Anna Daniels
The Oscar nominations are here, which means it’s time to be alternately enraged and excited. But whatever your personal opinion about who was snubbed and who snuck in a surprise nomination, the Oscars are all about celebrating movies and not reducing them into mere numbers like some kind of horse race, right? Sure! But let’s take a look at those numbers for a second, and see what kind of records were set, which were broken, and which didn’t even become a factor at the 2o20 Oscars.
62: Women Were Nominated for an Oscar
A record-breaking number of women were nominated for an Oscar this year, accounting for one-third of nominees at the 92nd Academy Awards. Though they were shut out of the major categories like Best Director (more on that later), women dominated many others like documentaries, and other below the line technical categories.
52: John Williams Becomes Most-Nominated Living Person
John Williams was nominated for his 52nd Oscar nomination — making him the most nominated single person after Walt Disney and the most-nominated living person. Williams has won the Oscar five times — the original Star Wars, Schindler’s List, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Jaws and Fiddler On The Roof — and this becomes the sixth time he has been nominated for a Star Wars film.
24: Netflix Outpaces Hollywood Studios for Oscar Nods
Netflix has reached its disruptive peak, picking up a leading 24 Oscar nominations, more than any other major Hollywood studio. This marks the first time that the company has earned more Oscar nods than any major studio or specialty distributor, thanks to the one-two punch of the Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. This is up from last year’s 15 nods, when Netflix hit big with Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. Trailing behind Netflix is Disney with 23 (including its 20th Century Fox nods with Jojo Rabbit), and Sony with 20 nominations. Among specialty distributors, Neon was the biggest player with 8 nominations, thanks to Bong Joon-ho’s awards darling Parasite.
11: The Nominations That Joker Leads With
Joker became the front-runner with 11 total nominations, including four nods for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. This gives Joker more Oscar nominations than Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy combined, both of which were major influences on Todd Phillips’ film.
10: The Nods With Which The Irishman, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Tie
All three films are predicted to win big at the Oscars.
9: With His 9th Directing Nomination, Martin Scorsese is the Most-Nominated Living Director
The late William Wyler was nominated for best director 12 times.
6: Parasite Becomes the 6th Movie Nominated for Both Best Picture and International Film
Parasite made history with its six Oscar nominations. Bong Joon-ho’s darkly comic thriller became the sixth member of the exclusive elite that have been nominated for both Best Picture and International Feature Film, joining the ranks of last year’s Roma, France’s Z (1969), Italy’s Life Is Beautiful (1998), Taiwan’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and France/Germany/Austria’s Amour (2012). Parasite is only the 11th foreign-language film to ever be nominated in the top category. A foreign-language title has never won the Oscar for Best Picture in the ceremony’s history.
4: Saoirse Ronan Becomes the Second Youngest 4-Time Acting Nominee
At 25 years old, Saoirse Ronan has become the second-youngest four-time acting nominee for her latest nomination for Little Women. The current record-holder, Jennifer Lawrence, beats Ronan by mere months — she was also 25 when she earned her fourth Oscar nomination for Joy in 2015.
1: Parasite is the First South Korean Film to Be Nominated for International Feature Film
Despite its rich cinematic history and the wide influence its films have had on global pop culture, South Korea has never been nominated for a single Oscar. Until now. Parasite made history by not only earning South Korea its first International Film Oscar nod, but earning a whopping 6 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for beloved auteur Bong Joon-ho. The film also earned Screenplay, Production Design, and Editing nods.
Last year was the first time a South Korean film was shortlisted for the Oscars with Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, but the film failed to receive a nod. Past films like Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, and The Handmaiden, and Bong’s Memories of Murder flirted with Oscar buzz but never earned any nods.
0: The Number of Female Nominees for Best Director
Congratulations to those men. And pour one out for Greta Gerwig, Lulu Wang, Celine Sciamma, Lorene Scafaria, Marielle Heller, Mati Diop, Melina Matsoukas, and more.
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