13 Oscar Nomination Facts of 2024 That Will Amaze and Amuse You

Leading the pack at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, “Oppenheimer” secured 13 nominations, making it the film with the most nominations for the year. This biographical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb captured not only audiences’ attention but also the admiration of the Academy, proving that sometimes, an explosive subject matter is just what the Oscars need.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American physicist who led the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. He oversaw the design and testing of atomic bombs at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and is often credited as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Oppenheimer’s legacy is now explored in a biographical film by Christopher Nolan. The film is based on the 2005 Pulitzer-winning book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” Cillian Murphy stars as Oppenheimer alongside Matt Damon. “Oppenheimer” opens in theaters on July 21, 2023.

Three women-directed films were nominated for Best Picture in a groundbreaking moment for the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. These films include ‘Barbie,’ ‘Anatomy of a Fall,’ and ‘Past Lives.’ This marks a significant moment in Oscar history, showcasing women’s increasing recognition and representation at the highest echelons of filmmaking. It’s a step forward from the days when female directors were as rare as calm days on Twitter.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to classify the “Barbie” movie’s screenplay as adapted, not because Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach found a dusty old Barbie diary in an attic, but because they based their script on the iconic Barbie and Ken dolls created by Mattel in the late 1950s. This decision, announced in January 2024, placed the screenplay in the same category as other works derived from pre-existing characters or universes.

Fun fact: While the Writers Guild of America initially tagged it as an original screenplay, the Academy’s Writers Branch executive committee had a different view. They saw the script as an adaptation of the well-established and globally recognized Barbie universe, which includes not just the dolls but also decades of associated media, stories, and lore.

The much-anticipated Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was banned in Vietnam. The movie, set to hit Vietnamese – and worldwide – theaters on July 21, 2023, includes a scene featuring a map showing China’s controversial “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea. This line is a bone of contention between China and several other countries, including Vietnam. It extends Beijing’s territorial claims far into the waters claimed by these nations. The Vietnamese National Film Evaluation Council, finding this subplot unamusing, banned the movie on July 3.

Anatomy of a Fall, directed by Justine Triet, stars Sandra Hüller as Alice, a popular writer who claims her husband committed suicide by jumping from their balcony. However, the police suspect foul play and arrest Alice for homicide. The film won the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival, on May 27, 2023. Triet is only the third woman to win the Palme d’Or, after Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993 and Julia Ducournau for Titane in 2021.

In 2023, the Venice Film Festival was set ablaze by the film “Poor Things.” This gothic, sex-charged comedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman reanimated after a tragic end. And who was the genius behind this resurrection? A mad doctor who gave her the brain of her unborn child. If that doesn’t scream “Frankenstein vibes,” what does? This electrifying performance helped “Poor Things” snatch the prestigious Golden Lion award.

At the ripe age of 81, Martin Scorsese made Oscar history by becoming the oldest directing nominee ever for his work on “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Despite being in a career phase where most would consider retirement, Scorsese proves that talent and passion for cinema know no age limits. This is his 10th movie nominated for Best Picture, which is also an all-time record.

Lily Gladstone spoke in Blackfeet. She won for her role in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ becoming the first Indigenous woman to win Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes.

“Oppenheimer,” directed by Christopher Nolan and starring the enigmatic Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer (you know, the atomic bomb guy), exploded onto the scene on July 19, 2023, and by September, amassed a whopping $912 million worldwide. This atomic achievement made it the highest-grossing biopic, leaving “Bohemian Rhapsody” in second place.

Fun Facts: “Oppenheimer” is also Universal Studio’s highest-grossing R-rated film, currently the third-highest-grossing film of 2023, behind “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” It’s also Christopher Nolan’s third highest-grossing film, after “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Christopher Nolan directed ‘Oppenheimer.’ The historical drama took home the Best Drama Film award and some others, including Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downy Jr.), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), and Best Director.

Sidney Poitier was the first African American and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. He died on Jan. 6, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 94.

How long did it take for the second African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?

It took seven years for James Earl Jones to become the second Black person to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1970. It took some extra three decades for Denzel Washington to win the category in 2001 (for “Training Day”), becoming the second African-American actor to receive the award for Best Actor. The same year saw the first time two African-American performers won Oscars in the same year, the other being Halle Berry, for “Monster’s Ball.” Berry is the first African-American actress to win Best Actress.

Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win the best director at the 2021 Academy Awards. She is also the youngest woman to win the award and the second woman to receive it in Oscars history.

Who was the youngest person to win the best director at the Oscars?

The youngest director to receive the Oscar for best director was Damien Chazelle in 2017 for La La Land.

Who was the first Asian to win the best director?

The first Asian to win the best director at the Oscars was Ang Lee for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, making him the first person of color to win the award.

Who was the first woman to win the Oscar for best director?

Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to have won the Academy Award for best director for 2009’s The Hurt Locker.

