Interesting Oscar Stats Related to This Years Nominees

·         With 11 nominations for Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s films have now been nominated for a total of 75 Oscars – moving him all the way from 10^th on the list to 3^rd – behind only William Wyler and Steven Spielberg.

·         The total number of nominations for Spielberg films rose from 103 to 110, keeping in second place, behind William Wyler’s 127. Can Lincoln close the gap more next year?

·         With 4 nominations for Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen’s films have now been nominated for 50 Oscars – which is 22^nd on the list.

·         The only other director who had a film nominated this year in the top 100 in total film nominations is David Fincher – with 29, good for a tie at 62.

·         Both Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen picked up their 7^th Best Director nomination – putting them in a tie for third with Fred Zinneman and David Lean – although they have both won twice, and Scorsese and Allen have only won once. Billy Wilder has 8 Best Director Nominations, and William Wyler has 12. Steven Spielberg, who wasn’t nominated this year, has 6.

·         Meryl Streep received her 17^th Oscar nomination this year – which makes it five more than her closest acting competitors – Katherine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who each have 12.

·         Glenn Close received her 6^th nomination, which ties her with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter for third in receiving the most nominations without a win – assuming she doesn’t win of course. Richard Burton was nominated 7 times without winning, Peter O’Toole 8 (O'Toole did a life time achievement award - but that doesn't count).

·         Woody Allen received his 15^th writing nomination – which is now three more than Billy Wilder, who is second.

·         In total, Woody Allen has now been nominated for 23 Oscars – 7 for Director, 15 for Writing and 1 for Acting.

·         Stephen Daldry had his Best Director nominee streak snapped at three (Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader) to start his career. However, his last three films (The Hours, The Reader and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) have all been nominated for Best Picture. Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) and Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball) have consecutive Best Picture nominations (with Payne also having consecutive Directing nods as well).

·         Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen are the active leaders in terms of directing Oscar nominated performance – with 20 and 16 respectively – but despite each having a film nominated for Best Picture, their totals did not improve this year. The all time leader is, once again, William Wyler with 36, followed by Elia Kazan (24), George Cukor (21) and then Scorsese. With Max von Sydow’s nomination, Stephen Daldry moves up to 6 nominated performances, which is the best of any director who had a performance in their film nominated this year (although Alexander Payne is now up to 5, Bennett Miller and David Fincher each have 4).

·         John Williams received his 40^th and 41^st Best Score nomination. Impressive as that is, it is still two behind Alfred Newman for the all time record for this category.

·         Robert Richardson received his 7^th best cinematography nomination – which is second among active cinematographers (behind poor Roger Deakins who has 9 nominations – and no wins) – but still 11 behind the all time leaders – Leon Shamroy and Charles Lang – who were each nominated 18 times.

·         Since the Editing Category came into existence in 1934 – only 9 films have won the Best Picture Oscar without picking up an editing nomination – the last being Ordinary People in 1980. So sorry Midnight in Paris, War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help and The Tree of Life, this isn’t your year.

·         There have only been 3 Best Picture winners in history that didn’t have their director nominated – Wings (1927/28), Grand Hotel (1932) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989). So sorry War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Moneyball, this isn’t your year.

·         There have only been 7 Best Picture winners who didn’t have their screenplay nominated – the last being Titanic in 1997. So sorry War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Tree of Life and The Help, but this isn’t your year.

·         There have only been 11 Best Picture Winners that didn’t have at least one actor nominated – but it has happened twice in the last decade (Lord of the Rings and Slumdog Millionaire), so this isn’t a death knell for Hugo, War Horse, Midnight in Paris or The Tree of Life, but it makes it a little harder.

·         In case you’re keeping count of the last four bullet points, only The Artist and The Descendants all got in for Editing, Director, Screenplay and at least one acting category. Hugo didn’t get in for acting, which is the least important, and got in for the rest. So, if you predict anything but those three films to win, you’re statistically unlikely to be right.

·         Most Best Picture winners win at least 4 Oscars including Best Picture – only 19 have won three or less, the latest being Crash in 2005 (with 3). Before that though, you have to go all the back to Rocky in 1976 to find another Best Picture winner to win only 3 Oscars.

·         Only 11 Best Picture winners have been nominated for fewer than 7 Oscars – but two of those came in the last decade - Crash which had 6 and The Departed which had 5. However, it should be noted that in both of those years, no films were nominated for more than 8 Oscars - this year, The Artist had 10 nominations, and Hugo 11.

·         The only film that none of the above applies to is The Artist. Ergo, it’s most likely your winner – but we already knew that, right?