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.

Oscar Trivia 2012

*This post has been corrected. Composer John Williams received his 46th and 47th nominations at the 84th Academy Awards, not his 47th and 48th. (13 January 2013)

General

- Among all nominees, the most nominated is John Williams (46th and 47th nominations this year). He is followed by Woody Allen (22nd and 23rd nominations) and Meryl Streep (17th nomination).

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

Oscar Trivia

There is not a single black person nominated in the acting categories this year. It's been ten years since that happened. Is this a sign that decent roles for black actors dropped off recently? Probably not. It's more likely one more in a series of signs that it's always been a struggle for black actors to get decent roles. Or I should say, for decent black characters to be written into Hollywood screenplays.

I wondered after this year's nominations were announced and I saw that the Coen brothers were triple nominated for their work on True Grit, if any other individual had ever been nominated for 3 Oscars in a single year 3 times (as Joel Coen has now done, including his editing nomination for Fargo under the name Roderick Jaynes).