of all time, just behind “The Ten Commandments” (220 minutes). The other films that surpass it are “Lawrence of Arabia” (222), “Gone With The Wind” (238), and “Cleopatra” (248).
- Collectively, this is the longest Best Picture lineup ever, running 24 hours and 45 minutes. The 2022 lineup was the previous record holder, at 24 hours and 1 minute.
- At least for now, this is the first time since 2011 that the TIFF People’s Choice Award winner, “The Life of Chuck,” was not nominated for Best Picture. This could change when NEON releases the film next year. “The Life of Chuck” is also the first TIFF People’s Choice Award winner not released in the same awards season as the festival since “Bella” in 2006.
- Thanks to “Emilia Pérez” and “Wicked,” this is the first year in which two musicals (not counting music-driven films like “A Star Is Born” and “Bohemian Rhapsody“) have been nominated for Best Picture since 1969, when “Oliver!” and “Funny Girl” were both nominated.
- This is a record sixth year in a row with at least one Best Picture nominee directed by a woman, thanks to Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance.”
- “The Substance” is the seventh horror film nominated for Best Picture. The previous nominees were “The Exorcist,” “Jaws,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Black Swan,” and “Get Out.”
- Dede Gardner (“Nickel Boys“) received her eighth nomination for Best Picture, tying Kathleen Kennedy as the most-nominated woman in the category’s history. They are the fourth most nominated in the category overall.
- Eric Fellner (“The Substance“) received his seventh nomination for Best Picture, the fifth-most of all time. If he fails to win, he would be the second-most nominated person in Best Picture without a win, behind Kennedy, who has eight nominations.
- This is the seventh consecutive year that at least one non-English-language film has been nominated for Best Picture. The previous record was two in a row from 1972-1973.
- With Best Picture nominations for “Emilia Pérez” and “I’m Still Here,” this is the second year that more than one primarily non-American-produced and non-English-language film has been nominated for Best Picture. This first happened just last year, with “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest.”
- This is the first year that two nominees for Best International Feature were also nominated for Best Picture (“Emilia Pérez” and “I’m Still Here“).
- “I’m Still Here” is the first Brazilian film nominated for Best Picture, and the first film from any South American country nominated in the category.
- The surprising inclusion of “I’m Still Here” makes it the first film since “The Blind Side” to earn a Best Picture nomination without Picture nominations from PGA, the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, BAFTA, or wins from any of the major critics groups (NBR, NYFCC, LAFCA, NSFC, BSFC). This is only the fourth time this has happened in the last 50 years, following “The Blind Side” (2011), “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), “All That Jazz” (1979), and “Lenny” (1974).
- “Dune: Part Two” is the 10th sequel nominated for Best Picture. Of those 10, it is the seventh sequel to receive a nomination after its previous franchise installments also received Best Picture nominations. Only “Toy Story 3,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and “Top Gun: Maverick” received the first Best Picture nominations in their respective franchises.
BEST DIRECTOR STATS & TRIVIA
- This is the first year since 1997 that Best Director is comprised entirely of first-time nominees. This is only the sixth time this has happened, after 1997, 1995, 1948, 1929, and 1928 (the first year of the Oscars).
- Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance“) is the ninth woman to receive a Best Director nomination.
- This is the second time two French directors, Jacques Audiard and Fargeat, have been nominated for Best Director in the same year. This first occurred in 1974 with Francois Truffaut (“Day for Night”) and Roman Polanski (“Chinatown”).
- “Wicked” is the fourth film to score 10 nominations without a Best Director nomination, following “Anne of a Thousand Days,” “Airport,” and “Dune,” whose sequel also missed a Director nomination this year (though with only five nominations). Just two films have more nominations (11) without a Best Director nomination: “The Pride of the Yankees” and “The Color Purple.”
ACTING STATS & TRIVIA
- Four of this year’s acting nominees were born in the 1990s, tying the record set in 2022. They are: Yura Borisov (1992), Timothee Chalamet (1995), Ariana Grande (1993), and Mikey Madison (1999).
- For the fifth time in Academy Awards history and the first time in 47 years, all five Best Actress nominees come from films nominated for Best Picture. This previously occurred in 1977, 1941, 1940, and 1934 (excluding Bette Davis’s unofficial write-in nomination).
- This year, 16 of the 20 nominated performances came from Best Picture nominees, just shy of the all-time record of 17 in 1944. We’ve also had 16 out of 20 in 2013, 2018, and 2023. The lowest number in the expanded era was nine out of 20 nominees in 2011.
- This is the first year in which three out queer performers were nominated for acting Oscars, with Karla Sofía Gascón, Cynthia Erivo, and Colman Domingo all nominated. It’s also the first time two out queer performers were nominated in the same acting category: Best Actress.
- Gascón is the first out trans person nominated for an acting award in Academy Awards history. She is the fourth out trans person nominated in any category, following Angela Morley (Best Music Original Song Score or Adaptation, 1974 & 1977), Anohni (Best Original Song, 2016), and Yance Ford (Best Documentary Feature, 2017).