Adrien Brody was 29-years-343-days-old when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his appearance in 2002’s The Pianist, making him the youngest recipient ever to win the award.

Is Adrien Brody in Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch?

Adrien Brody stars alongside Bill Murrey in Wes Anderson’s 2021 movie, The French Dispatch. The film is an ode to print journalism, and a tribute to the New Yorker magazine, with the editor portrayed by Bill Murray. Tilda Swinton portrays an art critic, Frances McDormand plays a writer who does a deep-dive into a student revolutionary scene, and Brody plays an art dealer who tries to make an international art star out of a twice-convicted murderer (Benicio Del Toro). Watch the trailer.

Anthony Hopkins won the best actor Oscar at the 93rd Academy Awards Sunday, April 25, 2021. Hopkins, 83, became the oldest ever acting Oscar winner. The honor was previously held by the late Christopher Plummer, 82 when he won for Beginners in 2011.

What role did Hopkins win the Oscar for in 2021?

Anthony Hopkins won for his performance as an elderly man with dementia in “The Father,” directed by French novelist and playwright Florian Zeller.

What was Hopkins’s previous Oscar win?

Anthony Hopkins won the best actor Oscar in 1994 for his role as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs.”

Glenn Close was nominated for 8 Oscars over the years, including 2021’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” but won none. She shares the record with Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia).

The last time the winners of best actress and best actor were from the same film was 1998 when Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson scored the double for As Good As It Gets.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David won the 1969 Academy award for writing Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” B.J. Thomas famously performed the Oscar-winning song. The Grammy-winning singer died from lung cancer complications onMay 29, 2021, at his home in Arlington, Texas. He was 78.

William Hurt won the best-actor Oscar for the 1985 film “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” “Children of a Lesser God” and “Broadcast News” earned him best-actor Oscar nominations in 1983 and 1984, meaning he was nominated for the award in three consecutive years. Hurt died at his home in Portland, Oregon, on March 13, 2022. He was 71.

1990’s Home Alone earned two Oscar nominations for John Williams’ score and original song. Chris Columbus directed the classic comedy, written by John Hugues and starring Macaulay Culkin.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent band member until the English musician Atticus Ross officially joined the band in 2016.

Which Oscars have they won?

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won their second Oscar for “Soul” in 2021, a little over a decade after their first win for “The Social Network.” They took the prize with Jon Batiste for Best Original Score for their collective work on the Pixar film.

Troy Kotsur joined “CODA” costar Marlee Matlin on March 27, 2022, as the only deaf Oscar winners. He won the best supporting actor award at the Academy Awards for portraying the father of a deaf family with a hearing child. Matlin was the first deaf person to win the prize when she became the youngest best actress winner at age 21 for the 1986 drama “Children of a Lesser God.”

Ariana DeBose is the first openly LGBTQ actor to win an Oscar.

What about the rest?

While Tilda Swinton openly identified in 2021 as queer, that was not the case when she won the Oscar for Michael Clayton in 2007. Kevin Spacy came out publicly in 2017 amid sexual assault accusations against him, 18 years after winning the Best Actor award for American Beauty. The late John Gielgud publicly acknowledged his relationship with his long-time lover, Martin Hensler, in 1988 – seven years after winning his Oscar for Arthur.

Brie Larson (who won the Oscar for “Room”) joins the “Fast & Furious” cast as a new character named Tess in the 2023 sequel, “Fast X.” Among the returning cast for the franchise’s 10th installment are Helen Mirren’s (“ The Queen”) Magdalene “Queenie” Ellmanson-Shaw and Charlize Theron’s (“Monster”) ultimate villain Cipher. A trailer for the film introduces Rita Moreno (“West Side Story”) as Dom, Mia, and Jakob’s grandmother, Abuelita Toretto, bringing the franchise’s count of Oscar-winning performers to four. “Fast X” is set to hit theaters on May 19, 2023. Watch the trailer.

Alan Arkin’s performance as George Aaronow in Glengarry Glen Ross was memorable but did not award him an Oscar. He died on June 29, 2023, at 89. Arkin won an Oscar in 2006 for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine, for which he also won the BAFTA award, and was nominated for three other Oscars and six Emmys in his career. He was also a Tony Award-winning actor and won a Golden Globe award in 1967 for his first major film role in “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”

At the ripe age of 81, Martin Scorsese made Oscar history by becoming the oldest directing nominee ever for his work on “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Despite being in a career phase where most would consider retirement, Scorsese proves that talent and passion for cinema know no age limits. This is his 10th movie nominated for Best Picture, which is also an all-time record.

Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1962 for her role as Anita in “West Side Story,” making her the first Latina ever to win an Oscar. 60 years later, in 2022, Ariana DeBose became the second Latina and first Afro-Latina actor to win the award – for the same role in the Steven Spielberg version of the film.