Oscar 2011: Facts and Trends

 Nine films were nominated for best picture for the first time: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.

• Hugo led the field with 11 nominations, trailed by The Artist with 10 and then Moneyball and War Horse with six, The Descendants and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with five, and The Help and Midnight in Paris with four. The film with the most nominations has won the best picture Oscar 15 of the past 20 years.
• The nine best picture nominees were distributed by seven studios: DreamWorks (The Help and War Horse), Fox Searchlight (The Descendants and The Tree of Life), Paramount (Hugo), Sony (Moneyball), Sony Pictures Classics (Midnight in Paris), Warner Bros. (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), and The Weinstein Co. (The Artist).
• Of the nine best picture nominees, two were released during the spring (Midnight in Paris on May 20 and The Tree of Life on May 27), one was released during the summer (The Help on Aug. 10), four were released during the fall (Moneyball on Sept. 23, The Descendants on Nov. 16, Hugo on Nov. 23, and The Artist on Nov. 25), and two were released during the winter (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and War Horse, both on Dec. 25).

    

 

 

• Of the 10 films nominated for the PGA Award — which was a fairly accurate predictor of the best picture Oscar under the Academy’s old voting system — seven were also nominated for the best picture Oscar: The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball and War Horse. The PGA nominated three films that the Academy did not (Bridesmaids, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Ides of March), and the Academy nominated two films that the PGA did not (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and The Tree of Life).
• Of the 10 films nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics’ Choice Award for best picture — another fairly accurate predictor of the best picture Oscar under the Academy’s previous voting system — nine were also nominated for the best picture Oscar: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse. The BFCA nominated one film that the Academy did not (Drive).
• The Artist becomes just the fifth predominately or entirely silent film to score a best picture nomination and the first in 83 years, following in the footsteps of Wings (1927/1928, won), The Racket (1927/1928), Seventh Heaven (1927/1928) and The Patriot (1928/1929).
• The Artist becomes just the seventh predominately or entirely black-and-white film since 1970 to score a best picture nomination, following The Last Picture Show (1971), Lenny (1974), The Elephant Man (1980), Raging Bull (1980), Schindler’s List (1993, won) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005).
• Hugo becomes just the fourth film released in 3D to score a best picture nomination, after Avatar (2009), Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010), and could become the first to win.

    

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• With the best picture nomination for War Horse, Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg move into sole (or dual) possession of the record for most best picture nominations for a producer with seven, passing Stanley Kramer.
• Producer Scott Rudin (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) scores a best picture nomination for the second year in a row. He was nominated last year for The Social Network and True Grit.
• Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) scores his seventh best director nomination — his first in 17 years. He was last nominated for Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
• Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life) scores his second best director nomination and his first in 13 years. He was nominated for The Thin Red Line (1998).
• Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) becomes just the eighth native of France to score a best director nomination, following Jean Renoir for The Southerner (1945), Claud Lelouch for A Man and a Woman (1966), Roman Polanski for Chinatown (1974), Tess (1980) and The Pianist (2002, won), Francois Truffaut for Day for Night (1974), Edouard Molinaro for La Cage aux Folles (1979), Louis Malle for Atlantic City (1981) and Barbet Schroeder for Reversal of Fortune (1990).
• During the past decade, every film directed by Stephen Daldry — who was not nominated for best director — has been nominated for best picture: The Hours (2002), The Reader (2008) and now Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
• Martin Scorsese (Hugo) scores his seventh best director nomination and ninth overall and could win his second best director Oscar for his first family and 3D film.