- Gascón is the fifth openly queer person nominated for portraying a queer character, following Jodie Foster in “Nyad,” Colman Domingo in “Rustin,” Stephanie Hsu in “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and Ian McKellen in “Gods and Monsters.”
- Gascón is the second Spanish actress nominated for an acting award, following Penelope Cruz. She is the fourth Spanish actor nominated for acting, following Javier Bardem, Cruz, and Antonio Banderas.
- Zoe Saldaña is the third Afro-Latina nominee for Best Supporting Actress, following Rosie Perez and Ariana DeBose. With both Saldaña and Domingo nominated this year, it’s the first time two Afro-Latino performers were nominated in the same year.
- Domingo is the third black actor to receive back-to-back acting nominations, following Denzel Washington and Octavia Spencer (both nominated in 2016 & 2017).
- Cynthia Erivo is the fifth Black actress to receive multiple nominations in any acting category, following Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Angela Bassett.
- Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave“) received a Best Actor nomination 28 years after his first nomination for “Schindler’s List.” That’s the second-longest gap in the category after Henry Fonda’s 41 years.
- Fernanda Torres is the second Brazilian nominated for an acting Oscar, following her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated for “Central Station.”
- Torres and Montenegro join Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli as the only mother and daughter nominated for Best Actress.
- Both Torres and Montenegro received Oscar nominations for performances in films directed by Walter Salles. They are the first parent/child pair nominated for performances by the same director for different films. Previously, two other parent/child pairs have been nominated for the same film. Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda were both nominated for “On Golden Pond,” while Diane Ladd and Laura Dern were nominated for “Rambling Rose.” Additionally, Walter Huston and granddaughter Anjelica Huston both won Oscars for performances directed by John Huston, Walter’s son and Anjelica’s father.
- For his performance as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” Timothée Chalamet is the 12th person to receive an Oscar nomination for portraying a real-life Oscar nominee or winner. Dylan won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Things Have Changed” from “Wonder Boys.”
- Chalamet is the eighth person to receive an Oscar nomination for portraying a Nobel laureate. Bob Dylan received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. The other Oscar-nominated portrayals of Nobel laureates:
- 1943 – Walter Pidgeon portraying Pierre Curie, “Madame Curie”
- 1943 – Greer Garson portraying Marie Curie, “Madame Curie”
- 1944 – Alexander Knox portraying Woodrow Wilson, “Wilson”
- 1981 – Jack Nicholson portraying Eugene O’Neill, “Reds”
- 2001 – Russell Crowe portraying John Nash Jr., “A Beautiful Mind”
- 2009 – Morgan Freeman portraying Nelson Mandela, “Invictus”
- 2017 – Gary Oldman portraying Winston Churchill, “Darkest Hour“
- Sebastian Stan’s portrayal of Donald Trump in “The Apprentice” is the first portrayal of a sitting president to receive an Oscar nomination. It’s the ninth time overall a person has received an Oscar nomination for portraying a U.S. President. The previous nominees:
- 1941 – Raymond Massey portraying Abraham Lincoln, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois”
- 1945 – Alexander Knox portraying Woodrow Wilson, “Wilson”
- 1976 – James Whitmore portraying Harry S. Truman, “Give ’em Hell, Harry!”
- 1996 – Anthony Hopkins portraying Richard Nixon, “Nixon”
- 1998 – Anthony Hopkins portraying John Quincy Adams, “Amistad”
- 2009 – Frank Langella portraying Richard Nixon, “Frost/Nixon”
- 2013 – Daniel Day-Lewis portraying Abraham Lincoln, “Lincoln“
- 2019 – Sam Rockwell portraying George W. Bush, “Vice“
- According to Screen Time Central, Ariana Grande’s physical screen time in “Wicked” makes her the 2nd longest performance ever nominated for Best Supporting Actress, just behind Jennifer Jones in “Since You Went Away.” If she were to win, it would be the longest supporting performance to win an Oscar in either category, surpassing Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon.”
SCREENPLAY STATS & TRIVIA
- “I’m Still Here” is the second non-English language film to earn a Best Picture nomination without a writing nomination, following “Grand Illusion” in 1938.
- The Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for “Emilia Pérez” is the second time a writing nomination officially included the unique credits “in collaboration with.” The nomination for “Emilia Pérez” is given to “Jacques Audiard, in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius, and Nicolas Livecchi.” Similarly, in 1972, the Best Original Screenplay nomination for “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” said: “Story and Screenplay by Luis Buñuel; in collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière.”
- With the Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing,” this is the third time two films written by African-Americans were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay in the same year, following 2016 & 2018.
CRAFT AND OTHER CATEGORIES STATS & TRIVIA
- “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and “,” which tied for the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature this year, did not receive Oscar nominations. In the past 10 years, only three winners of the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature received nominations.
- Sean Baker’s nomination for Best Editing marks the seventh time a director was nominated for editing their own film. He joins David Lean (1984), Joel & Ethan Coen (1996, 2007), James Cameron (1997, 2009), Alfonso Cuaron (2006, 2013), Jean-Marc Vallée (2013), and Chloe Zhao (2020).
