By Daniel Howat
The nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards are finally here! In addition to the snubs and surprises we see every year, this crop of nominees provides plenty of fascinating stats and trivia. With new nominations for Netflix and for “Parasite,” lots of new ground was broken this year.
Take a look at our comprehensive list of trivia for the 92nd Academy Award nominees.
- ”Joker” leads the nominations with 11. This is the most nominations ever for a comic book film, breaking the record set by “The Dark Knight” (8).
- ”1917,” “The Irishman,” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” all scored 10 nominations. This is the first time four films (including the eleven from “Joker”) scored double-digit nominations.
- ”Joker” becomes the sixth Best Picture nominee to have grossed over $1 billion, following “Titanic,” “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” “Avatar,” “Toy Story 3,” and “Black Panther.” It’s also the sixth highest-grossing Best Picture nominee of all time.
- ”Joker” is the second comic book film ever nominated for Best Picture, following “Black Panther” last year.
- Joaquin Phoenix becomes the second actor to be nominated for playing The Joker, following Heath Ledger’s nomination and win for “The Dark Knight.”
- With “Avengers: Endgame” missing a Best Picture nomination, it’s the first time since Jurassic Park in 1993 that the newly crowned highest-grossing film of all time worldwide was not nominated for Best Picture.
- “Parasite” became the first Korean film ever nominated for an Academy Award in any category. Naturally, the nominees from “Parasite” are all the first Korean nominees in their categories.
- Bong Joon-ho became the fourth Asian nominated for Best Director, following Hiroshi Teshigahara, Akira Kurosawa, and Ang Lee. He is the first Korean director to receive any nomination.
- While no Korean films had been nominated for Academy Awards prior to “Parasite,” three filmmakers of Korean descent were nominated for Academy Awards. Christine Choy, a Chinese director of Korean descent, was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for “Who Killed Vincent Cain?” Sejong Park and Minkyu Lee were each nominated for Best Animated Short in 2004 and 2012, respectively.
- ”Parasite” is the twelfth foreign language film nominated for Best Picture, following “Grand Illusion,” “Z,” “The Emigrants,” “Cries and Whispers,” “Il Postino,” “Life Is Beautiful,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Babel,” “Amour,” and “Roma.”
- ”Parasite” is also the sixth foreign language film nominated for Best Picture in addition to Best International Feature following “Z,” “Life Is Beautiful,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Amour,” and “Roma.”
- With “Roma” nominated for Best Picture in 2018, this is the first time foreign-language films were nominated for Best Picture in back-to-back years.
- Netflix breaks further ground with two nominations for Best Picture, marking the first time two films primarily released on a streaming platform were nominated in the same year. “Marriage Story” and “The Irishman” are the second and third films primarily released on a streaming platform to be nominated for Best Picture.
- Though Netflix does not officially disclose box office numbers, ”Marriage Story” is estimated to have grossed $2.3 million worldwide. If accurate, that would make “Marriage Story” the lowest-grossing Best Picture nominee of at least this century. It unseats “Roma” from 2018 for that title.
- With Jonathan Pryce’s nomination for “The Two Popes,” screenwriter Anthony McCarten’s interesting streak could continue. This is his fourth consecutive film to receive a Best Actor nomination, and his previous three all won (“The Theory of Everything,” “Darkest Hour,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”).
- Cynthia Erivo becomes the third person nominated for acting and Best Original Song in the same year, after her nominations for Best Actress and for writing the song “Stand Up” for “Harriet.” This happened three years in a row, following Lady Gaga and Mary J. Blige.
- Scarlet Johansson is the twelfth person to receive two acting nominations in one year for “Marriage Story” and “Jojo Rabbit.” This last occurred in 2007 with Cate Blanchett.
- With nine nominations, Martin Scorsese edges out Billy Wilder to become the second-most nominated director in Academy history with nine nominations. William Wyler still holds the record with twelve nominations.
- Scorsese has now directed nine films nominated for Best Picture, tying John Ford for directing the third most Best Picture nominees. Only Steven Spielberg (11 films) and William Wyler (13 films) have directed more Best Picture nominees.
- With his appearances in “The Irishman” and “Joker,” Robert De Niro becomes the actor to officially appear in the most Best Picture nominees with eleven, surpassing Jack Nicholson (10). Ward Bond surpasses both with 13 appearances, though four were uncredited.
- Leonardo DiCaprio now ties Tom Hanks for the third most appearances in Best Picture nominees, with nine each.
- Meryl Streep now ties Cate Blanchett’s record as the actresses with the most appearances in Best Picture nominees seven each.
- ”The Irishman” is the sixth-longest Best Picture nominee at 209 minutes. The films that surpass it: “Ben-Hur” (212 minutes), “The Ten Commandments” (220), “Lawrence of Arabia” (222), “Gone With The Wind” (238), and “Cleopatra” (248).