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• Only three films have won best picture without their directors also being nominated: Wings (1927/1928), Grand Hotel (1931/1932), and Driving Miss Daisy (1989). That does not bode well for the best picture prospects of: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Moneyball or War Horse.
• Only 11 films have won best picture without scoring at least one acting nomination, including only three in the past 20 years: Wings (1927/1928), All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/1930), Grand Hotel (1931/1932), An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Gigi (1958), The Last Emperor (1987), Braveheart (1995), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). That is good news for the best picture prospects of The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, and Moneyball and bad news for the best picture prospects of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
• The SAG Awards’ acting nominations — which corresponded with 19 of 20 and 17 of 20 of the Academy’s nominations over the past two years, respectively — corresponded with 17 of 20 this year. The only discrepancies: the Academy nominated Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) instead of Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar) for best actor, Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) instead of Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) for best actress, and Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) instead of Armie Hammer (J. Edgar) for best supporting actor.
• The Critics’ Choice Awards acting nominations (they include six actors in each category) — which corresponded with 18 of 20 of the Academy’s nominations last year — corresponded with 14 of 20 this time. The only ones that they missed: Demian Bichir (A Better Life) and Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) for best actor, Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) for best actress, Jonah Hill (Moneyball) and Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) for best supporting actor, and Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) for best supporting actress.
• Today brings the first Oscar nominations for Demian Bechir (A Better Life), Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Berenice Bejo (The Artist), Jessica Chastain (The Help), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) and Octavia Spencer (The Help).
• Jean Dujardin (The Artist) becomes just the third native of France to score a best actor nomination, following in the footsteps of Maurice Chevalier for The Big Pond (1929) and The Love Parade (1930), Charles Boyer for Fanny (1961) and Gerard Depardieu for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990).
• George Clooney (The Descendants) scores his third best actor nomination in four years after Michael Clayton (2007) and Up in the Air (2009), and he could win for the first time in that category. [He won best supporting actor for Syriana (2005).
• Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), with her best actress nomination, extends her record for most nominations by an actor or actress with her 17th. (She has scored 14 best actress nominations and three supporting actress nominations.)
• Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), who was nominated for best actress, scores her first acting nomination in 23 years. She was nominated on five previous occasions — twice for best actress and three times for supporting actress — most recently for best actress for Dangerous Liaisons (1988).
• Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) and Christopher Plummer (Beginners), both 82, become the second- and fourth-oldest people, respectively, to score supporting actor nominations. The oldest was Hal Holbrook, who was also 82 but a few months older when he was nominated for Into the Wild (2007). Plummer trails both von Sydow and Ralph Richardson, who was a few days older when he was nominated for Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). Von Sydow or Plummer could become the oldest person to win a competitive acting Oscar in history, surpassing two 80-year-olds: George Burns, who won best supporting actor for The Sunshine Boys (1975), and Jessica Tandy, who won best actress for Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
• Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn), who was nominated for best supporting actor, scores his first acting nomination in 22 years. He was previously up for best actor for Henry V (1989).
• Nick Nolte (Warrior), who was nominated for best supporting actor, scores his first acting nomination in 13 years. He was previously nominated for best actor for The Prince of Tides (1991) and Affliction (1998).
• Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), who was nominated for best supporting actor, scores his first acting nomination in 24 years. He was nominated for Pelle the Conqueror (1987).
• With the best supporting actress nominations for Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer (both for The Help), that category includes two actresses from the same film for the fourth year in a row, following Amy Adams and Viola Davis for Doubt (2008), Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (2009) and Adams and Melissa Leo for The Fighter (2010). These situations usually cause voters to split their support between the two and pave the way for a person from another film to win, although Leo did beat Adams.
• Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs), who was nominated for best supporting actress, scores her first acting nomination in 12 years. She was nominated for best actress for Tumbleweeds (1999).
• Categories for story and/or screenplay have existed for all 83 years of Oscar history. In the past 56 years, only two films have won best picture without also being nominated for one of them — The Sound of Music (1965) and Titanic (1997) 14 years ago. That is good news for the best picture prospects of The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, Midnight in Paris and Moneyball and very bad news for the best picture prospects of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
• Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris), with his best original screenplay nomination, extends his record for most nominations by a screenwriter. (All 15 of his have come in the original screenplay category. If he wins, he will become the first person to have won the category three times. He last won 25 years ago for Hannah and Her Sisters.)
• Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris), who scored dual nominations for best director and best original screenplay for the seventh time, moves into sole possession of the record for most instances of being nominated for both of those categories in a single year, passing Billy Wilder.
• Asghar Farhadi (A Separation) becomes one of just a handful of people to score a screenplay nomination for a foreign language film.
• Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball), with his best adapted screenplay nomination, scores his second consecutive nomination in a screenplay category, a very rare feat. (He won the same category last year for The Social Network.)
• George Clooney scores noms for acting (best actor for The Descendants) and screenwriting (best adapted screenplay for The Ides of March) for the second time. Six years ago, he was nominated for best supporting actor for Syriana (he won) and best original screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck.
• For only the third year since the inception of the best animated feature category in 2001 (the other two being 2002 and 2005), a Pixar film is not among that category’s nominees. (Cars 2 was eligible but not nominated this year.)
• A Separation becomes just the second Iranian film to score a best foreign language feature nomination, following Children of Heaven (1998), and could become the first to win.
• Pina becomes the first 3D film to score a nomination for best documentary (feature).
• The Artist, which was lensed by Guillaume Schiffman, becomes just the 10th predominately or entirely black-and-white film to score a best cinematography nom since the elimination of the black-and-white cinematography category in 1967. The others: In Cold Blood (1967), The Last Picture Show (1971), Lenny (1974), Raging Bull (1980), Zelig (1983), Schindler’s List (1993, won), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) and The White Ribbon (2009).
• In the 84 years in which the best cinematography category has existed, only 30 films have won best picture without also being nominated for best cinematography — none since The Departed (2006) five years ago. That is good news for the best picture prospects of The Artist, Hugo, The Tree of Life and War Horse and bad news for the best picture prospects of The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Midnight in Paris and Moneyball.
• In the 77 years in which the best film editing category has existed, only nine films have won best picture without being nominated for best film editing — none since Ordinary People (1980) 31 years ago. That is good news for the best picture prospects of The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo and Moneyball and bad news for the best picture prospects of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
• Thelma Schoonmaker (Hugo), who scored a best film editing nomination, could move into sole possession of the record for most wins with a fourth.
• John Williams (The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse) scores his 41st and 42nd nominations for best original score. He now trails the late Alfred Newman by just one in the film category. (Williams has 47 overall nominations, the second most for an individual in Oscar history, trailing only Walt Disney.)
• Greg Russell (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) scores his 15th nomination for best sound mixing and is seeking his first win. (Russell now moves into sole possession of second place for most nominations without a win, passing the late Loren L. Ryder and trailing only Russell’s former sound mixing partner Kevin O’Connell, who is 0-for-20.)