- After winning the Golden Globe for Best Score, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s work in “Challengers” was left out of the nominations. This has happened numerous times throughout the years, but most recently in 2018 with Justin Hurwitz’s work in “First Man.”
- Kris Bowers (“The Wild Robot“) is the first person to have been nominated for both Best Original Score and Best Documentary Short. He won Best Documentary Short just last year for “The Last Repair Shop.”
- Chris Sanders earned his fourth nomination for Best Animated Feature, tying Pete Docter and Hayao Miyazaki for the most nominations of all time.
- Diane Warren (“The Six Triple Eight”) received her 16th Oscar nomination, all for Best Original Song. If she doesn’t win, she’ll be tied with re-recording mixer Greg P. Russell as the most-nominated individual without a competitive win, thoughWarren has received an Honorary Academy Award. Russell had received a 17th nomination in 2017, but it was rescinded for campaign violations.
- With her 16th nomination for Best Original Song, Warren is now tied with Paul Francis Webster as the third-most nominated person in the category. Only Johnny Mercer (18) and Sammy Cahn (26) surpass Warren and Webster for all-time nominations in Best Original Song.
- Diane Warren received her eighth consecutive nomination for Best Original Song. This is the most consecutive nominations among living people, tied with John Williams, who was nominated for eight consecutive years (1995-2002).
- With the two Best Original Song nominations for “Emilia Pérez” (for “El Mal” and “Mi Camino”), this is the fifth year in a row with a non-English language song nominated for Best Original Song. This has never happened before.
- Director Jacques Audiard received a nomination for Best Original Song for his contributions to “El Mal.” He is the 11th person to receive a Best Original Song nomination for a film they directed, while none have won. The others are:
- Leo McCarey – “An Affair To Remember,” 1957
- Jacques Demy – “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” 1965
- Mel Brooks – “Blazing Saddles,” 1974
- Arne Glimcher – “The Mambo Kings,” 1992
- Barbra Streisand – “The Mirror Has Two Faces,” 1996
- Trey Parker – “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” 1999
- Lars Von Trier – “Dancer in the Dark,” 2000
- Julie Taymor – “Frida,” 2002
- Sylvain Chomet – “The Triplets of Belleville,” 2003
- Ryan Coogler – “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” 2022
- Andy Nelson received his 25th nomination for Best Sound (or Best Sound Mixing), the most of all time. That makes him the second-most nominated individual alive after John Williams and the 10th-most nominated individual of all time.
- Pixar is currently on its longest-running losing streak in the history of Best Animated Feature, having lost three years in a row. If “Inside Out 2” does not win, that would extend their record to four years.
- With “Emilia Pérez,” France extends its record as the most nominated country for Best International Feature, with 42 nominations.
- Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” is Brazil’s fifth nomination for Best International Feature. The country’s last nomination was Salles’ “Central Station,” starring Fernanda Torres’ mother, Fernanda Montenegro.
- “Flow” is the first Latvian film nominated for Best International Feature.
- “Flow” is the first fictional animated film nominated for Best International Feature, but the third animated feature to be nominated in the category overall. Two animated documentaries, “Waltz With Bashir” (2008) and “Flee” (2021), were previously nominated for Best International Feature.
- “Flow” is the second film nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Animated Feature, following “Flee” in 2021.
- “Flow” is the second International Feature nominee without dialogue, following “Le Bal” from 1983. Ironically, while “Flow” contains no words in any language, this category used to be named “Best Foreign Language Film.”
- “Flow” is the fifth film without dialogue nominated for Best Animated Feature. It was preceded in this feat by “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” “The Red Turtle,” “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon,” and “Robot Dreams.”
- Gints Zilbalodis (“Flow“) is the second filmmaker born in the 1990s to direct a Best International Feature nominee. The first to do this was Lukas Dhont (“Close“) in 2022.
- Julian Brave NoiseCat (“Sugarcane“) is the first Indigenous nominee for Best Documentary Feature, though final nominees are still to be determined.
- Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal are the first Palestinian nominees for Best Documentary Feature, for “No Other Land,” though final nominees are still to be determined.
- Eric Nyari is the fifth individual to be nominated for both Documentary Feature Film (“Black Box Diaries“) and Documentary Short Film (“Instruments of a Beating Heart”) in the same year. This hasn’t happened since Charles Guggenheim in 1994.
- Live Action Short nominee “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” is the 10th winner of the Short Film Palme d’Or to receive a corresponding Oscar nomination. It’s only the second time this has happened this century, following 2016’s “Timecode.”
There’s sure to be more history made with the Oscar winners themselves, which we’ll discover on March 2nd, 2025. As always, follow Next Best Picture as we cover the awards race and predict the winners. What stats and trivia surprised you the most? Did we miss any interesting tidbits? What history-making win are you predicting for the Oscars themselves? Let us know in the comments below or over on our X account.
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Daniel Howathttps://nextbestpicture.com
Movie and awards season obsessed. Hollywood Critics Association Member.
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