- This year’s Best Supporting Actor category is comprised only of previous Academy Award winners. This also occurred in 2012. The difference, however, is that Brad Pitt has only won Best Picture, and not yet an acting Oscar.
- With Taron Egerton and Awkwafina missing nominations for “Rocketman” and “The Farewell” respectively, this is the first year since 2008 that the winners for Golden Globe Musical/Comedy Actor and Actress didn’t translate to the Oscars.
- Emma Tillinger Koskoff is the second woman to receive two nominations for Best Picture in the same year, for producing “The Irishman” and “Joker.” Megan Ellison was the first woman to achieve this in 2013 with “American Hustle” and “Her.”
- Emma Tillinger Koskoff (“Joker” and “The Irishman“) and David Heyman (“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and “Marriage Story”) are the sixth and seventh people nominated for Best Picture twice in the same year, following Francis Ford Coppola (1974), Fred Roos (1974), Scott Rudin (2010), Megan Ellison (2013), and Steve Golin (2015).
- Eight women are nominated for Best Picture this year, just shy of the record of nine in 2016.
- With the Best Picture nomination for “Little Women,” Greta Gerwig became the second woman to direct two Best Picture nominees, after her 2017 film “Lady Bird.” Only Kathryn Bigelow has also accomplished this (“The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”).
- If Sam Mendes were to win his second Oscar for Best Director for “1917,” he would set the record for the longest gap between wins, having won 20 years ago for “American Beauty.” Billy Wilder currently holds that record with 15 years between his wins for “The Lost Weekend” and “The Apartment.”
- With John Williams’ 52nd nomination for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” he extended his own record of the most Oscar nominations for a living person. Only Walt Disney has more Oscar nominations than Williams, with 59.
- With cousins Randy Newman and Thomas Newman’s nominations, they extend the Newman family record as the most nominated family in Oscar history. They have 95 nominations between the family, and twelve wins.
- Thomas Newman’s 15th nomination for “1917” extends his record as the second-most nominated living person without a win, though he hopes to break that record this year. He now ties production designer Roland Anderson and composer Alex North, both deceased, for the second-most unsuccessful nominations, behind sound designer Greg P. Russell.
- Thelma Schoonmaker’s eighth nomination for Best Film Editing for “The Irishman” now ties her with Michael Kahn for the most nominations in the category. She’s already tied for the most wins in the category with three. If she wins, she’ll be the most awarded editor at the Academy Awards.
- Hildur Guðnadóttir becomes the seventh female composer nominated for Best Original Score for her work on “Joker,” following Rachel Portman, Anne Dudley, Marilyn Bergman, Angela Morley, Lynn Ahrens, and Mica Levi.
- Guðnadóttir is the second Icelandic composer nominated for Best Original Score, following Jóhann Jóhannsson’s two nominations. She is the sixth Icelander nominated for an Academy Award, following Friðrik Þór Friðriksson (Foreign Language Film), Björk (Original Song), Sjón (Original Song), Rúnar Rúnarsson (Live Action Short), and Jóhannsson.
- ”Honeyland” becomes the first film nominated in both Best Documentary and Best International Feature (formerly Best Foreign Language Film). It is also the second film nominated from North Macedonia, following “Before The Rain” in 1994.
- ”The Lion King” becomes the third animated film to be nominated for Best Visual Effects, following “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Kubo and the Two Strings.” It’s the first computer-animated film to be nominated in the category.
- With “Frozen II” snubbed from Best Animated Feature, it’s the rare Disney film to miss. It’s the seventh Disney film to miss since the creation of the category in 2001 and the first since “Winnie The Pooh” in 2011.
- Diane Warren wrote “I’m Standing With You” from “Breakthrough.” With her eleventh nomination for Best Original Song, Warren extends her own record as the most nominated songwriter without a win.
- With its Best Original Song nomination for “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” every “Toy Story” film has received a nomination for Best Original Song.
- Visual Effects artist Dan Sudick received his tenth nomination this year for his work on “Avengers: Endgame,” extending his own record for the most Visual Effects without a win.
- Matthew Cherry is the second former professional athlete nominated for an Academy Award, following Kobe Bryant. Both were nominated for Best Animated Short.
- This is the first year with five nominations in Makeup & Hairstyling, making it the most nominations in the category since 1999’s four nominations.
- Because of the nine Best Picture nominees and five Makeup & Hairstyling nominees, there are 124 nominations across the 24 categories, the most total nominations since 1956.
- This is also quite a year for gaps between acting nominations…Kathy Bates – 17 years, Tom Hanks – 19 years, Anthony Hopkins – 21 years, Al Pacino – 27 years, & Joe Pesci – 29 years
Surely there are plenty more bits of stats and trivia, so let us know what we missed! As always, keep an eye on Next Best Picture for coverage as we get closer to the Academy Awards. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our Twitter account.
You can follow Daniel and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars and Film on Twitter at @howatdk