Movie Maniac: Trivia tidbits heading into the 95th Oscars on Sunday
The 95th Academy Awards, which will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be held in Hollywood on Sunday, March 12.
As always, for Oscar trivia buffs, there are lots of first-times and records to be broken with this year’s crop of nominees. Here’s a look:
Best picture
▪ This marks the first year that two sequels (”Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way Of Water”) have been nominated in the same year.
▪ “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the first best picture nominee to be spoken almost entirely in German. It is also the fifth year in a row a non-English language film has been nominated for best picture. (Coincidentally, 2019’s “Parasite” is the only foreign-language film to win best picture.)
Acting
▪ Sixteen of the 20 acting nominees this year are first-time nominees. And for the first time since 1935, the best actor category is made up entirely of first-timers: Brendan Fraser (”The Whale”), Austin Butler (”Elvis”), Colin Farrell (”The Banshees of Inisherin”), Bill Nighy (”Living”) and Paul Mescal (”Aftersun”).
▪ Cate Blanchett is the sole Oscar winner among this year’s nominees (she previously won Oscars for supporting actress for “The Aviator” and lead actress for “Blue Jasmine”).
▪ This is the first time that non-Americans have dominated the acting categories, with 11 of the 20 contenders coming from outside the U.S. Yay diversity!
▪ A record of five Irish actors are nominated this year: Mescal, Farrell and his co-stars: Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon.
▪ Michelle Yeoh gets her first nomination for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” after decades in the industry. She’s also the first Asian nominee ever in the best actress category (Merle Oberon, a nominee in 1935 for “The Dark Angel,” did not openly identify with her Asian heritage).
▪ If Yeoh wins (which she probably will), she’ll be the second woman of color to win best actress (following Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball.”)
▪ This year marks the most Asian acting nominees in a single year (Yeoh and co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau for “The Whale”). This is also the first time that the supporting actress category has more than one Asian nominee.
▪ While comic book movies aren’t usually lauded for their acting, Angela Bassett becomes the first performer from a Marvel Cinematic Universe film to be nominated (for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”). (Coincidentally, only two other actors from the comic book movie genre have won Oscars, and both for playing the same character: Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker.)
▪ At just eight minutes and three seconds, Judd Hirsch (”The Fabelmans”) has the shortest screen time for a nominee in the best supporting actor category since John Lithgow for 1983’s “Terms of Endearment.” (Coincidentally, Beatrice Straight holds the record for the shortest Oscar-winning screen time at five minutes and 40 seconds for 1976’s “Network.”)
▪ Hirsch also breaks Henry Fonda’s record for longest gap between nominations at 42 years. He was previously nominated for 1980’s “Ordinary People.”
▪ This is the first time since 1977 that two films have earned four acting nominations (”Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin”).
Directing/Writing
▪ Steven Spielberg (”The Fablemans”) is now tied for directing the most best picture nominees, with 13 films (tying William Wyler of “Mrs. Miniver” and “Ben-Hur” fame).
▪ Spielberg also holds the record as the first and only director to be nominated for Oscars in six different decades.
▪ This is the first time that every best director nominee (Spielberg, Martin McDonaugh for ”The Banshees of Inisherin,” Todd Field for “Tar,” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Ruben Ostlund for “Triangle of Sadness”) is also nominated for best original screenplay.
Everything else
▪ At age 90 at the time nominations were announced, composer John Williams (”The Fabelmans”) is the oldest-ever competitive Oscar nominee. He’s also the most-nominated living person, with 53 noms. (Coincidentally, Walt Disney has the most with 59 nominations (and 22 wins).
▪ Mandy Walker (”Elvis”) is only the third woman ever to be nominated for best cinematography, following Rachel Morrison (2017’s “Mudbound”) and Ari Wegner (2021’s “The Power of the Dog”).
▪ Alfonso Cuaron has now been nominated in seven categories: best picture, directing, adapted screenplay, original screenplay, cinematography, film editing and this year for live action short (as producer for “Le Pupille”), tying with Kenneth Branagh. What under-achievers!
Reach Rod Pocowatchit at rodrick@rawdzilla.com .
