Saturday, February 2, 2013

Oscar Trivia 2013

General

- 191 different individuals are nominated for Oscars, 92 of whom are first-time nominees.

- 9 individuals have two nominations this year: Mark Boal (Original Screenplay and Picture - Zero Dark Thirty); Mychael Danna (Score and Song - Life of Pi); William Goldenberg (Film Editing - Argo and Zero Dark Thirty); Michael Haneke (Original Screenplay and Direction - Amour); Ang Lee (Picture and Direction - Life of Pi); Andy Nelson (Sound Mixing - Les Miserables and Lincoln); David O. Russell (Adapted Screenplay and Direction - Silver Linings Playbook); Steven Spielberg (Picture and Direction - Lincoln); Benh Zeitlin (Direction and Adapted Screenplay - Beasts of the Southern Wild)

- Among all nominees, the most nominated is John Williams (48th nomination this year). He is followed by sound engineer Andy Nelson (17th and 18th nominations) and sound engineer Gary Rydstrom (17th nomination).

- Among all nominees, the individuals with the most Oscars are sound designer Gary Rydstrom with 7 wins followed by composer John Williams with 5 and visual effects artist Joe Letteri and sound designer Scott Millan, each with 4.

- The biggest length of time since any nominee's last nomination is for Sally Field (28 years since her last nomination), followed by Robert De Niro (21 years) and costume designer Eiko Ishioka (20 years).

- Fresh Guacamole, in the running for Best Animated Short, is the shortest film ever in contention for an Oscar. It clocks in at under two minutes.

- George Clooney has joined the ranks of the illustrious filmmakers to achieve Oscar nominations in four different principal categories. His Best Picture nomination this year adds to his previous nominations in acting, directing and writing categories. He joins Warren Beatty (acting; directing; writing; producing), Orson Welles (acting; directing; writing; producing), Stanley Kubrick (directing; producing; writing; visual effects), and Kenneth Branagh (acting; directing; writing; short films).

However, Clooney has one up on all those guys. If we break the principal categories into the sub-categories of supporting and lead for the acting category, and adapted and original for the writing category, then Clooney has been nominated in 6 different categories (supporting actor; lead actor; director; picture; adapted screenplay; original screenplay). Welles remains at 4 while Kubrick, Branagh, and Beatty are at 5.

Acting

- Four of the acting nominees have won 2 Oscars (Denzel Washington; Robert De Niro; Sally Field; Daniel Day-Lewis). Between all the acting nominees there are 13 Oscar statuettes. That's the most of any nominated acting group ever.

- In last year's trivia roundup I noted that Jonah Hill was the only first time nominee in the Supporting Actor category and that was the first time in many years that had happened. Well this year has outdone last year: in the Supporting Actor category, not only have all the nominees been nominated in the past, they've all won. The closest was the awards for 2002, when the Best Actor category featured 4 previous winners along with Adrien Brody, who went on to win the award. There's never been any time in any acting category when all 5 nominees were past winners. There were 4 instances in Best Actress when all nominees had been nominated in the past.

- All 5 Supporting Actress nominees have been nominated before. This is very unusual considering the supporting categories often feature new faces. So to have both categories full of past nominees is very unusual.

- In the Best Actress category we have both the oldest ever nominee in the category (Emmanuelle Riva is 85) and the youngest ever (Quvenzhané Wallis is 9, although she was 6 when she played the part).

- Sally Field has the longest gap between nominations of all the acting nominees. She was last nominated 28 years ago.

- Robert De Niro is the most nominated among the acting nominees with his 7th career nod. He is followed by Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington who earned their 5th nominations.


Costume Design

- Colleen Atwood picked up her 10th career nomination. She's also won 3 times.


Cinematography

- Roger Deakins leads with 10 career nominations. He's never won. He's not yet the leader in the category with most nominations without winning. That honor goes to George Folsey, who had 13 nominations without ever winning. But when you consider that Folsey was working at a time when the Academy bestowed separate awards for color and black-and-white cinematography and that he was double nominated twice, Deakins' feat is nearly as impressive.

- Robert Richardson follows with his 8th nomination. He's the leader in past Oscars with 3 cinematography wins.



Directing

- All five Best Director nominees are nominated in other categories.

- Steven Spielberg is the most nominated director this year, picking up his 7th nomination in the category. He also comes in with 2 Oscars for Best Director.

- If Michael Haneke (70) wins, he will be the second oldest winner in the category in history.

- Benh Zeitlin (30) is the 7th youngest nominee and would become the youngest winner in history.

Film Editing

- Michael Kahn is the most nominated (8th) and most decorated (3 Oscars) in this category.

- After Thelma Schoonmaker's tying nomination last year, Kahn now leads the pack again with the most nominations for Film Editing in history.


Foreign Language Film

- Chile gets its first ever nomination in this category.

- Canada earned its 7th, including the 3rd in a row.

- Denmark has the most, picking up a 9th nomination.

- Norway, now on 5 nominations, has never won.

Music

- John Williams extends his record as the most nominated composer (and second most nominated person) in Academy history with his 48th career nomination.

- Thomas Newman is the second most nominated of this year's group, with his 11th, followed by Alexandre Desplat with his 5th. They are both looking for their first Oscar.

Best Picture

- Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg are once again the most nominated producers this year, each picking up an 8th nomination for Best Picture. Kennedy has still never won. Last year she became the biggest Best Picture Oscar loser. I think she's likely to break her streak this year as I view Lincoln as the front runner.

- Eric Fellner is second with his 4th nomination. He's also never won.

Animated Feature

- ***This is the 12th year of this award and Pixar continues its streak of being nominated every time it has an eligible film.

- Tim Burton is the only guy who's been nominated in the category previously.

- There are no past winners here.

***Correction (21 January 2016): An oversight on my part led me to believe this was true, but in fact Cars 2 failed to get a nomination the previous year.

Sound

- Including both Sound categories Andy Nelson is the most nominated, picking up numbers 17 and 18. Next up are Gary Rydstrom and Greg P. Russell with their 16th nominations. Rydstrom also once had an additional nomination in another category for a total of 17 career nominations.

- For both Sound categories, Gary Rydstrom has the most awards with 7 Oscars

- For Sound Mixing Greg P. Russell (16 nominations) inches still closer to Kevin O'Connell (20 nominations) for most nominations with no wins. Andy Nelson (17th and 18th nominations) is the most nominated among this year's group. Scott Millan has the most wins for Sound Mixing with 4 previous Oscars.

- For Sound Editing Wylie Stateman and Ethan Van der Ryn each have the most nominations with 5. Stateman has never won while Van der Ryn has won twice. Per Hallberg has also won twice in the category.

Writing

- Nothing all that special I can find among nominated screen writers. Quentin Tarantino has his third nomination for writing, the most of this year's crop. He and Mark Boal are the only previous winners in both writing categories. Each has one previous Oscar.

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