Oscars 2022: Breaking Records

For the fourth consecutive year, the director of a film nominated in the international feature film category has also received a nomination in the directing category. Ryusuke Hamaguchi earned his first directing nomination for his film Drive My Car, which also earned a best picture nomination.

The Japanese director’s film landed record number of nomination for Japanese title, after earning noms for best film, best director, best adapted screenplay (Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe) and best international feature film.

In previous years, other directors also competing in both the international feature film (the Academy recently rebranded the best foreign language film category to best international film) and directing categories included Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma).

Will Smith is a double Oscar nominee this year. In addition to earning a nomination for lead actor for King Richard, Smith also shares the film’s best picture nomination with producers Tim White and Trevor White. Smith both produced the film and starred as Serena and Venus Williams’ father Richard Williams. The nominations make Smith now the ninth person and second Black man to be nominated for both acting and producing the same film in the same year.

Previous nominees include Warren Beatty (nominated four times in both categories for Bonnie and Clyde, Heaven Can Wait, Reds and Bugsy), Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves), Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby), Denzel Washington (Fences), Brad Pitt (Moneyball), Bradley Cooper (American Sniper and A Star is Born), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Frances McDormand (Nomadland), who became the first woman to win in both categories.

Ariana DeBose’s turn as Anita, a San Juan Hill seamstress and the older sister to West Side Story‘s female lead Maria, made her the first Afro-Latina actress to play the role. But her Oscars nomination has also made her among just a handful of known, openly LGBTQ actors to receive an acting nomination from the Academy. And if her nod for best supporting actress delivers a win, it could be another historical milestone. DeBose, who is Afro-Latina and identifies as queer, would become the first openly LGBTQ women of color — more specifically, the first LGBTQ Black and first LGBTQ Latina actress — to win an acting prize.

After West Side Story was nominated for best picture, Spielberg broke his own record as the person with the most best picture nominations with 11.

The director’s previous nominations in the category were for E.T. The Extra- Terrestrial (1982), The Color Purple (1985), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015) and The Post (2017). He won Oscars for best directing and best picture for Schindler’s List (1993).

Meanwhile after earning his eighth Oscar nomination for directing, Spielberg is now one of four filmmakers who have received eight or more best director nominations including Billy Wilder (8 nominations), Martin Scorsese (9 nominations) and William Wyler (11 directing nominations).

DiCaprio is now just one best picture honor away from tying a male actor record set by Robert De Niro.

With Don’t Look Up‘s best picture nomination at the 2022 ceremony, its leading man has gone from being in nine films that received the Oscar’s highest honor for a single title to being just two projects shy of tying current 11-film, record-holder De Niro.

Prior to this year, DiCaprio’s nine-nomination record — which included The Aviator, The Revenant, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Wolf of Wall Street, Django Unchained, Titanic, Gangs of New York, The Departed and Inception — was shared with Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Tom Hanks and William Holden. With the Adam McKay black comedy, the Don’t Look Up star now has 10 best picture-nominated films under his belt, a record he shares with fellow Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson.

Zimmer’s work has routinely been honored by the Academy, with the famed composer earning 11 score-related nominations since 1988’s Rain Man, including for The Prince of Eygpt, Gladiator, Inception, Interstellar and Dunkirk. With his 2022 best score nomination for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, he’s not only secured his twelfth nod but potentially just his second win ever. That win would also mark the longest wait for a follow-up win in Oscar’s history. His first for The Lion King came in 1994 and if he wins for the sci-fi epic, it will have been a 28-year gap between his visits to the winner’s circle.

After being nominated for best live-action short film for The Long Goodbye, Riz Ahmed is now the fifth person to have nominations in both an acting category and a short film category (not necessarily in the same year). Previous nominees who also achieved this include Peter Sellers, Dyan Cannon, Kenneth Branagh and Christine Lahti, who won for best live-action short film in 1995. Last year, Ahmed was nominated for best actor for his role in Sound of Metal. This year, marks his first nomination in the live-action short film category.

Sound mixer Andy Nelson now has a record 22 nominations in the combined sound categories after earning a nod for achievement in sound for West Side Story alongside Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney and Shawn Murphy. In his career thus far, Nelson has won two Academy Awards for Saving Private Ryan (1999) and Les Misérables (2013). His nominations for the 94th annual Academy Awards makes Nelson tied with composer-songwriter Randy Newman for the third highest number of nominations among living persons. John Williams is ranked first with 52 noms while Woody Allen is second with 24.